HYPNOGORIA SUMMER SPECIAL 14 - It Came From Beyond the Chiller Cabinet Part II

Continuing our history of assorted geeky, freaky, and galactic ice lollies of the 1970s, we discover sci-fi ties-ins to the likes of Space 1999 and the Bionic lolly plus famous monsters Dracula, King Kong and the Daleks getting their own frozen snacks!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - It Came From Beyond the Chiller Cabinet Part II

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THE 'ORRIBLE 'OUSE OF TERRIBLE OLD TAT #18 - It Came From Beyond the Chiller Cabinet... Or Possibly Skaro (Slight Return)

Welcome once again dear fiends to the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat! Now then, on your past few visits, we been hanging around a vintage freezer and exploring the weird and wonderful world of ice lollies of yesteryear. Last time we saw how the long-running Sky Ray lolly had a hugely successful tie-in with Doctor Who, and this week we are looking at a time when the lolly world once again caught a dose of Dalekmania... 

As we have previously documented, well at least in the slack arsed mixture of trivia and flippant remarks that passes for historical research around here, the 1960s were the beginning of the Great Lolly Wars, a groovy time when many corner shops gained a chiller cabinet, which in turn played host to a new wave of frozen confectionary and icy snacks. Now it didn't take long for the highly competitive new market to realise the power of the tie-in, and as well as the previously discussed Doctor Who promos, there were other tie-in campaigns with properties popular with the pocket money crowd. For example, the Orbit lolly had a tie-in with Captain Scarlet, the Sky Ray rival Zoom allied itself with another Gerry Anderson Show Joe 90, while the Fab lolly rather cleverly featured Lady Penelope and Parker from Thunderbirds on its wrappers for a time.

However in the 1970s, the lolly makers would change tack. Throughout the '60s numerous new species of lollies had been concocted, but few ever lasted more than a few years. So then instead of trying to breathe new life into an existing lolly, one that was already looking a little long in the tooth, with some tie-in promotion, they hit upon the idea of cutting out the middle-man and launching lollies directly branded to the tie-in property. And one of the earlier and finest examples of this approach hit the shelves, well the chiller cabinets in 1975. 

Now in the closing overs of 1974, a new Doctor had taken over the TARDIS, with Tom Baker beginning his long-running tenure of the role. And this newly minted Fourth Doctor would meet some old enemies in his first season, most notably with a six part adventure now regarded as one of the great classics of the original series - Genesis of the Daleks which aired in March and April 1975. This tale not only introduced the iconic villain Davros, the twisted genius who created the Skaroine terrors, but also kicked off a fresh wave of Dalekmania.

As we heard last time, lolly giant Walls had made a pretty penny in the first great wave of Dalekmania back in the mid '60s with their Sky Ray tie-in. However while Sky Rays were still rocketing out of chiller cabinets throughout the '70s (and indeed into the '80s too), rather than dust off the old market strategy, instead the boffins at Walls' secret labs created a brand new lolly just for the Daleks! Sporting a tasty combination of mint and chocolate ice cream, in 1975 the Dalek's Death Ray hit the shops! 

Now many of these kinds of novelty brand lollies never lasted long, however the Dalek's Death Ray terrorised the nation's freezers for three glorious years. However apart from having a great flavour - which is more than can be said for other tie-in lollies I could mention), Walls cunningly made the wrappers of these lollies collectible in themselves. The first wave of Death Rays in 1975 - retailing at 5p! -  came with three variants - 

• Plain (no feature) 
• Make A Dalek 
• Win a Real Life-Size Dalek 

However the following year, in 1976, Walls started branding the lollies with the tag-line "From the World of the Daleks", and launched a series of wrappers to collect, that featured art and text all about the Daleks. Here a listing of the full series -

• Transmol
• The Grenium Invisibility System
• Dalek Officer
• The Cyclops Z-Ray
• Daleks and the Ancient Britons
• When the Daleks Flooded the Earth!
• The Swamp Creatures of Terroth
• A Dalek Deep Space Battle Cruiser

And in 1977, Walls repeated the same trick, with Dalek's Death Rays now featuring a series of wrappers detailing "The Incredible Daleks" -

• A Dalek Raid against the primitive Megapods
• How Daleks bend time
• A Dalek ‘Buggy’
• The great Dalek workshops on the planet Styros
• Venusians attack a small Dalek base
•  A fleet of Dalek Starships in a meteor storm
• The Great Laser ‘Destructor’ used to conquer the planet Ur

Now on the face of it, it might seem that these collectible wrappers were something of a step down from the '60s Sky Ray tie-ins, which boasted individual, full colour cards to collect, plus send-offs for books and badges. However while it was undoubtedly a cheaper promotion, it did have some advantages. Firstly the smaller number of wrappers - 8 in the From the World of the Daleks range, and 7 in The Incredible Daleks - meant that it was far easier for kids to collect and complete their sets - by way of contrast the '60s Sky Ray lolly promo featured a whopping 36 cards. Secondly they were also easier to collect - the earlier cards that you had to buy sight unseen, whereas with these, you could just sort through the lollies in the shop and select the wrapper you didn't have.

And I have no doubt that if the Daleks had appeared again on TV in the late '70s, this rather tasty lolly would have lasted longer too. But as it was, the Doctor was not fated to meet his oldest foes again until 1979 in Destiny of the Daleks, and hence with no new appearances to stoke the fires of Dalekmania, sadly the Dalek's Death Ray never returned for the summer of 1978. Of course, by then there was a  new kid on the scifi block and naturally that summer the chiller cabinet was visited by a lolly from a galaxy far far  away... But that's another story! 

THE 'ORRIBLE 'OUSE OF TERRIBLE OLD TAT #17 - It Came From Beyond the Chiller Cabinet... Or Possibly Skaro

Welcome once again to the 'Orrible 'Ouse of the Terrible Old Tat! That's it, come in! Be careful not to trip over all the dropped 'H's mind... Anyhow, what can I get you? Cup of tea? Pack of hedgehog flavoured crisps perhaps? No? Well, at risk of sounding like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, can I offer you a lolly?

Now then, last time we were taking a look at some of the cunning promotions employed to hawk one of Britain's longest-lasting species of ice lolly, the space age Sky Ray from Walls. Now in the mid-60s, this rocket-shaped delight had offered assorted merchandise under the name of Moon Fleet, a kind of pretend NASA for the nation's kids. However later in the decade, in 1967, Walls changed tack and netted a very lucrative tie-in deal indeed. For there was a new figure in the world of SF, an eccentric fellow who travelled in a blue box...

The timing of this Sky Ray tie-in is very interesting, for it comes at the beginning of the Second Doctor era, just as Patrick Troughton was taking over the reins from William Hartnell. Now aside from the excitement this first regeneration brought, the show itself was changing direction too. Hartnell's Doctor had met many strange creatures and interplanetary folk, but he had also journeyed into the past, encountering famous figures, and providing some educational history in a dramatic guise. However in the Troughton era, this sort of story - dubbed  "historicals" by fans - was to disappear. And in its place came more monsters and alien invaders, and the show pioneered what we now refer to as "the base under siege" story line. Of course, the most famous of the show's monsters were the Daleks, and it's no coincidence that the first season of the Second Doctor's adventures featured not one but two Dalek stories, Power of the Daleks  at the beginning, and Evil of the Daleks at the end.

We should also note that in licensing terms the Daleks were very much their own brand. Their copyright belonged to their creator, Terry Nation, who had quickly spotted the market for merchandise. Hence by the time the Sky  Ray promotion came around there were already Dalek branded toys, badges and books, produced separate from any Doctor Who paraphernalia. Hence this Sky Ray promotion was effectively a double tie-in! 

But what of the promotion itself? Well as you can see from the full page, full colour advert reproduced above that appeared in comics such as in the legendary Eagle, this was a two part deal. Firstly each lolly came with a full colour painted card, and secondly by collecting wrappers you could send off for Doctor Who's Space Adventure Book. And in this tome, there were puzzles, Dalek facts, a board game, and of course, pages where you could stick in all the cards and read the story behind the pictures! All of which added up to a double bonus for Dalek fans and lots of repeat sales for Walls as kids collected the cards and wrappers. And thanks to the magic of the interwebs, you can see the full set of cards mounted in a book here

As you can see, the actual Sky Ray lollies themselves turned up in the tale as the vehicles of the Special Duty Space Commandos! A very nice touch! Yes, the Daleks apparently did once have to fight a bunch of interstellar ice lollies! And you thought the Movellans were rubbish enemies!

However it has to be said, the Doctor doesn't exactly closely resemble Patrick Troughton. Some have wondered whether the art was originally done when Hartnell was still the Doctor and hastily (and not very convincingly) altered at the last minute. Of course also by this time, there had been two big screen Dalek movies, starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor, so possibly the somewhat odd looking Doctor is a three-way hedged bet - sort of like a Fly style transporter pod accident involving Hartnell, Troughton and the Cush! 

The campaign was also promoted heavily on the TV, and you can see the original ad here -

And yes, that's not dear old Pat Troughton either! The chap doing his best to hide from the camera is a fellow called Gerry Grant apparently - who surely must take the prize for the most obscure and briefest performance as the Doctor ever!

However this wasn't to be the only time that the Daleks invaded the nation's chiller cabinets... Next time, we'll voyage into the 1970s, to a time when a trip to the corner shop could bring you face to face with a Dalek death ray!

The 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat #05 - Who Nose?

Welcome once again dear friends to the creaky old pile of half-forgotten ephemera that is the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat! This week we are, I promise, concluding our look back at the first very range of Doctor Who action figures - or dolls as they were called back then - produced by UK toy masters, Denys Fisher in the late 1970s. And in this final installment we are looking at the nine inch plastic versions of the Doctor's most famous enemies. 

Now the first proper monster to ever appear in the show would also become the most famous - I refer of course to those genocidal pepperpots, the Daleks. These armoured horrors from Skaro first appeared back in December 1963 in the second ever Doctor Who serial, variously known as 'The Mutants', 'The Dead Planet', or simply 'The Daleks', for back then Doctor Who adventures only had production codes rather than definite titles for the story arcs, and hence strictly speaking the story is called Serial B. Anywho, these metal monsters were an instant hit, indeed so much so that the Daleks got their own spin-off toys years before there was ever a Doctor figure, with the first miniature Daleks hitting the toy shops in 1965 in a whole variety of shapes and sizes from different manufacturers. 

Now then, gingerly stepping over the tatological* tarpit that is the various breeds of toy Dalek invading the toy shelves in the mid '60s - for they were legion (see here) - all we really need to note right now is that none of them were actually what we would now call 'screen accurate'. In fairness, they were all recognisable as Daleks, and were never in any danger of being mistaken for Gareth Hunt, but they tended to sport somewhat off-piste proportions and colour schemes. Up until Denys Fisher came on the scene, the best toy dalek you could buy was one produced by another UK toy firm, Palitoy in 1975 - a battery operated talking Dalek whose only real flaw was that it was slightly on the chubby side. Hence there was still room from improvement, and indeed the Denys Fisher Dalek from 1977 was widely hailed as the most accurate toy Dalek to date. 

However that said, I always thought the Denys Fisher Dalek looked a little on the small and undernourished side. To my childish eye, it looked like a Dalek that hadn't been eating its greens, and I much prefered the chunkier Palitoy one, even if it did look like it had eaten all the pies. But as the Denys Fisher Daleks are still much sought after by collectors, and are currently going for around £500, so I'm probably in the minority there. However while we could argue all day over which of these '70s toys is the more accurate version of their screen counterparts, there is an interesting tale surrounding the colour scheme of the Denys Fisher incarnation. As you can see from the pictures, this particular Dalek has a silver body and a striking red head piece, giving it something of a sporty look. And while that colour scheme might seem a little unusual, it was familiar to 1970s kids for identical Daleks had appeared in a set of cardboard figures given away by Weetabix (a tale for another day), and in Doctor Who comic strips found in British weekly comic Countdown**.

A Weetabix Dalek card and a panel from Sub Zero published Countdown comic in 1972

However the curious thing is, despite the Skaronine terrors adopting various liveries over the years, there had never actually been a silver and scarlet model on screen, neither in the TV show, or even in the two movies starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor produced in the 1960s. However interestingly, the origin of this rogue pepperpot is tied to the creator of the Daleks themselves -no, not Davros, but writer Terry Nation. Now Nation has invented the Daleks in his script for The Mutants/Dead Planet/Serial B and had cannily retained the rights - which was why they were so heavily merchandised in the 1960s. Nation even ended up with a flotilla of Daleks of his very own, after acquiring some of the movie props, which would go out on promotional tours. In an article on the Daleks in the Radio Times special issued for the 10th anniversary of the show, old Terry was pictured at his home with his own honour guard of Skaro's finest patrolling his drive!

Terry Nation and his Skaro posse

And look, there's the Scarlet Top! So where did he come from? An unrealised outing for the Daleks perhaps? For there were a few of those down the years, most famously Nation planned to bring them into his other SF TV series Blake's 7 and tried to get a solo Dalek show on US TV.  Actually the truth is more prosaic - over the years the various Dalek props own by Nation got a bit battered during their days on the road. Sadly rumours of them smashing up hotel rooms and hanging out with Keith Moon have just been made up by me. Anyhow, due to assorted Daleks getting damaged in transit, those deemed to tatty to show to the public ended up as spare parts, and eventually lead to the creation of Scarlet Top, essentially a Skaro Frankenstein made of bit of ex-Daleks*** (more details available here). However, it would seem that reference materials provided by the Beeb for Denys Fisher featured lots of snaps from the Radio Times photo shoot, and likewise Weetabix and Countdown artist Gerry Haylock got the same press pack to work from too. And hence the Scarlet Top came into the Dalek canon...

The 10th Anniversary Doctor Who special from Radio Times 

Now then, to move on to the other arch nemesis manufactured by Denys Fisher, their nine inch Cyberman shares a similar heritage. As detailed here, their terror from Telos was clearly modelled on the Cyberman seen menacing the Third Doctor on the cover of 10th Anniversary Radio Times special - it's the silver wellies that are the give away apparently! However, it is fair to say that the resulting Cyber-doll wasn't as quite as screen accurate as their Dalek. The decision to go with fabric for the Cybersuit makes it look like it's wearing pajamas, and the pipes and chest pieces look a bit too chunky and cumbersome. Indeed the chest unit, which serves as the Cyberman's lungs by the way, often slipped down so much, it would end up being worn like a bum-bag by many Denys Fisher Cybermen.  Obviously, much of this comes down to a matter of scale - there's lots of fiddly bits on Cybermen that were hard to do well at nine inches. But none of that explains why this Cyberman is a true rogue. Look closely here...

Yes, this Cyberman has a nose! And, as far as I can tell, nobody nose why! Boom! Boom! ...Oh alright, please yourselves! But leaving the bad puns aside, the only thing I can come up with is perhaps the designers at Denys Fisher were short of pictures of Cybermen, and possibly were consulting a range of photos of assorted old Cybermen. Now over the years, the Cybermen have changed quite a lot, in in their first appearance had gauze face masks rather than steel headpieces, and hence you can see a bump where their noses were. And looking at the general features of the Denys Fisher Cyberman, it could well a result of a harassed designer attempting to synthesis the four different models of Cybermen pictured in that fabled Radio Times Special. Quite possibly while screaming "what the hell are these silver bastard things supposed to look like ?!?".  Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

A Tenth Planet Cyberman

So then dear friends, that brings us the end of this trawl through Doctor Who toys from the 1970s. However, never fear, the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat as many. many more dubious treasure to share with you! 

*  - Yes, I did just make that word up
** - A story in which Scarlet Top appears, Sub Zero, was reprinted last month by Doctor Who Monthly as a free gift with Issue 508
*** - All together now "They have ceased to be!"

DOCTOR WHO 7.1 - Asylum of the Daleks

Scanners indicate an absence of spoilers

So then, it's been a long time coming, longer than usual but the long wait is over, at long last, it's time for that much anticipated moment... when the ratings of Total Wipeout suddenly spike!

And the new season of Doctor Who begins soon after! 

(These two facts may be connected, you know...) 

Anyhow, all of that means that I'm back here, turbo-digesting what I've just seen to bring you a hot-off-the-press spoiler-free review. And of course, as this is another episode from showrunner Steven Moffat that mean that writing a spoiler-free review is a damn tall order! 

You know, I could really get to hate Moffat! I usually find his episodes entertaining and full of interesting ideas and concepts, but as soon as the credits start rolling, a cold sweat breaks out upon my brow. For I know full well that when I mentally compile a check-list of everything I liked about the episode, nearly everything is going to get crossed off again as it's a ruddy whacking great spoiler! 

But if you can't take the heat, stay out of the TARDIS...

So then, let's get the usual givens out of the way. Moffat's script is sharp and funny and full of things I touch with a sink plunger for fear of spoilers. Although I can say though it's Moffat in dark mode, and there are plenty of nice creepy moments. And our trio of leads are up to scratch as usual, with lots of nice scenes across the emotional spectrum providing plenty of dramatic meat for both Matt Smith's Doctor, and the Ponds, to get their teeth into. However I will naughtily hint that the stand out performance comes from outside the regular cast.

Now then plot-wise, I'm giving no details away what so ever. However I will say that this episode follows the trend set up in the last few appearances of the Daleks in the show, and that is using them in different ways. Unlike the RTD years where whenever Skaro's finest appeared, they were usually out to destroy everything, here once again their schemes are of a far smaller scale. And like their appearances in the last couple of seasons, we are seeing different sides to the Daleks, and that in my book is a good thing. Asylum of the Daleks gives some additional details to their mythology but also has some very nice references to their past history. 

Overall, this was a very decent opening episode, however as this series will be one of single episode adventures, as Mr Moffat puts it "a blockbuster every week", there's no story arc clues to tease out. Or is there? There's certainly plenty of things which I can't mention under pain of extermination, that definitely look like nascent plot threads to me! 

But nevermind that now! The important thing is that Asylum of the Daleks is a solid opener for the new series, and judging my my Twitter feed, has gone down rather will well many of you. Yes, the Doctor's back and on good form! 

THE REGENERATION GAME Part I

Nice to see Who, to see Who nice!

By 1966, William Hartnell was becoming too ill to keep working on Doctor Who. Back then, then the show was running for a massive forty two weeks a year, and although the main cast had regular breaks worked into the stories, the work load was clearly becoming too much for Hartnell. And Rather than continue the series, without the main character Taggart style - the decision was made to recast the role.

Obviously introducing a new actor in the lead role was a huge risk, but as history shows, the gamble paid off. However no one could have foreseen the effect of recasting the lead would have had. For a start, rather than breaking the show, it actually strengthened it and ensured longevity not just for the titular Time Lord but also for the programme itself.

The concept that the lead character could change his appearance and character due to his alien nature was incredibly inspired. Obviously from a production stand point, it is a brilliant story mechanism for bringing a new actor into the role but it would also enrich and expand the mythology of the series. However, like many things in the murky world of Doctor Who lore, nothing is quite as it seems.

The Doctor’s many regenerations unleash the two apparently easiest questions about the show - “How many incarnations of the Doctor has there been?” and “How many actors have played him?”. Now at first sight, this brace of queries appear to be the simplest questions about the Doctor, but in actual fact these twin dilemmas lead to some highly complex and perplexing areas.

And if you think the answer both questions is the same, and that said shared answer is eleven, then you are way off course. Yes there will be lots of continuity porn! Yes, there will lots of spurious fan theories! But looking at the various regenerations of the Doctor reveals a lot about the history of the show, with different incarnations changing to fit the times. So let’s fire up the time rotor and go back to the beginning…


THE FIRST DOCTOR

Back in 1963 the world first meet the Doctor, and this very first version of the Doctor as a very different man. To begin with he’s shown as being rather elderly , a far cry from the pin-up Time Lords of recent times. And he is presented as a very mysterious character, in fact, it isn’t entirely clear if he is a hero at all in the first few stories. He’s irritable, rude, and manipulative; quite possibly mad and given that he has essentially kidnaps his first companions Ian and Barbara and then blames them for it, potentially evil.

However as the serials unfold, his character does mellow, and although he still frequently carries on like the word ‘crotchety’ was invented just for him, it is clear that he is on the side of good and begins behaves far more like the character we all know and love. However that said, for the modern viewer, venturing back into the Hartnell years can be a disconcerting experience.

For a kick off, it’s quite a shock that the character dynamics of the show are completely different. Viewers familiar with later incarnations will be surprised by the crowded TARDIS setup - the good Doctor has three companions, rather than the usual single female. And instead of being the man of action at the adventures revolve around, the Doctor is more the brains in a team; Ian handles the physical action, Barbara provides good sense and the moral compass, and Susan is the young lead for kids to identify with, while the Doctor co-ordinates matters. Well, sometimes, he does - in this era, it is far more of an ensemble show and hence it is not a given that it will be the Doctor who comes up with the winning plan or even saves the day every week.

Indeed, that the Doctor is so often not centre stage in the stories, some viewers may well be left wondering if this is even the same show as the modern incarnation. And indeed, some will be thinking, as Lee from The Black Dog Podcast so memorably put it, “who the hell is this mad old bastard?”.

However, on the plus side, there’s not a sonic screwdriver of any description in sight and we get a lot more of the Doctor solving problems with only his ingenuity. This was a golden age when the Doctor relied on his intellect rather than gadgets. And the writers worked hard to find feasible solutions to the dangers he faced rather just inventing ad hoc magic powers to get them out of the corner they have written themselves into.

Another key difference in these early days, is that there was another genre of story in the roster. For as well as foiling aliens mucking about in the depths of history and adventures in the far future among the distant stars, these early seasons of Doctor Who featured what we now term ‘historicals’.

Now these serials were set in Earth’s past, and saw the Doctor and the TARDIS crew hobnobbing with famous figures such as Marco Polo, or turning up for major historical events like the Fall of Troy. However, in these stories there were no science fiction elements - no dastardly bug eyed monsters threatening the locals or time travellers buggering about with the threads of history. And although several of the later historicals bordered on comedy, generally the idea was that by including serials rooted in locales familiar from history classes, Doctor Who as a programme could inform as well as entertain.

Now there is often nothing more ghastly than education masquerading as entertainment, particularly when there is a younger audience in mind. Frequently it results in a swift flight to the banana republic of Patronised City where the diligent officers of El Presidente’s Secret Police will beat seven shades of fun out of you with rubber hoses and textbooks. And certainly to the modern viewer, for whom monsters are as much as part of the Who as the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver, the prospect of watching the Doctor become a museum tour guide does not sound very appealing.

However, if you can get your head around the concept of a Doctor Who adventure without aliens, robots and all the other accoutrements of sci-fi, you will be pleasantly surprised by the stories on offer in this subgenre. Thankfully the production team never let historical detail clog the motors of adventure, and the historical genre actually delivers some of finest Hartnell stories. For example, a good starting point for anyone wanting to explore the Hartnell era is The Aztecs which raises some very interesting moral dilemmas. And after you’ve experienced several historicals, you may well end up feeling as I do, that it’s a bit of shame that modern Doctor Who doesn’t set outside the realms of the fantastic once in a while.

But perhaps most surprising element in this first age of Doctor Who, is that Susan is his grand daughter. Now over the years, some have wondered whether Susan was actually one of his biological family, mainly as we have got so used to the Doctor appearing as an asexual figure for most of his fictional life. But she clearly is as it is Susan and not the Doctor that gives us our first description of their home world with it’s orange skies and silver trees. And when she is time scooped to the Death Zone on Gallifrey in the multi-Doctor team up story The Five Doctors, she clearly knows exactly where she is.

However it should also be noted that throughout these early years, neither their home planet or their race are ever named. At first it is not even clear if they are aliens, the Doctor describes themselves as ‘exiles’ and ‘wanderers in the fourth dimension’. The serials hint at a back-story but never reveal anything substantial other than the fact that the Doctor and Susan are not from Earth. Although production notes and other behind-the-scenes apocrypha mention that the original background for the characters was that they were forced to flee their home world due to a terrible galactic war, none of these elements made it into the finished scripts. However, before you continuity junkies leap to connect this background with the more recent tales of the Time War, it must be noted that later stories sketched in a different genesis for the Doctor’s travels, but more on that later…

Plus there’s no mention of Time Lords possessing two hearts and the Doctor is frequently mistaken for human by alien scanners. Now this has lead to a school of thought, developed in the various ranges of Who novels, that Time Lords only gain a second heart after their first regeneration. However whether the Hartnell Doctor is actually the first incarnation is a matter of some debate which we will also be getting to later.


THE FIRST DOCTOR - AARU PRIME VERSION





We tend to think of television properties making the leap to the silver screen to be one of the curses of modern times. That it is only recently that Hollywood has gotten so riddled with creative bankruptcy, that it is capable of little other than pillaging TV and their own past for things to remake, reboot, reimagine and generally mess up under the banner of some buzz word beginning with ‘re’.

However, in British cinema the cinematic adaptation of a hit television show has been a staple of the industry since the ‘50s. For example, Hammer Films scored their first big success with their celluloid retelling of Nigel Kneale’s BBC serial The Quatermass Experiment and later would see record breaking returns with their two cinema spins-off of the popular ‘70s ITV sitcom On The Buses.

So when Doctor Who captured the nation’s imagination, and dalekmania swept through this green and pleasant land’s playgrounds like the Black Death, it was only a matter of time before one of the many impresarios of the British film industry would be round to Broadcasting House to secure the necessary rights to rematerialise the TARDIS on the silver screen.

And indeed, Milton Subotsky, best known as the man behind legendary Brit Horror studio Amicus, and always quick to spot a popular trend, soon had the ink drying on the dotted line. Hence AARU Productions quickly produced not one but two Who films. These were Doctor Who & The Daleks (1965) - an adaptation of the Doctor’s first televisual encounter with Skaro’s finest, and Daleks’ Invasion of Earth 2150 AD (1966) which retold their second TV appearance for the big screen.

In both movies, the role of the Doctor was played Peter Cushing, gentlemen actor extraordinaire and no stranger to donning the mantle of iconic characters. However this rendering of everyone’s favourite Time Lord is somewhat different to the television version. For a start his name is clearly ‘Doctor Who’ and now he has two granddaughters, Barbara and Susan Who. Secondly this Doctor is human rather than Gallifreyian and hails from contemporary times. And finally, rather than ‘borrowing’ the TARDIS, the Cushing Doctor actually invented and built the iconic vessel. While he retains the elderly aspects of the Hartnell version, Cushing’s take character is far softer and far less enigmatic, playing the Doctor more as an amiable mad professor than a crotchety old geezer.

Now although this pair of movies have entertained generations of children through their countless TV reruns - they are as much a regular fixture of holiday television in the UK as Ray Harryhausen flicks - they are not considered to be part of the Doctor Who universe proper. (Although there are many fan theories to link them into the canon.) However the Cushing Doctor definitely counts for both our questions.

Obviously Cushing counts as another actor in the role but he also counts as an extra incarnation. As his Doctor is human rather Time Lord, the Cushing version isn’t just another actor in the role as the First Doctor. Although he is appearing an adaptation of a First Doctor story, strictly speaking Cushing can only be The Doctor - as he is human he cannot regenerate and hence there will be no Second Doctor. So logically he should be considered a parallel universe incarnation rather than an alternate performance.

However, just to confuse matters further, the First Doctor was played by another actor other than William Hartnell…


THE FIRST DOCTOR - SLIGHT RETURN



For the show’s twentieth anniversary in 1983, it was decided that a feature length special would be made. And taking their lead from the 10th anniversary story The Three Doctors, it was decided to do another multi-Doctor adventure. However there were a couple of problems - for a start, Fourth Doctor Tom Baker wasn’t keen on returning to a role so soon after leaving, and more importantly William Hartnell had passed away.

The first problem was easily fixed with using some unused footage from the unfinished story Shada and conveniently trapping the Fourth Doctor and Romano in a time loop for most of the story. As for the second missing Time Lord, by chance producer Jon Nathan Turner ran into actor Richard Hurndall, and was struck by his similarity to Hartnell. And so it was decided to include the First Doctor in the story with Hurndall taking over the role.

Now as for Mr Hurndall’s resemblance to Hartnell, some people see it while others think it a similar situation as Ed Wood seeing Lugosi in his chiropractor. And although it’s fair to say that Hurndall only superficially resembles Hartnell in appearance, in terms of his performance he is his double. He has the First Doctor’s mannerisms and intonation down pat, and indeed several of the guest stars who had worked with Hartnell praised his performance, with Carole Ann Ford (Susan) describing it the experience as positively uncanny.

Hurndall did so well in bringing the First Doctor back to the screen, it’s a shame that they never had him return for another outing. However one appearance is enough for our tally…

Right then, to recap - so far we have 2 Doctors and 3 actors in the role - and that’s just dealing with the First Doctor… See I told you, it got complicated!

Next time on THE REGENERATION GAME - “So you’re my replacements eh? A dandy and a clown!”

Didn’t he do well ?!?

DOCTOR WHO 5.3 - Victory of the Daleks

One of the more unanimous niggles about the resurrected Doctor Who has been the fact that the Daleks have returned, regular as clockwork, every single season. And even though none of the four specials last year were tales concerning Skaro’s finest, those pesky pepperpots still managed to get their polycarbide shells back on the old goggle-box with a generous cameo in The Waters of Mars.

And I have to say, I broadly agree with this popular sentiment that we are seeing them far too regularly these days. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Daleks to bits but I do think that things were better when you couldn’t set your watch by their reappearances. In the classic series, despite the great public appetite for Dalek stories, they rationed their appearances and so a new battle between the Doctor and his arch enemies was a big deal – what we would now call ‘event television’ – rather than an expected feature of every season.

However other diluting their screen power, there is another problem tied up with the overexposure of the Daleks, and I suspect, a major source of the annoyance with their constant returns in the new show. And it’s this: in every appearance, they rebuild their ranks from a handful of survivors only to be completely wiped out again.

Now way back in 2005, when Who had just returned this was acceptable; when the Emperor and his hoard were dissolved by Bad Wolf/Rose it made for an epic and thrilling finale to the first series. The mass destruction of the Dalek fleet had an almost operatic feel to it and neatly provided closure to the back-story arc concerning the Time War and its effect on the Ninth Doctor. And from a production point of view, considering that no one foresaw the huge success of the show would turn out to be, it made sense to tie up all those loose ends neatly. More to the point, as it was very possible that the new Who could end up being axed, Russell T Davies could afford to go for a real Götterdämmerung ending and exterminate the Daleks completely.

However repeating this formula every series since is less forgivable. Firstly, even though we always expect arch enemies to cheat death and return again and again, does every outing have to end with their final end? Couldn’t the Doctor just defeat them for a change? Foil their plans and force them back, rather than commit another act of genocide. Secondly, these constant Dalek apocalypses create a real pain in the arse for the unlucky sod that has to find a way to conjure up another hoard of Daleks to menace the universe.

And for this latest Dalek return, the aforementioned unlucky sod is Mark Gatiss. Although perhaps best known for being one of the League of Gentlemen, he also is a long time Doctor Who fan who has ended up realising his dreams to be involved with the show. In the regenerated series, he penned The Unquiet Dead - a personal favourite of mine from Series 1, The Idiot’s Lantern in Series 2, and starred as the villainous Professor Lazarus in Series 3’s The Lazarus Effect.

Furthermore, during what Gatiss himself wryly refers to as ‘the interregnum’ – that dark time between 1989 and 2005 when the good Doctor had vanished from our screens - he wrote four Who novels. Two were for Virgin Books’ continuation of the series, furthering the adventures of the Seventh Doctor in Nightshade and St Anthony’s Fire. And the other pair were for the later BBC range of Past Doctor Adventures; The Roundheads which was a historical outing for the Second Doctor, and Last of the Gaderene which was a tale set in the UNIT era of the Third Doctor’s life. Plus he also scripted two audio plays for Big Finish (who were also furthering the travels of the Doctor while he was away from television) -Phantasmagoria and Invaders From Mars.

And if all of that wasn’t enough Time Lord credibility for you, his favourite book in childhood was the Target novelisation of the Jon Pertwee classic Planet of the Daleks. And perhaps this is most relevant thing on his Who CV…

But more on that later! On the episode itself…

Considering the first two episodes have effectively been new pilots for the revamped series, Gatiss was a good choice to helm the third, the point when the show can just get on with the action. And being very familiar with most of his previous Who output, and indeed the rest of his canon, I was hoping an old school adventure but packed with fresh ideas rather than lapsing into a mere pastiche of past stories. And indeed this is what he delivered. In spades!

My initial reaction is that this is perhaps the best of the three episodes he has penned for new Who. Let’s face it, when you give a writer who understands stories and genre tropes as well as Mark Gatiss the brief 'write a script involving Daleks and Churchill', you’re bound to get something good out the other end.

So we have a wonderful portrait of Churchill, that is both fun and respectful, and brilliantly performed by Ian McNeice, Bill Paterson shining as the slightly bumbling but quite brilliant Dr Bracewell, the Daleks being subtle and cunning, and all wrapped up beautifully in the wartime setting. Throw into the mix an impressive set piece consisting of spitfires taking on a Dalek saucer plus some clever plot twists and we have a winning episode here.

Also it was nice to see Amy getting plenty to contribute throughout the story and again it was good that the resolution involved some old fashioned quick thinking rather than the magic solution new Who has relied on too heavily in the past, particularly when the Daleks are involved.

However I do have some negative points to raise. I don’t whether it was down to the traditional adventure yarn structure or the fact that this is an early outing for a new incarnation, but the Doctor himself felt a little more generic. Now Matt Smith was wonderful as ever, but some of the time his part could have been played by any of the other Doctors. And I am perhaps being a little nitpicky - after all we get the superb scene where he bluffs the Daleks with a jammy dodger!

On reflection, I think the problem was that the episode was so fast paced that at some points there just wasn’t the time for the Doctor’s new personality to shine through as much as the previous two episodes. Of course, stories not having the space to breathe is the curse of modern Doctor Who.

To be honest, I really think that the BBC should bite the bullet and extend the running time and make each episode an hour long. As the specials last year proved, that extra fifteen minutes does make for better pacing and story telling. I appreciate that in an effects heavy show like Doctor Who the mandarins at Broadcasting House will be worried about the extra expense but really the additional time doesn’t need to be more explosions and eye candy. In fact, the extra time would ideally be more of the cheapest scenes - people talking and mood shots; all those little details that flesh out the plot and the characters.

And certainly I feel that this episode was deserving of more a little more time. Perhaps not stretching it out to a two parter, but an extra quarter of an hour would have given the plot more room to breathe and for the script to spread its wings a lot further. For example, I'm not sure we get to spend enough time with Bracewell for his ultimate salvation to have all the proper dramatic impact it could have.

Secondly, those spitfires in space… They were marvellous but - and this is not a criticism of the episode itself - I did think it was a bit of shame that they’d showed snippets of this impressive set piece in the trails. Now obviously as it’s a brilliantly executed sequence that looks truly cinematic it's only natural the BBC wanted to show it off in the previews.

But as stunning as it was - and I heartily concur with a tweet I’ve just seen by comics author Andy Diggle that reads ‘Hard to focus on the aerial dogfight in tonight's DR WHO because I was literally weeping with joy’ - imagine how much more amazing it would have been if you didn’t know it was coming...

Last niggle - the new Dalek design. Now I don’t mind the bright colours - after all, these are a set of Dalek leaders. The Stolen Earth/Journeys End has shown us a Supreme Dalek in red livery, and in the classic series we've seen colour coded Daleks in command positions - a pertintent example here would be the Gatiss favorite, Planet of the Daleks which features another Supreme Dalek in gold and black. Similarly the loss of the slats around their waists and the enlarged bumpers is a return to the designs of the Hartnell days - check out this Dalek Commander from their second outing The Dalek Invasion of Earth and compare it with tonight's newcomers.

My problem is they seem to be, well, a little too chunky for my tastes... Oh sod it, I’ll just come out and say it - to my eyes it looks like they’ve got fat arses now! Exterminated all the pies, did you? Maybe the new look will grow on me - I hated the new Cybermen the first time I saw them but love the design now - so time will tell.

Of course, not all future Daleks may follow the new design - these were a set of founding father models remember. Which brings me to the biggest issue I had coming into this episode and the one I addressed in the opening of this review - were the scourge from Skaro back again only to meet another ‘final’ end?

Thankfully no! As I’d hoped, the new Moffat broom isn’t repeating the same lazy pattern of threat to the universe/destroy the Dalek race. And as I suspected Mark Gatiss was the perfect man to break the cycle. Remember I mentioned his love for the Third Doctor story Planet of the Daleks? Well, the pertinent point here is the portrayal of the Daleks in this outing. This six parter’s plot takes place in future history when the Daleks are plotting an major intergalactic campaign, one of several they launched in this period. On the mysterious planet Spiridon, they are secretly building up an army to conquer the galaxy and carrying out covert experiments to replicate a unique ability Spiridon’s natives possess - the power of invisibility.

Now while the Time War and the elevation of the Daleks to universe destroyers was a logical extrapolation of their ultimate plans, it is a limiting factor for story lines. After all, after they have attempted to obliterate the rest of creation, how do you top that? And the cycle of return/total destruction was just as constricting.

Now with Victory of the Daleks Gatiss has returned them to the status they held in the classic series - a constant menace to other civilised worlds, building empires and hatching fiendish plans to conquer galaxies. And the redesign, which harks back to these earlier days, reflects this back to basis approach. The way is open once again for smaller stories - the small defeats and thwarted schemes we all want to see again. Indeed skirmishes like this one, where the stakes are high but not apocalyptic.

And for this reason, despite a few niggles, I rate this episode very highly. Victory of the Daleks is well named - it restores the Daleks to their rightful place in the show’s mythology, but more importantly, the Daleks actually win this one! Yes, the Doctor and Amy may have prevented them from destroying the Earth but that was never their real objective. Their true goal was accomplished - to build a new Dalek race and even as I type this they are no doubt making planet fall on their old home world Skaro, ready to begin hatch further diabolical plans…