Big Finish: The First Doctor Adventures

Looks like the BBC are taking full advantage of David Bradley's time in Cardiff. There will be a series of audios.

Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell and Claudia Grant will also reprise their roles from An Adventure in Space and Time. James Dreyfus has been cast as the Master. I'm not keen on this idea that everyone must meet the Master but it will be interesting to see what has happened.  

Class Cancelled

It was announced that Class will not be getting a second series. This is no surprise. Patrick Ness had announced it was quit and neither Chris Chibnall, nor outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat have said nothing about the show's future.

The show was fairly average. The episodes were released fairly quickly as though BBC3 wanted to get rid of it.A fantasy showset at a school is not a bad idea. Buffy and Smallville did it well enough. But Class was ultimately bland.

This is a shame for Doctor Who, as a spin-off for young adults could have increased the audience of the parent show and kept that age group interested.

Thirty Years of the Seventh Doctor

It is thirty years since Time and the Rani Part 1. It was not a very good introduction. Since Colin Baker had quit he had been forced to wear a wig for the regeneration. The story itself was also a bit of a mess. Fortunately his era gets better. We got stories like Remembrance of the Daleks, Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Ghost Light and Survival. 

RIP Victor Pemberton

And another Doctor Who luminary is lost to us. Victor Pemberton has died at the age of 85.

Victor Pemberton first appeared on screen in The Moonbase as a crewmember infected by the Cybermen's poison. But then he became story editor for The Tomb of the Cybermen. He finally got to write a whole story in Fury from the Deep. He created the Sonic Screwdriver, a device used many times since and passed over to the modern series. In the 1970s, Victor wrote the script for Doctor Who and the Pescatons, a story released on LP with a similar ocean theme.

Sadly I never met the man in person. I remember seeing a 2002 production of Fury in Portsmouth, with Nick Scovell as the Doctor. I' later got to see the recons and enjoyed it. He will be remembered.

Seattle International Films: Broken Doors

In the early days of Doctor Who fandom, the fan writers created categories for certain types of story. These included 'historicals', 'pseudo-historicals', 'base under siege' or 'oddball'. The final Doctor Who film made by Seattle International Films would classify as 'oddball'. It is set in an alternative dimension where there are no rules. Strange and surreal things happen to our heroes. 

The Doctor and Carl are brought to this strange dimension when the Tardis crashes there, in a rocky wilderness. The Doctor needs to replace a valuable component. The Doctor and Carl vist a nearby house and are separated and forced to complete tests. The Doctor meets a masked figure who offers her a device, but Carl is tricked into killing the Doctor, forcing her to regenerate into a new, male, incarnation.

Out of all four films, Broken Doors is the one with the best production values. The shot on video look is reminiscent of the originals series. All of the locations, especially the quarry planet, could have been accomplished by the BBC TV series. 

Barbara Benedetti has settled in to the role of the Doctor. She is strong in confronting the masked man. It's a pit that we only got four videos with her. 

Randy Rogel is good as Carl. The character is used for comic relief but gets the significant role of being the one to inadvertently  cause of the Doctor's regeneration. 

Michael Santo is the voice of the masked figure, as well as the form of the regenerative Doctor. It is a shame that we never got to see his incarnation of the Doctor. 

The Seattle International Films have been fascinating to watch. Each one has improved on its predecessor and it looks like they finally got them to look great. If anything, these films definately prove a female Doctor can work. Let's hope Jodie Whittaker is up to the task. 

Seattle International Films: Pentagon West (Is There a Doctor In the House?)

Pentagon West isn't quite a Doctor Who film. Having completed two Doctor Who films, Ryan K Johnson was looking to make a TV pilot for a science fiction show. He ultimatey decided to put the Doctor and Carl in it. So this is an pisode of Pentagon West which just happens to have the Doctor in it.

Pentagon West is the story about a group of grad students. Their mentor, Doctor Komar, has completed his project but is becoming strangely reclusive and not allowing them access. The students investigate and run into the mysterious Doctor and her friend Carl, who are investigating Komar's experiments.

The student characters are a fairly decent bunch. Robin is the apparent leader of the group, being the most reasonable. Dr Komar is played as an eccentric scientist. He even has an eastern European accent.

The Doctor and Carl are not in most of it, but Barbara Benedetti and Randy Rogel still steal the screen when they are in it.

The story is very talky. The music is home made this time around. A big improvement. The opening sequence is a little abrupt but it is so much better to hear a special conditioned soundtrack to having theme bits stuck in.

6/10

Seattle International Films: Visions of Utomu

The Wrath of Eukor was a fairly decent post-regeneration story. With Visions of Utomu we get to see the Doctor and Carl having a standard adventure as Seattle International films branches out to give us a sci-fi adventure.

The story opens in a castle on a medieval planet. The Prince Germain and Princess Aldraina are meeting and are due to marry to unite two kingdoms. This plan is thrown into jeopardy when the Prince is kidnapped by the minions of the evil Utomu.

The Tardis lands in Castle and the Doctor and Carl are blamed for the Prince's disappearance.
Fortunately, the King recognize the Doctor from the legend and asks for her help in rescuing the Prince. The Doctor agrees. The Princess wants to go but the King prevents her.

The Doctor and Carl disguise themselves as entertainers to infiltrate Utomu's castle but the Princess has followed them, determined to rescue the Prince. Meanwhile, Utomu tries to persuade the Prince to join him.

Barbara Benedetti continues to be a great  Doctor. She is confident and brave. Carl continues to be the comic relief character. He gets the indignity of being hypnotised into being a great singer but he could have had more serious moments.

Utomu proves a more interesting villain than Eukor was. A former advisor who was banished from the Kingdom. He has the ability to predict the future but misinterprets the signs. Wesley Rice puts in a good peformance.

The Princess Aldraina is likeable enough. Just as the Doctor is now a woman the Princess takes on the rescuer role usually associated with the Prince. On the other hand Prince Germain is a book reader and has to be rescued. It's a nice gender role reversal.

While Wrath of Eukor was made on exterior this is made in almost entirely interior and suffers for it. The backgrounds look sadly unconvincing. The Tardis interior is just a white corridor. The music is once again recycled from previous adventures, specifically the medieval themed King's Demons. 

Ryan K. Johnson has written a much tighter script this time around with a lot more humour. It's a shame  the production values let the story down buut it is still a fun way to pass the time.

6/10