By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Warner Bros
Photos copyright Warner bros
We hit the ground running this episode as Shaw, the Randas and May flee the Monarch compound as fugitves.
Again we are teased with droplets of backstory. Monarch once stood for good as was inended by Shaw and mon and dad Randa. But something went wrong leaving Shaw a prisoner and with few allies, one of which helps him and the others escape from Tokyo. A nice touch that the audience might miss is that he has been a prisoner so long he does not know how to start a modern car.
Jumping back to the fifties we see young Shaw and Bill and Keiko Randa try to get funding and back up from the government via the military. And this leads nicely into the much anticipated appearance of our favourite lizard, Godzilla. Those shots of him ploughing through the ocean and rising from the water in all his glory are great, attracted to the radiation from the nuclear bomb. Even when it goes off in his face seemingly killing him is a shock even though we know he will survive or is this just another member of the Godzilla species?
Immediately we see the conflict start between the Randas and the immediate military as they trip the trap to kill Godzilla with a nuclear bomb much to Keiko;s anger. She wants to tell the world about these creatures but the brass want it kept secret. We get mention of the hollow world and a surprising new mystery as to Shaw’s age which he dismisses as good genes. But in the wake of Godzilla’s apparent death, Shaw and the Rands get a blank cheque to do whatever they want to find others like Godzilla but even then they intend to be selective about what to tell their benefactors.
The Randa siblings conflict is becoming a bit tiring now especially Cate’s bad attitude towards the others. While it is good to have conflict between allies, it needs some softening or it becomes eye rolling. Come on Cate, your dad screwed everyone not just you and all for Monarch. Shaw knows their father so well, he knows where he was really going where the mystery deepens. A crashed plane and camp with documents with their father’s handwriting lead Cate and Kentaro to embrace for the first time. Their father did indeed survive his fake death and ended up here in Barrow, Alaska.
But the road leads them to deep trouble as a new monster bursts from the snow and ice, a monster that can kill you in a heartbeat. Their plane andally destroyed and dead, stuck in the open, our heroes watch in horror as the beast swings in their direction.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright Warner Bros and others
This episode opens in 1952 with Lee Shaw being summoned sporting a black eye only to be sent to work for Doctor Mira on an undisclosed mission. He meets her and together they meet Bill Randa in the jungle. A disagreement between Shaw and Mira ends up with Shaw being dismissed. Randa’s story of dragons peeks Mira’s scientific curiosity as her readings match what he thinks are migratory patterns like birds. Things take a bizarre twist when they discover a naval battleship in the middle of the jungle. Randa recognizes it as the Lawton lost since 1943. More than that however Lawton was the only survivor when the ship went down and knowing they hit something massive that night, he has been searching ever since following the radiation traces. He believes that there is something very much alive out here that caused the ship to sink.
I love the way the story is being peeled back a bit at a time and Randa’s backstory puts Skull Island into perspective. The Titan story has been going for longer than we thought. We get a taste of true horror here aboard the decaying corridors of the Lawton. Mira and Randa find the bodies of the crew perfectly preserved in some sort of mucus. Worse still, they try to leave and fresh mucus has appeared pushing this into Alien and Predator territory as they are hunted in confined corridors by something unknown. Shaw returns just in time to get them out and they escape. Again the effects are great as the ship tumbles as a huge dragon kaiju bursts free and attacks them.
Meanwhile Kentaro goes through his father’s files discovering Shaw’s dossier. He and his mother are still coming to terms with Cate’s revelations but have more pressing matters when Monarch hits them hard. Cate is kidnapped by Tim and causes their car to crash escaping but trapped in Tokyo. Kentaro and his mother are attacked in their apartment but Kentaro escapes. Tim however now knows who Kentaro’s father is. Cate has turned to May who has seen the files and is now in danger too. Kentaro meets them and knows where to go. They find Shaw who tells them the story about their father’s death is not true. He offers to go with them to help uncover the truth and bring Monarch down. Kurt Russell as always lights up the screen and this older Shaw may not be forgiving as his younger self once was. May realises that this is a prison and Shaw cuts his tracker from his ankle. Now they are all fugitives with Monarch in pursuit.
While we get answers here to the past, all it does is open up new ones. Why is Shaw being electronically tracked as a prisoner and is Tim still a friend or lethal foe acting for Monarch? What happened that they ended up poles apart? Why has nobody seen the dragon kaiju since 1952? We know thre is another world below us, the hollow earth we saw in Godzilla versus KKong so is there breaches in that allowing these creatures access to our world? By no means are Cate and Kentaro loving siblings but will the full truth about their father destroy or unite them?
Within two episodes, we know a lot but have been left with more questions. Again great characterisation and a brand new monster and a story that keeps us here for the ride.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright of BBC
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
“The Fendahl is death. How do you kill death itself?”
A chilling description for one of the most unique and terrifying monsters ever in the history of Doctor Who. In this 1977 season 15 story the opening moments firmly set the horror tone of this story which is maintained all the way through.
Scientists have discovered a human skull which will change everything they know about evolution. The skull is 12 million years old and Doctor Maximillian Stael is using a time scanner to test the skull. Itreacts to it and affects fellow scientist Thea Ransom (Wanda Ventham and mother of one Benedict Cumberbatch). In the dark woods of fetch Priory, a lone hiker suffers a horrible death as something consumes him literally sucking the very life force from his body causing it begin decomposing within hours, The Tardis is pulled through a hole on time caused by the scanner. Stael has no idea the power he is tapping into and how it is impacting reality. Tracing the source to Fetch Priory, the Doctor and Leela face a threat so ancient that this could be the Doctor’s final battle.
Fetch Priory has long had a haunted reputation pf ghosts and demons and the woods are to be avoided. The name Fetch itself has satanic links. The Doctor and Leela meet Mrs Martha Tyler and her son Jack. Mrs Tyler has psychic abilities and is well versed in the old ways eg using salt against evil. She is almost killed by the Fendahleen, describing it as a hunger that wanted her. She is a great character, an elderly lady with guts and prepared to fight the Fendahl with everything she has. She also provides some much needed humour when she admits there will come a day when she is too old for adventure. Leela recognises her abilities and wisdom of the old ways, forming a great bond with her.
They discover the skull is somehow merging with Thea to bring about the rise of the Fendahl again. it is revealed Stael’s real family name is Fendleman, literally a child of the Fendahl, influenced over the centuries to bring about the Fendahl again. He has created a cult using locals from the village to help him and gives the helpless Thea to be consumed by the Fendahl. She will become the Fendahl Core controlling her tapeworm like giant Fendahleen. The Fendahleen are brilliantly onceived and their sheer size in the corridors of the Priory make this a very claustrophobic story. The Doctor is almost absorbed by the skull when it compells him to place his hand on it. The Fendahl is so powerful not even a Time Lord can resist it. The Fendahleen freeze people in place as it sucks the life energy from them to feed the Thea Fendahl. The cliffhanger for episode 3 sees the Doctor, Leela, Mrs Tyler and Jack trapped by a Fendahleen in the corridor of the Priory. Frozen to the spot, a sick slurping sound is heard as a Fendahleen bears down on them. As a kid, I freaked out.
The climax of the story sees a fully powered Thea freeze the members of the cult and turn them into Fendahleen. Medusa like in appearance, the Fendahl/Thea version needs 13 people to become Fendahleen in order to unleash her full power. The Doctor realises that even in its inanimate state as the skull, the Fendahl influenced human development to bring it to the point where the Fendahl could return. The Doctor ponders if this accounts for man’s darker side. Personally, I think not as man is just flawed like every other species subject to good and evil.
Before Stael/Fendleman turns into one of the monsters, he kills himself. This means that the Fendahl are weak. The Doctor turns the time scanner to overload. The resulting blast will destroy the Priory and everything in it. Stealing the skull, the Fendahl are trapped as they are consumed by the implosion. To ensure the skull does not wreak havoc again, the Doctor and Leela drop it into a supernova. The universe os safe from the threat of the Fendahl once again.
Part of the reason this story works so well is the fact the Fendahl are so well realised. The Fendahleen have a cobra like outline but those nasty tendrils hanging from their gaping mouths are something out of a nightmare just like the Ood in the new era. Anything hanging from a creature’s mouth is repulsive. They may be the reason behind witchcraft and devil worship as scans show a hexagon embedded in the skull. The night time shooting of the scenes involving the death of the hiker and almost death of the Doctor are well shot. The slurping sound effect of the invisible monster bearing down on the Doctor is terrifying. The director ensures the camera POV is slightly above indicating the height of the Fendahleen monsters. It adds so much atmosphere to the story. It feels at times the Doctor and Leela may die here against such a powerful foe. The design of the Thea/Fendahl is unique and memorable. Actress Wanda Ventham eyes are closed but wide alien eyes are painted on over them giving her a great look with the almost snake like hair.
Image of the Fendahl is very much a horror story that uses familiar elements to evoke the old Hammer Horror movies. The gestalt Fendahl terrified me as a kid and it remains a firm favourite of mine. It is doubtful they will return to the show but to celebrate the 60th anniversary I will dig out the DVD and turn into that 10 year old kid once more.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriots and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright bbc
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Rose Tyler a villain??? What? What? What?
Yep, it’s true. As much as you cried and wailed over the doomed love story between her and the Doctor in Doomsday and cheered when she got a duplicate but human Doctor in Journey’s End, it wasn’t a smooth journey. But there was something at times that made me dislike Rose, for example the way she treated Sarah jane Smith and her rolling her eyes when Mickey joined her and the Doctor on their travels. Add to that her flirting with Captain Jack and the fact the Doctor dropped her completely to live a life with Madame de Pompadour which went unmentioned, made her a nasty and unlikeable figure to me at times. If any fella did that to your sister you’d have something to say about it.
The Doctor was all she cared about as her mum Jackie, pointed out in Parting of the Ways. She also pointed out how much Rose had changed and she didn’t recognise her any more. But it wasn’t until Turn Left episode that we saw just how much of a selfish bitch Rose Tyler truly was. Her obsession with the Doctor was way out of control which h shares responsibility for given the speech he gave Sarah Jane in School Reunion and the fact he can regenerate into a woman.
Having been trapped in the parallel universe at the end of Doomsday, it was clear Rose had been working on a way to get back to the love of her life,. But even writing that phrase doesn’t sit well with me. We all do things for love that might seem crazy to others but Rose takes it to a whole new level. If the Doctor really is the love of her life, would ending up with a human version of him really be enough for her? Did she take him because she knew the other version would outlive her and watch her wither and die. It has never sat right with me even now.
In Turn Left, Donna has a world created around her when a time beetle courtesy of Sarah Jane Smith’s enemy the Trickster, attaches itself to her. In this reality, she wasn’t there to save the Doctor when he fought the Racnoss. He died leaving Earth wide open and history began to take a new darker course all because she turned right instead of left on a road thanks to the nagging of her mother, Sylvia.
While Rose has used the alternate universe version of Torchwood to break through to our Earth to find the Doctor. Yes, stakes were high because Davros’ reality bomb was causing entire realities to collapse and the stars were going out in the heavens. However, it is her callousness towards Donna in order to achieve this that is most disturbing. It verges on psychotic. Rose knows Donna is the lodestone upon which everything depends. She must break free of the Trickster’s beetle to restore time to the correct path. The Doctor must survive the flooding of the Thames when he destroyed the arachnid Racnoss. As we learn from Turn Left, the world falls apart without him allowing the reality bomb to destroy everything. All of our heroes die as events from other episodes take a different turn like the Judoon stealing the hospital where everyon dies or Torchwood dying to save the Earth from the Sontaran Atmos weapon.
When Rose first shows up as the Doctor’s body is driven away by UNIT, you can see in her face that Donna is simply someone to be used. When Donna asks what Rose is looking at on her back, Rose’s whole demeanour is one of dismissiveness. As London is destroyed by the falling Titanic from Voyage of the damned, Donna and her family find themselves allocated to housing in Leeds where they are forced to live in shared housing, sleeping on a kitchen floor. Donna is hopeful she will get a job and get them a proper house but her mother Sylvia has a complete breakdown due to the state of the world. While Rose does try to convice Donna she is vital to saving everything, Donna doesn’t want to know. When she refuses, Rose takes a stand and casually and confidently tells her that she will come with her in three weeks and she is going to die. The delivery of this is harsh, almost matter of fact. It isn’t until she witnesses the stars going out that Donna realises that she has to go with Rose.
Using the nearly dead tardis, Rose sends Donna back in time to the moment her life changed. Donna that doing this will result in the whole world getting back to normal. I can’t help but feel that her encouraging Donna to step inside the Tardis and see the wonders for herself is simply Rose’s way of buttering Donna up for what is to come. Rose’s dislike for taking orders from UNIT are obvious for all to see even going so far as to tell them not to salute her just as the Doctor used to do. Is this a sign of some sort of complex?
When Rose uses the Tardis tech to show Donna the beetle on her back, she uses technobabble to explain it confusing Donna. When she asks what that means Rose laughs almost manically saying she doesn’t know, it was something the Doctor would say. Donna’s distress has no effect on her whatsoever which if the Doctor saw that, he would turn away in shame.
As Donna is about to be sent back in time to restore the timeline, she asks how Rose knows this will work. Rose answers she doesn’t as they are just guessing. When Donna babbles that she won’t really die as everything will be returned to normal. She asks that she will not die if things are sorted and she and the Doctor live. Rose stares at her impassively and says sorry. To Rose, Donna is simply a means to an end something to use. This is a trait that the Doctor has been accused of and it seems Jackie’s fears for her daughter are coming true. This Rose is cold, calculating but in her defence she is trying to save reality. This is the only way she can do it but it doesn’t feel right.
Even when Donna kills herslef by stepping out in frnt of a lorry to force her other self to turn left due to the traffic jam, Rose still hovers over her like an angel of death to ensure she delivers two words to the Doctor; two words that will alert him to the danger.
While Rose may seem to have noble intentions here, no pun intended, her execution of it makes for some uncomfortable viewing. This is a Rose that like the Doctor killing the Racnoss. She needs someone to step in and pull her back from the brink. There was another way to get Donna’s help and this cold interaction wasn’t it. It really just hughlighted how selfish Rose could be when she wanted something. Yes she was trying to warn the Doctor but her real focus was getting back with the man she loved. She stepped on and used anyone that could make thaat haappen regardless of the consequences, And that’s what makes Rose of Turn Left, the true villain of the piece.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos and video copyrght Warner Bros and others
The world is now cracked with conspiracy.
How did I never put it together before?
All my life I’ve loved monsters the bigger the better especially Godzilla movies. I love the Matthew Broderick version by the way; it’s great and I’ve followed Kurt Russell’s career since Lost in Space. Kurt battled the Thing, Chinese demons and became Elvis but he never went up against Godzilla or Kong or anything else. In real life he did witness the UFO phenomenon the Phoenix Lights. If he says it was a ship you can believe it especially as he had to report the sighting officially. Now he has a chance at a monster as he takes a lead in the new Monarch Legacy of Monsters show on Apple+ TV. It is set after the events of Godzilla vs Kong and Skull island directly referencing these movies but does it better the poor Godzilla vs Kong?
Well it wastes no time in transporting us back to Skull Island where Kong swats the helicopters out of the sky and Bill Randa (John Goodman) is running for his life from a giant spider. He manages to make a recording apologising for what he has done but hoping he can leave a legacy behind before he is caught at the edge of a cliff in a battle between a giant crab and said spider allowing him to escape. Fans of the movie already know he doesn’t get off the island. He tosses a bag into the ocean which is not found until 2013. Given Skull Island was set in the 70s, what will Monarch do with this information if indeed they have it?
Immediately I was caught up in this unseen monster scene from Skull Island and the effects are flawless. Bringing Goodman back was a great idea as his character was the head of Monarch and he knew the reveal of these giants could destroy everything for humanity. And the events of the movies have certainly had an impact on the world. The show crosses time zones as we see events that Monarch have been investigating for years secretly. In 1959 we find a deserted city where a massive radiation pool should be but has been eaten by Titans, housing something nasty. This Monarch team consists of young Bill Randa (Anders Holm), Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell, Kurt’s real life son) and Duvall (Elisa Lasowski). We flashback to the Godzilla attack on San Francisco where the Golden Gate bridge is destroyed. So what have these different time zones have to do with the overall story?
The world is a very different place now as seen through the eyes of Cate Randa (Anna Sawai). Following the death of her fther she travels to Tokyo to tidy his affairs, a phrase that takes on a whole new meaning when she discovers her father was living a double life and had another family and she has a brother, Kentaro. The world is very different one. Passengers are sprayed for parasites when landing from another country. Tokyo is now soaked with weapons, drones and missiles with warning signs of Godzilla all over the place. It is all false because nothing can stand against a Titan attack and it is just governments trying to hold on to the illusion that humanity is the dominant force on the planet. Humanity’s time is over if Titans take back the world and no amount of spraying or armed guards at airports is going to change that. The world is cracked with conspiracy as word is that the San Francisco attack was achieved through CGI. However Cate is a survivor of that attack having failed to rescue children from a school bus when they were caught in the Godzilla Golden Gate bridge destruction.
Again these scenes are fantastic as a helpless Cate gets up close and personal with Godzilla amid the death screams of children. It is a stark reminder that no one is safe from the Titan attacks and they really do leave heartbreak and tragedy in their wake. We also see the after effects as Tokyo goes into lockdown at a suspected Titan attack. The populace flee to the subways where Cate has a panic attack again showing that the Titan presence is not just impacting how we live but how we feel too. The world has been traumatised which makes us but wonder what Bill Randa was hoping for out of letting the Titan loose on the world. Cate is not coping at all so she goes with Kentaro shows her their father’s office where the bag that was fished from the sea is hidden in a secret safe. She recognises the Monarch symbol as the same one worn by the soldiers and scientists that appeared on the bridge that day. Joining forces they manage to decode it proving their father’s job was also a lie. Kentaro asks his estranged friend May (Kiersey Clemons) to help them but this triggers Monarch to its presence and they want it back. However Monarch employee Tim makes a call.
This is great writing as the connections between everyone are slowly revealed and the multiple time zones work well to feed our connections to the characters and understanding where they stand in the story. Nothing is contrived and the world is cracked with conspiracy quote of mine is justified as we learn just how connected Cate and Kentaro are to Monarch and its mission. The monsters are perfectly done and the cliffhanger makes you want to come back for more. I like these characters and Cate stands out for me because she is hurt more than anyone else. She cannot understand how the people of Tokyo just simply go back to normal after a Titan scare as she hasn’t been able to move on from her experiences with her father and Godzilla. All of this is normal to Kentaro and his mother who equally don’t understand why Cate is so messed up more than she should be after discovering their father lied.
No story works without a human heart at the centre and Monarch Legacy of monsters certainly does a great job of throwing out the breadcrumbs while making you care about these people. It establishes a world that goes on while holding its breath and looking over its shoulder more than it should.
With with only a week to go before the Doctor and Donna cross paths again in the 60th anniversary birthday special, we get a most welcome taste of the new Doctor once again standing proudly as part of the annual Children In Need event.
I didn’t realise how much I missed these until last night. While they may be short they give us so much pleasure like Time Crash and Tennant’s regeneration meltdown going into the Christmas Invasion so what would this new era bring given the fourteenth Doctor now has his tenth Doctor face back?
The anticipation was high as we wondered would it link to The Star Beast featuring a prequel featuring the Wraith Warriors, the Meep or Donna herself? No, we got a bonus surprise that like the Tales from the Tardis gives us an unexpected blast from the past. Many have wondered why a tank like a Dalek would have a sink plunger as an appendage which has been the subject of ridicule for years. Well, we writers have an answer for everything.
Enter Davros but not the hate filled wheelchair bound version we know and love. Here he is the scientist he once was before he became the version that has plagued the Doctor for years. The minute he opened his mouth you know who it is and welcome back to Julian Bleach. He is showing off the future of the Kaled race to a subservient Mister Castavillian in the form of his mark 3 travel unit aka a Dalek. The Dalek has a savage looking metal claw. The problem is he cannot think of a good name for it. Within just a few lines we see the Davros we know and his drive to rule with his new invention.
But we also get a new side of Davros as Castavillian tries to come up with a name by scrambling the letters of the word Kaled all of which Davros rejects. Bleach’s comedy timing is great making the Davros character multilayered. He really was human once.
But then the Tardis crashes taking the claw arm off in the process. The 14th Doctor pops out and accidentally gives the name Dalek, gives the exterminate catchphrase and replaces the claw with a sink plunger. Realising this is the genesis of the Daleks, he rushes off. Again a nice nod to the first on screen Davros story. The Doctor here is more exuberant that his tenth persona and reminds me very much of Quantum Leap’s Sam Beckett. He blunders in and accidentally cements part of the future into place. Just as Sam showed Michael Jackson how to moonwalk, gave Stephen King plots for books and inspired Donald Trump to build Trump Tower, so the Doctor christens the Daleks and provides the sink plunger that for years many have laughed at.
It’ a nice loose end to tie up and very Doctor Who as he becomes part of his own history. Davros returns and sees the damage and announes he loves it. With that the battle with the Toymaker and the Meep takes one step closer.
Thid is like getting the present you wanted for your birthday only to find an additional one hidden inside. It takes elements we know and makes them new again. This Doctor will not be a retread of the tenth Doctor but an independent version like all his other selves. This was fun and slotted into the show’s history as if it has always been there.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright BBC
Bloody hell, has it really been 60 years since the Tardis first appeared in a junkyard before the first Doctor (William Hartnell) whisked teachers Ian and Barbara on the adventure of a lifetime. I’ve only been around for a portion of that with Jon Pertwee being my Doctor growing up but the older I get the more I realise every incarnation is my Doctor. It has been just one giant roadtrip where we have laughed and cried, had our hearts broken then lifted up by the sheer joy of seeing something new that reaffirms our faith in people. I am so glad I am alive to witness this because Doctor Who rarely fails to inspire me. It is, has been and always will be my first love; firing my imagination to the day I take my last breath when I start my journey to a new dimension. It is part of my being as surely as my friends and family are and my memories of meeting the casrt in real life and stepping through the Tardis doors for the first time are cherished ones indeed.
One of these memories is the launch of Doctor Who Weekly back in the day. It was a comic that still runs to this day as Doctor Who Magazine. But the comic strip would be the main draw so the stories bloody well had to be good. First up was the Iron legion followed by the Star Beast. Curiously enough when we discovered that David Tennant was returning for a special 3 part anniversary special in a story called the Star Beast, my ears pricked up. It couldn’t be the comic strip surely with the Wrarth Warriors and the cute as a puppy Beep the Meep. Suddenly filming footage was released and there they were in th flesh; the Wrarth Warriors and the Meep!!
The quality of storytelling back in the Doctor Who Weekly days was astounding and definitely stayed in the memory of many young fans like me. The Star Beast was one of them. Written by John Wagner and Pat Mills and drawn by the legendary Dave Gibbons, the fourth Doctor lands in the town of Blackcastle where alien forces are gathering. Something is being hunted and the hunters are far from pretty to look at. Some school childrenr Sharon and Fudge have found a little alien they call Meep. He is a white furry creature that you could just cuddle for hours just like a puppy or a kitten.
The Doctor and K9 follow the path of the Meep’s crashed ship totally unaware that he is being trailed by the fierce looking Wrarth Warriors. They attack taking out K9 in the process. The Doctor manages to get the kids and the Meep to safety leaving himself to face the Warriors. He learns too late that the Meep is in fact a criminal and the Wrarth are police force sent to take him into custody.
The Meeps were peaceful once and highly advanced but the radiation from a black sun turned them into savages. The Wrarth are made up of parts of the five most powerful races in the galaxy and the only ones capable of confining the Meep.
Teaming up wuth the Wrarth the Doctor finds the Meep has enslaved the people of Blackcastleincluding Sharon via the black star drive that fuels his craft in order to repair his ship. The town of Blackcastle is almost pulled into a black hole when Beep the Meep activates his ship’s drive. The Doctor manages to stop the Meep and return everyone to normal as the Meep is taken into custody by the Wrarth Warriors.
It is a timeless story of not judging by appearances and to get to know the person inside rather than assuming they are good or bad based on how they look. The comic strip did what the television show had never done up to that point. Sharon became his first black companion as she joined the Doctor and K9 on their travels. The dialogue is so sharp and witty totally capturing the essence of the fourth Doctor. It also uses what the show always did best ; put the extraordinary into our normal to scare the life out of us. Here Fudge’s mum, bewildered by what her son and Sharon are doing with this creature and man in the funny scarf is told by the Doctor that there are aliens at the bottom of her garden. Only in Doctor Who could that line sound perfectly normal.
The Wrarth Warriors are a great new alien. Their ferocious appearance belays their inner sense of right and wrong as upholders of the law. The fact they have detachable limbs make them great fun and hopefully the television version will keep their badass ways intact. Sharon is a great foil for the Doctor in a way similar to other companions; she has tasted the adventure now wants to swim in it. She is as tough and mouthy as they come but sees in the Doctor a way to escape dreary Blackcastle life.
I bought the collected editions of these stories when they were relased and they still to this day as fresh and exciting to read. Big Finish also turned this story into an audio play and released it as part of the classics collection comic books. The Meep did make a return but in a less dramatic way in a cameo in 1991’s Party Animals. The Star Beast 2 debuted in the 1996 Doctor Who Magazine Yearbook where his quest for revenge was ended when the Doctor used black star energy to trap him in a kid’s movie, For the Love of Lassie. In a parallel world Doctor Who is a television programme which the Meep tries to take over and beam black star energy across the planet to enslave everyone. He was defeated by the eighth Doctor and companion Izzy. He appeared as a hallucination in A Life of Matter and Death.
To end, what a great way to celebrate the comic strips by going live action. It has been done before when the novel Only Human became the Family of Blood two parter so in Russell T Dvies hands this should be a blast. Of course I should point out that the Meep appears in the trailer for the third story, The Giggle and not the Star Beast one. Curious, very curious…..Maybe with the arrival of Beep and the Wraith Warriors on screen we might get the classic tale the Dogs of Doom. Werewolves and Daleks anyone?
David Tennant’s second season as Doctor Who went to places Christopher Eccleston’s solo season did not. The stakes were higher and the stories just went bigger. Tooth and Claw, School Reunion and the Girl in the Fireplace preceded the two parter Age of Steel and Rise of the Cybermen that set up the rest of the season. Trapped in a parallel universe, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey face a new generation of Cybermen thanks to Lumic, a disabled man trying to beat death and head of Cybus Industries. Rose’s father, Pete, never died here and became a millionaire but she was never born. Blimps fill the skies, everyone is wearing earpods and the homeless are disappearing off the streets. Despite the Doctor’s warnings, Rose gets involved with her father and meets a nasty version of her mother. Mickey meets his double Ricky, the leader of a resistance group fighting Cybus Industries.
At the 40th birthday party of this universe’s millionaire Jackie, Lumic seizes control of the people via their earpods making them mindless slaves and launches his new Cybermen killing the President. The city begins flooding with Cybermen intent on converting everyone. Trapped at Pete’s mansion as the slaughter begins, the Doctor, Rose and Pete find themselves cut off and surrounded by Cybermen. Not even the arrival of Mickey and his double’s gang can get them out. The Doctor surroenders but the Cybermen don’t want to know. Their resistance has marked them for death and they will be deleted.
This is simply one of the best cliffhangers in the show’s history. There truly seems to be no way out for our heroes. Clever direction echoing fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s first season classic Earthshock, makes it seem there are hundreds of Cybermen. No matter where they run our heroes meet a wall of metal monsters until they are surrounded. The word delete has never been more terrifying….
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
photo copyright BBC
Back when the BBC almost cancelled Doctor Who under the guise of a hiatus during Colin Baker’s first season in the role, it was claimed one of the reasons for the postponement was the violent nature that had suddenly taken over the stories. As we know now it was a bullshit excuse because Michael Grade hated the show and simply wanted rid of it. However like the best fandom in the world, the BBC controller seriously underestimated the power of the fans. It ended ultimately with the sacking of Colin Baker from the role and the show went on for three more years under Sylvester McCoy before faalling into the abyss for several years. Again as time has shown this era gave us some of he best stories in the show’s history like Curse of Fenric, Remembrance of the Daleks and the oddball Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
Behind the scenes budget cuts and trapping the long time producer John Nathan Turner in the job until it went off air, all contributed to the demise. Ratings were thrown about to justify the cancellation but when you are placed up against Coronation Street of course ratings aren’t going to what they were. I lived through it and saw everything and to this day it pisses me off that people will simply believe what they read in the press and nod like brainless sheep. I never take anyone’s opinion of anything; I prefer to judge for myself. I hate lies being told and it will spark a bad reaction from me if you accuse me in the wrong.
I went to the Panopticon convention in the Imperial College London where Colin Baker bravely turned up for the fans despite being sacked. Everyone knew it sucked that he was the scapegoat but he was applauded and welcomed by most of fandom back them. There was a very vocal section that continued to slam the show and these attacks, while some were legitimate criticisms, undoubtedly helped contribute to the end. I saw the same type of sheep behaviour when Jake Sisko from Deep Space 9 was called that annoying brat all because of the legacy of Wesley Crusher. Jake like all the other characters on the show was a fully rounded three dimensional figure so were these people not watching what I was watching? Are they so gormless that they cannot form their own opinions and stand up and say no?
The point in question has stuck with me for years and when I see similar behaviour in Star Wars fandom towards Rose and Jar Jar and more recently the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who (most of which is justified to be fair), I have to wonder are they reading forums and going with popular opinion or have they hair on their balls and bits to justify their views through legitimate argument. I often think to myself, that fool seriously needs laid.
While season 22 of Doctor Who was lashed for being too violent (it’s always been violent, check out Tom Baker’s era before the unicorn and bluebird brigade stuck their nose in), one of the stories uder fire was Veengance on Varos. In that story the Doctor and Peri are forced to land on Varos to get a component mineral to fuel the Tardis. However they find a society that airs prisoners subjected to a series of traps they must evade in order to survie while the populace watches. It is a veritable video nasty world which is the entire point of the story by Philip Martin.
The Doctor having faked his death in a simulated scorching desert, awakens in a body disposal centre. Here. bodies are thrown into vats of acid rather than being buried or cremated. His return from the dead startles the two guards dumping the bodies. One guard bumps into the other pushing him into the acid. The remaining guard tussles with the Time Lord before being pulled into the acid by his dying comrade. Now the media all claimed that the show had gone too far to show the Doctor killing an innocent by throwing them into a vat of acid. This was too much for children at teatime and clearly showed how far the show had gone dark for ratings.
Wait a second, I thoguht to myself. Has any of these tabloid trash even watched the story or that particular scene? This is where I took offence because they were trying to get rid of my favourite show by lying to the masses whom just like the ones on Varos, simply nodded and accepted what they were told and read. The state was controlling the narrative and how ironic it was happening in the real world.
Of ourse shows can get stale and need a reboot from time to time but to try and justify by obvious lies is another level entirely and thank God fans fought back including me. I sent my petition like many others. But I digress.
As the news read, the Doctor had no problem coldly murdering someone by tossing them in acid and making a dsmissive quip. The quip is there, that much is true but the Doctor is an alien so his reactions are not necessarily going to be what we expected. Besides, everybody had a quip in the eighties from Arnie to Freddy Kruger. Look at the scene. It’s on YouTube so no excuse not to see for yourself. Yes it is a long time ago but this sort of behaviour is still happening today as per Star Wars as previously mentioned so we as fans and adults have a responsibility to make up our own minds before launching a criticism especially when the future of the shows we love depend on it.
Have you seen the reels where a corpse at a wake suddenly coms back to life terrifying the mourners or people trapped in a lift with a body that suddenly rises? It’s hilarious. The reactions are real and I’ve seen it in real life when trapped gas escaped from a dead relative while the wake was happening. I’ve never seen my cousins move so fast. I laugh now but it’s the reaction that is tthe point.
The hapless guards have the same reaction and attacks the Doctor. They struggle and it is clear how the guard falls into the acid.
Yet so many don’t think for themselves and despite the evidence being right in front of them, it is ignored for the more dramatic show that is no longer suitable for children myth. There was only the video player to go back on if you recorded it in the first place. There was no internet, reels or IPlayers to jump on and judge for yourself. Even dedicated viewers and fans always find something new on repeat viewings so memory can cheat you.
This era was a time when the BBC boss was on a witch hunt to cancel the show, Sure, it may have needed a boost but that was down to the BBC’s actions like keeping a producer in a job he needed to leave to expand his CV. Stuff like this reflects on the main actors and in this case Colin Baker would ultimately lose the role he adored. He has been an ambassador for the show ever since and came back for the Children In Need special Dimensions in Time along with the other surviving Doctors, the stage show taking over from Jon Pertwee, a massive run in the Big Finish audio adventures and in the Jodie Whittaker send off Power of the Doctor. How ironic the show is now the most anticipated one with the return of David Tennant and the debut of Gatwa as the new Doctor.
Things like the misreporting of the acid scene in Vengeance on Varos are hopefully a thing of the past but it stands as a perfect example of people jumping on a bandwagon without checking their facts first just to justify getting rid of a show, tired or not. By the way, Vengeance on Varos is a bloody good story with a villain that fans would still like to see return on screen, Sil. Who knows?
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photo copyright Owen Quinn
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
The Vervoids were a one off monsters from the colourful sixth Doctor era and more specifically the Trial of a Time Lord season.
They appeared in the story Terror of the Vervoids as part of the Doctor’s defence. He was on trial for interfering in th affairs of others by prosecutor the Valeyard (later revealed to be a distillation of the Doctor’s darker self) and he took an adventure from his own future in order to prove his innocence. The point was that he would change as time went on and be the hero he has always been. There were a couple of firsts here as this was Mel Bush’s first story; the first companion we met after she has joined the Tardis without a proper introduction. Her screams also matched the harmonics of the theme music perfectly as her first electrifying cliffhanger aired. The Doctor wore a variation of his usual costume and his unpredictable persona had certainly settled by this stage.
Set on a luxury space liner, the Hyperion 3, the story was a Agatha Christie murder type affair. Passengers had dark secrets and there was a murderer on the loose picking them off one at a time. Written by Pip and Jane Baker, Terror of the Vervoids is a multilayered tale of genetics and smuggling.
As a genetically engineered species, the Vervoids were created by Professor Laskey (Honor Blackman, the original Avengers girl and Pussy Galore in James Bond) and her assistants Doland and Bruchner. They are all hiding something including the transportation of Vervoids in giant pods in the cargo bay as well as a shipment of seeds. An electrical explosion designed to kill Mel triggers the eruption of the pods and the Vervoids escape into the corridors of the Hyperion 3. Driven mad by terror and guilt at what they have done, Bruchner tries to fly the cruiser into a black hole to destroy the Vervoids. He knows what will happen if they ever reach the fertile soils of Earth. He is foiled when the Vervoids release a nerve gas which kills Bruchner but allows the non oxygen breathing Mogarians to enter the bridge and steer clear of the black hole.
Copyright BBC
Laskey’s arrogant confidence in her own ability have caused a member of her team to become infected. She is hidden away, now part Vervoid thanks to Vervoid pollen getting into her system via a scratch which is again another danger of the Vervoids reaching Earth. If they can mesh with humans then everything will fall.
The Vervoids hate humanity which it calls animal kind thanks to the way Laskey treated them. They are horrific in nature as they put the bodies of their victims on a compost heap to rot just like we do in autumn with plants. Whether it be by design or accident, the Vervoids can not only spew out a lethal gas but can fire stingers from their palms which instantly kill a person. Mister Kimber is probbaly their most horrible murder because he is an old man that the hostess fusses over. He is the perfect passenger and a nice person who is stung to death then dragged through the ducts to be placed on the compost heap.
The Mogarians are aboard to steal the preious metal stored in the cargo bay and the Doctor realises that vinosium will cause the Vervoids to age in seconds to their natural end. With no light or heat, the Vervoids are forced back into their lair where the Doctor and Mel are waiting. They explode the metal which releases UV light that ages the Vervoids to death reducing them to crumbling leaves. It gives us a chance to see how much killing them haunts the Doctor as he stares at a leaf that dissolves in the palm of his hand alongside the mournful incidental music.
The look of the Vervoids is in the tradition of the Zygons but it did cause some controversy as one magazine contacted Doctor Who magazine for featuring an explicit image on the cover when in fact it was the face of a Vervoid. Once your attention is drawn to it is reminiscent of a certain body part. In contrast to the usual booming alien voices, the Vervoids adopted the Zygon Ice Warrior and trait of a whispering voice. While they did attract some derision at the time, looking back now, the Vervoids work very well. They exhibit enough alien qualities to make them different from the usual man in a suit alien. They are as equally a threat in the interior of a ship as they are in the outdoors. They were born out of a scientist’s own thirst for a place in the history books ro serve her whims but as with all frankensteins, they fail to see their creations will have a will and purpose of their own.
One can’t help but wonder what the Docttor would have done if the Hyperion 3 wasn’t carrying vinosium on that trip. The greed of the Mogarians accidentally provided the salvation for all humanity. But the research is stored in a computer somewhere and even though Laskey died at the hands of her creationds, who’s to say someone else won’t try again to create the perfect Vervoid?
The Time Warriors and Beyond 