Doctor Who Vs. Where Eagles Dare

The classic 1968 WWII film, Where Eagles Dare (written by Alistair MacLean, and based on his novel) was shown on TCM tonight. The cast, headed by Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, featured a surprising fifteen Doctor Who guest actors:

• Peter Barkworth (Berkeley) played Clent in The Ice Warriors
• for William Squire (Thomas) see The Hound of the Baskervilles blog
• Robert Beatty (Carnaby) was General Cutler in The Tenth Planet
• Neil McCarthy (MacPherson) was Barnham in The Mind of Evil, and Thawn in The Power of Kroll
• Anton Diffring (Kramer) was another Nazi, De Flores (image #3) in Silver Nemesis
• Derren Nesbitt (Von Hapen) was Tegana (image #1) in Marco Polo, and voiced Thomas Dodd for Spare Parts (Big Finish, 2002) and Quences in Auld Mortality (2003)
• Ingrid Pitt (Heidi) was Queen Galleia (image #2, with Roger Delgado) in The Time Monster, and Solow in Warriors of the Deep - Pitt and her husband, Tony Rudlin, submitted a Doctor Who script in 1984, which was eventually produced as The Macros by Big Finish
• Richard Beale (Orderly) voiced a Refusian in The Ark, and a Broadcaster for The Macra Terror, then appeared as Bat Masterson in The Gunfighters, and as a Minister in The Green Death
• extra Jim Dowdall had three uncredited 'classic' Who roles - a Guerilla in Day of the Daleks, a Guard in Genesis of the Daleks, and a Warnsman in Frontios
• Max Faulkner (Hartmann) was Corporal Adams in The Android Invasion, and Nesbin in The Invasion of Time, and had uncredited roles in eight other stories of the 1970's
• for Harry Fielder (Soldier) see my FairyTale blog
• Nigel Lambert (Soldier) was Hardin in The Leisure Hive
• Ian McCulloch (Officer) was Nilson, also in serial 6L
• Jack Silk (Officer) was a stuntman on The Daemons
• stuntman Alf Joint doubled for Burton here, and was stunt arranger on Battlefield

Great Doctor Who Quotes #16

"It told me to find you, it wants to be held.

Because it was waiting, then because I was so scared. Of the Doctor.

Because.. I've seen him. He's like fire. And ice. And rage. He's like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun.

He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time, and he can see the turn of the universe.

And he's wonderful."

- Tim Latimer, The Family of Blood (June 2nd 2007)

Written by Paul Cornell

Great Doctor Who Quotes #15

"Dickens? Charles Dickens? You're completely, 100% brilliant! I've read 'em all! Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and what's the one with the ghost.. the one with the trains? The Signalman - terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius. Honestly, Charles.. er, can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan.. Number one fan, that's me.. it means fanatic. Mind you, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that padding or what? It's rubbish! Oh well, if you can't take criticism.. Do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up. No.. Forget about that. Come on! Faster!

My friend. She's only 19 and it's my fault. She's in my care, now she's in danger."

- The Doctor, The Unquiet Dead (April 9th 2005)

Written by Mark Gatiss

The Best (and Worst) Doctor Who of 2011

The io9 science blog published it's TV review of the year yesterday. Meredith Woerner's article, The Best and Worst Television Moments of 2011, features three Doctor Who stories. 

The season finale, The Wedding of River Song is actually named as one of the 'Worst' shows, and is described as the "most melodramatic Who moments we've seen since Russell T Davies, but with way less real emotion behind it. So much cheese, and not in the fun tiney wimey way."

Thankfully, the list of 'Best' sci-fi and fantasy programmes includes The Impossible Astronaut ("a classic example of the many wonderful Matt Smith Doctor-isms we were treated to this year"), and A Good Man Goes to War - "We'd thought our days of swooning over Rory Williams had come to an end after the heroic Pandorica epic (after all, he is the boy who waited). But then someone kidnaps his wife, and Rory gets pissed! What a glorious moment for all "The Nose" fans everywhere. 

Doctor Who Vs. Hamlet

In 1925 - more than eighty years before David Tennant's highly acclaimed portrayal of the Prince of Denmark - a teenage William Hartnell  joined Sir Frank Benson's Shakespearean Company. He performed in Hamlet a year later, and again in 1928.
Patrick Troughton and Peter Cushing both appeared in Oliver's film rendition of Hamlet (1948). The first ever television production of the play was broadcast the year before, and was Troughton's TV debut (he played Horatio here, and the Player King in the film).
Tennant took the title role when the RSC staged Hamlet at Stratford in 2008, and the play was televised on BBC2 the following Christmas (the cast included these Doctor Who guest actors: John Woodvine, David Ajala, Roderick Smith, and Zoe Thorne).
William Russell starred as the Prince in the 1961 TV version of Hamlet (opposite twelve future Who guest stars: Clive Morton, Bernard Kay, Nicholas Hawtrey, Neville Jason, Thane Bettany, Anthony Gardner, Kenneth Gilbert, Peter Copley, William Marlowe, Robert James, Terence Bayler, and Michael Spice).
 Another BBC dramatisation in 1980 featured Derek Jacobi, Geoffrey Beevers, and Lalla Ward as Ophelia - here with another seven Who actors: Claire Bloom, Geoffrey Bateman, Emrys James, Reginald Jessup, Peter Benson, Peter Burroughs, and series stalwart, Stuart Fell.
Peter Davison appeared in a 1974 production of Hamlet, whilst Christopher Eccleston took the lead role in Leeds (2002). Last year, John Simm also played the Prince, in Sheffield.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #14

"Do you wanna come with me? 'Cause if you do then I should warn you, you're gonna see all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past. Aliens from the future. The day the Earth died in a ball of flame. It won't be quiet. It won't be safe, and it won't be calm. But I'll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime!"

- The Doctor, Series 1, Trailer 5 (2005)

Great Doctor Who Quotes #13

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old and I'm the man who is gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"

- The Doctor, Voyage of the Damned (Christmas Day 2007)

Written by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who in the Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph website yesterday published a trio of Doctor Who articles. Firstly, actress Arabella Weir was asked to write about her new role [of Bilis] in "the biggest, coolest show on television." Working with Bill Bailey on The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe was the highlight of her career. And Weir's co-star, Alexander Armstrong, has revealed his favourite Doctor today - the present incumbent, Matt Smith.

Writer Gavin Fuller then lists his "top ten female assistants" from the programme:

• Zoe Heriot "was played with great charm by Wendy Padbury, who had to don some interesting costumes"
• Nyssa "was the perfect foil for the Fifth Doctor"
• Jo Grant was "the clumsy UNIT operative" and part of "one of the "warmest Doctor-companion pairings"
• Ace was "the streetwise tomboy" and the first, pre-RTD era companion "given an emotional journey"
• Barbara Wright played "an integral part of establishing the series"
• Donna Noble "was a mature woman.. able to.. keep the Tenth Doctor in much-needed check"
• Peri Brown was "the most physically attractive of all" TARDIS travellers
• Leela was "an Eliza Doolittle figure" who's "success was due to Louise Jameson's fine performance"
• Rose Tyler was given "a very fine, naturalistic performance" from Billie Piper
• and unsurprisingly, Sarah Jane Smith is revealed as "the best of companions"

Finally, readers are offered Fuller's "top ten best Doctors":

• Paul McGann is described as "the George Lazenby" of Doctors, who "instantly nailed how to play" him
• Christopher Eccleston - here given the usual "serious" tag again - played "a different kind of Doctor"
• Sylvester McCoy "brought a Troughton-esqe eccentricity to the role with this most Scottish of Doctors, and.. tried to bring back an element to the part"
• Matt Smith "has charisma to burn in the role, looks suitably alien, and has brought a subtlety.. not seen since Troughton" but, like McCoy, seems "too light-hearted at times" and currently lacks gravitas
• William Hartnell "was a Doctor who mellowed from crotchety anti-hero to benevolent old sage"
• Peter Davison had the "most difficult task in taking on the role" and seemed "to be more of a big brother to his companions"
• "For many the definitive Doctor" Tom Baker only polls here at #4! Baker's "natural eccentricity" was "helped by a memorable hat and scarf costume" and his "first three years.. were possibly the strongest consistent run of serials in the programme's history"
• Patrick Troughton "brought a huge degree of subtlety to the role, which makes it a terrible shame that so many of his episodes were lost"
• David Tennant was able "to show us just what a good actor he is" and is "easily one of the great Doctors"
• and the best Doctor here (thereby pushing Colin Baker out of the rundown) is Jon Pertwee - "an action hero.. with a strong moral slant" and "a panache that has never been bettered"

Pet Shop Boys: Format

The Pet Shop Boys announced their new compilation album last month, and the CD artwork was unveiled today. Format is the long-awaited, second B-sides release, akin to the unofficial Beside, and follows Alternative (1995). 

Format

Pet Shop Boys will release a brand new b-sides compilation on February 6th, 2012, on Parlophone. "Format" celebrates the duo's prolific song-writing and recording by collecting 38 b-sides and bonus tracks originally released on singles from 1996 to 2009. The album will be available digitally and on double-CD. All tracks have been remastered and the CD booklet features an interview with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe by Jon Savage (author of "England's Dreaming" and "Teenage"). Design is by Farrow.
Pet Shop Boys are currently working on their 11th studio album which is due for release in early autumn next year.
The full "Format" track-listing is as follows:

CD1
1. The truck driver and his mate
2. Hit and miss
3. In the night (1995)
4. Betrayed
5. How I learned to hate rock 'n' roll
6. Discoteca (New Version)
7. The calm before the storm
8. Confidential (Demo for Tina)
9. The boy who couldn't keep his clothes on
10. Delusions of grandeur
11. The view from your balcony
12. Disco potential
13. Silver age
14. Screaming
15. The ghost of myself
16. Casting a shadow
17. Lies
18. Sexy Northerner

CD2
1. Always
2. Nightlife
3. Searching for the face of Jesus
4. Between two islands
5. Friendly fire
6. We're the Pet Shop Boys
7. Transparent
8. I didn't get where I am today
9. The Resurrectionist
10. Girls don't cry
11. In private (7-inch mix): Pet Shop Boys with Elton John
12. Blue on blue
13. No time for tears (7-inch mix)
14. Bright young things
15. Party song
16. We're all criminals now
17. Gin and Jag
18. After the event
19. The former enfant terrible
20. Up and down

Fifty Years of a Time Lord

Doctor Who websites and forums are rife with speculation about the programme's forthcoming Fiftieth Anniversary, still almost two years away. The Radio Times website today published an interview (from The Scotsman) with Steven Moffat. The showrunner discusses the rumoured Hollywood reboot of Doctor Who, his eventual departure, and naturally, the anniversary special - read his comments here.

The latest edition of the SFX Collection, The Fanzine, asks writers and fans how the BBC should celebrate the show's half-century, whilst the current issue of DWM debates the pros-and-cons of re-casting past Doctors. The majority of Whovians seem to favour a traditional, multi-Doctor story, but personally, I thinks that Paul McGann deserves another television outing. Obviously, all other ten incarnations would feature in my adventure, but purely in flashback sequences. The story would open like this:

"An older and weary Eighth Doctor flees the ruined Capitol - the sound of death fills the air.

 The Doctor has fought the last battle. The Time War is finally at an end. The Daleks have been wiped from existence, but at the ultimate cost - the Doctor has sacrificed his own race. There are no victors, only one survivor. Gallifrey and Skaro, and countless other worlds and civilisations are dead.

As the Doctor lies dying in the last TARDIS in the universe, he reflects on all his past lives. We see snatches of his memories.."

Radio Times TV Review of 2011

That venerable publishing colossus, Christmas perennial, and loyal Doctor Who advocate - the Radio Times - has revealed the results of another survey. Their website's "top 40 shows of" the year has placed the programme at a respectable number 8 - see the complete list here. Critic Jack Seale writes:

8. Doctor Who BBC1
A sometimes frustrating, often majestic second series for showrunner Steven Moffat. He trusted his audience to deal with a torrent of ideas, particularly in the series’ bewildering major story arc about the apparent death of the Doctor and his inside-out relationship with River Song (Alex Kingston). But the real highlights were the one-offs: among the strongest were The Doctor’s Wife, an ingenious story of the Tardis made flesh that encapsulated the Doctor’s fundamental Flying Dutchman predicament; the simple retro spooks of Night Terrors; and The Girl Who Waited, a stripped-down story that asked for and got a best-ever performance from Karen Gillan. More often than not, Moffat and his muse, Matt Smith, gave kids (big and small) sci-fi thrills of extraordinary quality and ambition.

Missing Doctor Who Episodes Recovered!

The Doctor and Vicki in a scene from Airlock

The official Doctor Who website has revealed that two lost episodes have been recovered, restored, and unveiled in London today. The BFI's annual Missing Believed Wiped event at the National Film Theatre has shown Airlock, the third part of Galaxy 4 (originally broadcast September 25th 1965), and part two of The Underwater Menace (January 21st 1967).

The complete, black and white episodes were bought by film collector Terry Burnett at a village fete near Southampton in the early 1980's, but he was unaware that the canisters contained missing BBC material, and the classic footage was loaned to the BBC archives earlier this year. Screen shots are available to view here, and you can read a BBC News report here.

The Doctor faces Professor Zaroff (Joseph Furst) in the returned
episode  of The  Underwater  Menace 

There are currently 106 episodes from 27 serials, still missing from the archives. Three stories have no surviving footage at all - Marco Polo, Mission to the Unknown, and The Massacre. This new find comes seven years after episode two of The Daleks' Master Plan was recovered, and the last, whole story to be unearthed was The Tomb of the Cybermen almost 20 years ago.

Doctor Who Vs. The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)

Robert Powell (as Richard Hannay) and John Mills (Scudder) headed the cast in this, the third (and most faithful) film adaptation of John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps (1915) - the first of five novels to feature Hannay. A fourth, TV version was broadcast on BBC1 in 2008. The book has also been dramatised for radio, and more recently for theatre. Powell reprised his Rank film role for Thames TV's spin-off series, Hannay (1988/89).

The film features these seventeen Doctor Who guest actors:

• for David Warner (Appleton), an Unbound Doctor, see the Vs. Titanic blog
• for George Baker (Bullivant) see my second Randall & Hopkirk blog
• for Ronald Pickup (Bayliss) see my Vs. The Jury blog
• Donald Pickering (Marshall) played Eyesen in The Keys of Marinus, Blade in The Faceless Ones, and Beyus in Time and the Rani
• for Timothy West (Porton) see The Monocled Mutineer blog
• Andrew Keir (Lord 'R') was Wyler in the second Dalek film
• for William Squire (Harkness) see The Hound of the Baskervilles blog
• for David Collings (Tillotson) see this Miss Marple blog
• Edward deSouza (Woodville) was Marc Cory in Mission to the Unknown
• John Normington (Fletcher) was Morgus in The Caves of Androzani, and Trevor Sigma in The Happiness Patrol
• for Michael Bilton (Vicar) see my review of The Massacre
• for Harry Fielder (Policeman) see my FairyTale blog
• Paul Jerrico (Scott) was the Castellan in The Five Doctors
• for Prentis Hancock (Perryman) see my first blog for The New Avengers
• James Garbutt (Miller) was Ronson in Genesis of the Daleks
• Andrew Downie (Stewart) was Willie Mackay in The Highlanders
• and Oliver Maguire (Martins) was a Shrieve in The Ribos Operation

New Matt Smith Interview

Photo by Murdo Macleod for the Observer Magazine 

Euan Ferguson's interview with Matt Smith appeared in The Guardian last Saturday. Introduced as the "lord of misrule" the writer remarks that the actor "spends all his time in Wales, has no social life, and he's just broken up with Daisy Lowe. But as Doctor Who returns, Smith [reveals] why he's the luckiest man on TV."

The pair discuss the Higgs boson (aka. the "God particle"), Harris Tweed (steeped in a "piss bucket"), and Smith's Best Sci-Fi Actor award, before getting round to this year's Christmas special, described as Tim Burton-esque!

Now two years into the role of the Time Lord, does the actor "feel he's changed him at all?" Having achieved the near-impossible feat of successfully following David Tennant into the TARDIS, this Doctor is "still evolving" and Smith lovingly sums up his portrayal:

 "As the doctor ages he gets younger and sillier. He's over 1,000 now, I think. And – oh, I just like him. His lack of cynicism. He's like a baby. He wants to sniff, to taste, everything; he'll never dismiss anything. As we get older – perhaps I'm just speaking for myself – we can get too cynical. If he had a… bath, it would be filled with rubber ducks which could talk or something; he'd find a way to reinvent the common bath. And I admire that."

And asking the inevitable question, does this eleventh incarnation now have a finite lifespan? Again, Smith answers with typical enthusiasm and honesty: 

"It depends on your physical and mental state at the end of every shoot. I just take it year by year, but I'm quite excited by the coming year – it's the 50th anniversary, which'll let us be even bigger and bolder than ever." It's harder to think how much bigger, bolder, stranger. Don't there come limits? "Never. Not in Doctor Who. That's the beauty of it. You're never bound by logic, or time, or genre, or space, or location, which is what makes it such an ingenious televisual conceit."

Ferguson also discovers how Smith's sporting injury resulted in an accidental acting career:

"I'd been playing football my whole life, really. Loved it – still do. I was at Leicester City at the time, and it wasn't any one incident, just a succession, and it was L5, my lumbar 5, there was a problem with that. I'll never forget it, the day before my history GCSE, and Leicester said they wouldn't be extending my contract because of it – it was a nasty time, bleak, but at least I was just 16."

The rest of the interview covers many other topics, such as the programme's ratings, Smith's drama teacher, past projects, fame, Richard Dawkins, filming new Who, and bow ties! Read the full conversation here.

Doctor Who Vs. Marple: Murder Is Easy

This ITV1 drama was shown in September 2009, and was directed by Hettie Macdonald, who helmed Blink. The original novel, published in 1939, was adapted by Stephen Churchett (who again starred here as the Coroner), and now featured Miss Marple (again portrayed by Julia McKenzie). Other Doctor Who guest stars featured in Murder Is Easy are:

• For Steve Pemberton (Wake) see my first Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) blog
• Shirley Henderson (Henoria, pictured top right) played Ursula Blake in Love & Monsters 
• for Benedict Cumberbatch (Fitzwilliam, right) see my Vs. Sherlock blog
• Russell Tovey (PC Reed, left) was Midshipman Alonso Frame in Voyage of the Damned, and briefly in The End of Time with John Barrowman
• Tim Brooke-Taylor (Dr Humbleby) voiced Mims for The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (Big Finish, 2008)
• David Haig (Horton) was Pangol in The Leisure Hive
• and for Sylvia Sims (Lavinia) see her role in the BBC's Miss Marple series 

Doctor Who Vs. The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)

Produced by Tiger Aspect for BBC1, this is the only adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles shot at the actual location of the novel (although the narrative differs considerably from the original). First shown on Boxing Day 2002, Holmes and Watson are portrayed here by Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart. In the sequel, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004), Hart reprised his role opposite Rupert Everett's Holmes.

The drama featured these six Doctor Who cast connections:

• Richard E Grant (Stapleton) played the Doctor in both Scream of the Shalka (2003), and Steven Moffat's Comic Relief special, The Curse of the Fatal Death (1999)
• for Neve McIntosh (Beryl) see my Single Father blog
• for Ron Cook (Barrymore) see Hot Fuzz here
• Liza Tarbuck (Mrs Barrymore) voiced Captain Kaliko for The Infinite Quest, and Lysette Barclay in Plague of the Daleks (Big Finish, 2009)
• Danny Webb (Lestrade) was John Jefferson in Satan Pit two-parter (2006), and voiced Byron for The Girl Who Never Was (BF, 2007) and Ori in The Dark Husband (2008)
• Jim Norton (Coroner) voiced Major Thomas Kennet, also for the animated Shalka serial