Monday, 27 January 2020

Doctor Who Vs. Nothing But the Night

This thriller was made by Charlemagne
Productions, the film company set up
by actor Christopher Lee and producer
Anthony Nelson Keys, with the aim of
creating traditional Britsh horror
features.
However, the drama's box office failure
led Rank to pull out as distributor, and
the short-lived compnay folded.
Shown on the Talking Pictures channel
 last night the film (scripted by Brian 
Hayles) featured Lee, Peter Cushing,
Diana Dors, and ten other Doctor Who
cast connections:

  • Michael Gambon (DI Grant) played both Elliot and Kazran Sardick in A Christmas Carol
  • Keith Barron (Haynes) was Captain Straker in  Enlightenment, then voiced Isaac Barclay for Big Finish's Plague of the Daleks (2009), and Lord Tulip for The Bad Penny (2018)
  • Fulton Mackay (Cameron) was Dr. John Quinn in The Silurians
  • Morris Perry (Yeats) was Captain Dent in Colony in Space
  • Duncan Lamont (Knight) was Dan Galloway in Death to the Daleks
  • Geoffrey Frederick (Operator) was Exorse in The Savages
  • Robin Wentworth (Porter) was Professor Horner in the first episode of The Daemons
  • Andrew McCulloch (Malcolm) later co-wrote Meglos
  • Kenneth Watson (Jamie) and Maxwell Craig (Visitor) both appeared in Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, as Craddock and Fighter - Watson was also Bill Duggan in The Wheel in Space

Friday, 24 January 2020

Doctor Who Vs. William Hartnell at the Cinema, Part 2

These two satirical film
comedies were vehicles for
Peter Sellers (1925-1980).
Based on Leonard Wibberley's novel, The Mouse That Roared
was released in the summer of
1959, and was a surprise box
office success in America.
Sellers played a trio of roles
here, and was joined by
William Hartnell (as Will
Buckley). A sequel, The Mouse
on the Moon, followed in 1963.
Heavens Above! (directed by 
prolific filmmakers John and Roy Boulting) opened in the spring of 1963. Hartnell played Major Fowler. Both productions (shown again on the Talking Pictures TV and Sony Movies channels this week) featured a total of twenty-one future Doctor Who cast alumni:

The Mouse That Roared
  • Timothy Bateson (Roger) was Binro in The Ribos Operation
  • Colin Gordon (Announcer here; Prime Minister in Heavens Above!) was the Commandant in The Faceless Ones 
  • Fred Haggerty (Fenwickian) was a stuntman on (episode 2 of) The Time Meddler
  • John Tatum (Admiral) was a Villager/Coven member in The Daemons
  • Juba Kennerley (Maybury) was an Old Man in The Massacre (2)
  • Tex Fuller (Fenwickian) was an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks (3)
Heavens Above!
  • Mark Eden (Despard) was reunited with Hartnell on Marco Polo
  • Rodney Bewes (Milkman) was Sergeant Stein in Resurrection of the Daleks
  • John Harvey (Wilson) was Professor Brett in The War Machines, and Officia in The Macra Terror
  • George Curtis (Constable) and Arthur Howell (Man) both starred in The War Games, as Firing Squad Soldier (1) and Confederate Horse- man (3)
  • Walter Henry (Doorman) was an Extra in The Myth Makers (2) and The Silurians (6), Primord iInferno, and Brother in The Masque of Mandragora
  • Gilbert Wynne (Engineer) was Thara in The Krotons
  • Richard McNeff (Inspector) was Baker in The Dalek Invasion of Earth
  • Rita Tobin Weske (Lady) was the Theatre Cleaner in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (3)
  • Anthony Lang (Officer) was an Egyptian Slave in The Daleks' Master PlanExtra in The Highlanders (1) and The Faceless Ones (1), Time Lord in The Three Doctors (1), and Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks
  • Graham Tonbridge (Man) was Priest in The Massacre (3) and Journalist in The War Machines (1)
  • Jim O'Brady, Fred Wood (Protestors), Maxwell Craig (Reporter), Pat Judge (Worker) and Reg Thomason (Technician) all appeared in the second Dalek film
  • Richard Rodney Bennett was composer of The Aztecs too

Sunday, 12 January 2020

Doctor Who Vs. Spooks: Code 9

David Wolstencroft, the American-born TV writer
and creator of the long-running Spooks (2002
to 2011), conceived this spin-off drama series
for BBC Three.
Again produced by Kudos, the six-part thriller
was intended to offer a new, "more maverick
perspective" for a younger audience.
Despite it's origins, the new series held no
character or plot connections to the parent 
programme, and instead focused on the story
of six young MI5 recruits. 
Set in 2012, the show opened in the after-
math of a nuclear attack on the London
Olympics. The subsequent evacuation of the
capital and the South East of England meant
that the government had relocated to
Manchester, and new MI5 agents were now
tasked with preventing further terror
attacks.
Spooks: Code 9 originally aired from August
2008, then was repeated on BBC HD in June
2009, and latterly on Forces TV in February 2018 - it featured Georgia
Moffett (pictured as Kylie), and a total of sixteen other Doctor Who cast
and crew connections:

  • Anthony Flanagan (Tom) was Orin Scannell in 42
  • Big Finish actor Warren Brown (Luke) voiced Stephen Gibson for Industrial Evolution (2011), Rufus Stone and To'Koth for Signs and Wonders (2014), and Lieutenant Sam Bishop for UNIT: Extinction (2015), UNIT: Shutdown, UNIT: Silenced (both 2016), UNIT: Assembled (2017), UNIT: Cyber Reality and Lady Christina (both 2018) - he was also Jake Willis in Praxeus
  • Andrew Knott (Rob) voiced James O'Meara for 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (2013), and Sean Casey for The White Room (2014)
  • Lorraine Burroughs (Simone) was Thalina in The Fires of Pompeii
  • Lucinda Dryzek (Alice) was Melissa in School Reunion
  • Chris Finch (Conlan) was a Time Lord Soldier in The Day of the Doctor and the Prequel: The Last Day
  • Eva Pope (Hamilton) voiced Nia Brusk for Army of Death (2011)
  • Darryl Clark (Norris) was Officer Will in Resolution
  • Dean Forster was also a stuntman on The Christmas Invasion, New EarthSmith and JonesVoyage of the DamnedThe Next DoctorCold BloodA Good Man Goes to WarThe Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood
  • Crispin Layfield was also the stunt co-ordinator on the revived series (from Smith and Jones to the present)
  • sound editor Helen Dickson was foley editor on all thirteen episodes of Series 5, and twelve instalments of The Sarah Jane Adventures
  • Matt Wood (VFX supervisor) and Gary Kelly (digital compositor) were both tasked with The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Power of Three - Wood also worked on A Town Called Mercy
  • line producer Patrick Schweitzer first worked on the revived series as location manager on The Runaway Bride, then was production manager on six stories for Series 3, and produced all of Series 5
  • James Moran was writer of The Fires of Pompeii too
  • Toby Haynes was also director of The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang, A Christmas CarolThe Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon