Radio Times TV Review of 2014

That venerable publishing colossus, Christmas perennial, and loyal Doctor Who supporter, the Radio Times, has revealed the results of their annual survey. Their top forty shows of the year (headed by Happy Valley) have again been selected by the magazine's critics, and Peter Capaldi's first season has been placed at a respectable number nine (up from twenty-two last year). RT writer Huw Fullerton comments:

9) Doctor Who BBC1 

"After eight years of young, romantic Doctors, Capaldi’s more hostile, older Time Lord was a hard sell. Twelve (mostly) great episodes later, it’s hard to imagine anyone else at the helm of the Tardis. Bank heists, Cybermen attacks and creepy monsters were no match for Capaldi and his attack eyebrows, and it feels like we’re still learning the true nature of this newly mysterious Doctor. But Capaldi wasn't the only draw this year. Jenna Coleman’s Clara has finally been allowed the personality she was denied in previous series and showed new depths to the role of companion. Here’s hoping she stays past Christmas".

Great Doctor Who Quotes #9

The Doctor: "If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?"

Sarah Jane: "We're talking about the Daleks. The most evil creatures ever invented. You must destroy them. You must complete your mission for the Time Lords!"

The Doctor : "Do I have the right? Simply touch one wire against the other and that's it. The Daleks cease to exist. Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations can live without fear... in peace, and never even know the word 'Dalek'."

Sarah Jane: "Then why wait? If it was a disease or some sort of bacteria you were destroying, you wouldn't hesitate."

The Doctor : "But if I...wipe out a whole intelligent life form, then I become like them. I'd be no better than the Daleks."

Genesis of the Daleks, Part 6 

(April 12th 1975)

Written by Terry Nation

Great Doctor Who Quotes #8

"My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don’t quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we’re too small to realize its final pattern. Therefore don’t try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe.

Steven… Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they’re all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and…Chesterton - they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can’t… I can’t…"

- The Doctor, The Massacre, Episode 4: Bell of Doom

(February 26 1966)

Written by Donald Tosh & John Lucarotti

Doctor Who Tops SFX Poll

The farewell between the Doctor and Rose Tyler at Bad Wolf Bay has been named the greatest sci-fi/fantasy scene of all time. The scene, from the climax of Doomsday (first shown in July 2006), was voted top of SFX magazine's poll by over 96,000 readers to mark their 250th issue.

David Tennant told SFX that "Russell [T Davies] had weaved some glorious magic for two seasons and it all came together so perfectly in this scene that people still talk to me about it.. they always will. Murray Gold created some heart stopping music that accentuates the misery and Billie Piper is just breathtakingly good. Whatever else I do.. this will be a moment I will be forever proud to look back on."

Doctor Who saw off competition from Hollywood blockbusters (Alien, Back to the Future, Star Wars), Game of Thrones, and the Harry Potter books.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #7

“You know when, sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later, they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, and you meet them and you think, ‘Not bad; they’re okay.’ And then you get to know them, and their face sort of becomes them, like their personality is written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful. Rory’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.”

- Amy Pond, The Girl Who Waited

(September 10 2011)

Written by Tom MacRae

Great Doctor Who Quotes #6

"Do you know, like we were saying, about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because it looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're travelling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... that's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."

- The Doctor, Rose (March 26 2005)

Written by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who Vs. Agatha Christie, Part 2

"Loss of memory cases are rare, but occasionally genuine"

Poirot, The Disappearance of Mr. Dagenham (1924)

BBC2 first transmitted Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures in September 2004. This feature-length biopic - told in flashback from Agatha's point of view - documented

her famous disappearance of 1926. Here, her psychiatrist concluded that the novelist (portrayed by Olivia Williams) had been in a fugue state at the time, and her amnesia was genuine (see Part 1).

The programme was repeated on BBC4 in 2008, and featured Mark Gatiss (as Kenyon), and six other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Anna Massey (Older Agatha) voiced Miss Pollard for Big Finish's The Girl Who Never Was (2007)
• Raymond Coulthard (Archie Christie) voiced Loki, Edgar and Hawks for Cobwebs (2010), and Ralph for Suburban Hell
• Anthony O'Donnell (Kenward and Hercule Poirot) was Commander Kaagh in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane and The Last Sontaran
• Bertie Carvel (Max Mallowan) was the 'Mysterious Man' in The Lazarus Experiment
• Olivia Darnley (Nurse) made a cameo appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors
• Mick Pantaleo was also the first assistant director on A Christmas Carol, The Doctor's Wife and Night Terrors

Sky Arts' Agatha Christie Vs. Hercule Poirot, also examined the writer's
disappearance in the context of the reception to her latest novel, The Murder 
of Roger Ackroyd.
Gareth Roberts' series four story, The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008) depicts the events (albeit fictional) leading up to Agatha's disappearance. By the end of the episode, the action has moved from the atypical Christie 'whodunnit' setting - the English country house - to Silent Pool, where the novelist's car was actually found abandoned. Here, Agatha (now played by Fenella Woolgar, pictured) is briefly possessed by the alien firestone, and falls unconscious. The Doctor now realises that this incident caused her memory loss, and takes the writer to Harrogate ten days later (ie. the day before she was discovered). In the TARDIS, the Doctor shows Donna a copy of Death in the Clouds (1935), a book in which a wasp sting is an apparent cause of death - so Agatha's amnesia was not complete, she remembered the Vespiform. Even by the year 5 billion, Christie is still the best selling author of all time.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #5

"Homo sapiens! What an inventive, invincible species. It's only a few million years since
they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine, and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now, here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to out-sit eternity. They're indomitable!"

- The Doctor, The Ark in Space, Part 1 (January 25 1975)

Written by Robert Holmes

Doctor Who Vs. I, Monster

Shown on the Horror channel today, this Amicus feature starred genre legends Christopher Lee (born 1922) and Peter Cushing (as Dr. Marlowe and Frederick Utterson).

I, Monster was writer (and co-producer) Milton Subotsky's take on the classic gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, first published in 1886. This version is considered very faithful to Stevenson's book, but is set in Edwardian London.

Released by British Lion in 1971, the film featured six other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Richard Hurndall (Lanyon) played the First Doctor (pictured) in The Five Doctors
• Susan Jameson (Diane) voiced Mrs. Moynihan for The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (Big Finish, 2000), then the recurring character of Mrs. Wibsey for the Hornets' Nest (2009), Demon Quest (2010), and Serpent Crest (2011) series from AudioGo (she had been cast as Morgan for Colony in Space but was replaced by Tony Caunter)
• Ian McCulloch (Man) was Nilson in Warriors of the Deep
• Aimée Delamain (Landlady) was Dona Arana in (the first part of) The Two Doctors
• fellow producer Max Rosenberg and Buster Ambler (sound mixer) both worked on the two Dalek films

New Doctor Who Companion Announced

The BBC today named the actor cast as the new male companion to join Doctor Who later this year. Samuel Anderson will play Danny Pink (pictured), a colleague of Clara at Coal Hill School. Anderson and Jenna Coleman worked together before on Emmerdale.

On joining the programme, Anderson said "I was so excited to join Doctor Who.. it's a quintessential part of British culture and I can't believe I'm part of it. It's an honour to work alongside Peter Capaldi and Jenna and I can't wait to show people how my character becomes involved with such a fantastic duo!"

Doctor Who Vs. The Beast Must Die

This low-budget British B-movie was shown on the Horror channel yesterday. In fact, the production - released in 1974 - was so cheap that an Alsatian doubled for the werewolf! Peter Cushing led the cast here (pictured as Dr Lundgren) in another Amicus horror feature, again co-produced by the Dalek film makers, Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky.

Eight other co-stars with Doctor Who connections here are:

• Michael Gambon (Jarmokowski) portrayed both Elliot and Kazran Sardick in A Christmas Carol
• Anton Diffring (Pavel) was De Flores in Silver Nemesis
• Tom Chadbon (Foote) played Duggan in City of Death, Merdeen in The Mysterious Planet, and voiced Gordon for No More Lies (Big Finish, 2007)
• Sam Mansary (Butler) was a Delegate in Mission to the Unknown, a Journalist in The War Machines, and a Diplomat in Day of the Daleks
• Andrew Lodge (Pilot) was an Assistant in The Savages
• Carl Bohen (Hunter) was a Tharil in Warriors' Gate
• Valentine Dyall (the Break voice) was the Black Guardian from The Armageddon Factor to Enlightenment, and voiced Slarn for Slipback (Radio 4, 1985)
• Bill Mitchell (Narrator) was a Newcaster in Frontier in Space, and voiced Zor for The Pescatons (Argo, 1976)
• Ted Samuels had also worked on SFX for both Dalek films

Great Doctor Who Quotes #4

"Believe me child, your future lies with David and not with a silly old duffer like me... One day I shall come back. Yes. I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."

- The Doctor, The Dalek Invasion of Earth: Flashpoint 

(Boxing Day 1964)

Written by Terry Nation

(this speech also formed the pre-credit sequence to The Five Doctors, and featured in An Adventure in Space and Time)