Search Results for: Rick Berman

The Tenth Planet Part 4

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Doctor WhoCutler blames everyone from the Doctor to Ben to his own personnel for the failure of his plan to render Earth toxic to the Cybermen, who have now invaded other parts of Earth and taken Polly as a hostage to ensure the Doctor’s cooperation. Time is running out for the Cybermen as Mondas continues to drain Earth’s energy, something which the Doctor warns will destroy their world as well as damaging Earth. The Doctor seems to know about the fate of Mondas and its people already…but he also seems to have a premonition of something else, a momentous change that could render him helpless in the ensuing battle with the emotionless Cybermen.

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Doctor WhoCast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Anneke Wills (Polly), Michael Craze (Ben), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), David Dodimead (Barclay), Christopher Dunham (R/T technician), Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Harry Brooks (Krang), Reg Whitehead (Jarl), Gregg Palmer (Gern), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voice), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voice), Bruce Wells (Cyberman), John Haines (Cyberman), John Knott (Cyberman), Sheila Knight (Secretary), Patrick Troughton (The Doctor)

Notes: For the first Doctor, the entirety of the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon A Time (a story in which he meets his fourteenth incarnation) happens in the interval between the Doctor rushing out into the Antarctic cold, and Ben and Polly catching up to him in the TARDIS.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Moonbase

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Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands on the surface of the moon in the year 2070, and the Doctor provides Ben, Polly and Jamie with pressure suits so they can explore outside the TARDIS. They spot a massive lunar base in the distance, but when Jamie damages his space suit, reaching the base becomes a matter of urgency. Inside the base, the Doctor and his friends are shocked to find that Jamie won’t be alone in the sick bay – a plague is sweeping through the moonbase’s population seemingly at random, leaving those it strikes comatose. Worse yet, even the comatose patients have been disappearing without a trace, leaving the base – whose gigantic Gravitron controls the tides and governs Earth’s weather – dangerously short-staffed. The Doctor tries to find out what disease is slowly claiming the moonbase’s crew, only to find that the base has been deliberately infected by the Cybermen, who intend to take control of the base and use it as a staging area for an invasion of Earth.

written by Kit Pedler
directed by Morris Barry
music not credited

Guest Cast: Patrick Barr (Hobson), Andre Maranne (Benoit), Michael Wolf (Nils), John Rolfe (Sam), Alan Rowe (Dr. Evans, Space Control voice), Mark Heath (Ralph), Barry Ashton, Derek Calder, Arnold Chazen, Leon Maybank, Victor Pemberton, Edward Phillips, Ron Pinnell, Robin Scott, Alan Wells (Crew), John Wills, Peter Greene, Reg Whitehead, Keith Goodman, Sonnie Willis, Ronald Lee, John Clifford, Barry Noble (Cybermen), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voice), Denis McCarthy (Controller Rinberg’s voice)

Broadcast from February 11 through March 4, 1967

Note: The master tapes of episodes 1 and 3 were destroyed by the BBC in the early 1970’s, leaving only episodes 2 and 4 in the archives. The missing episodes are still available as audio recordings, and are presented in that form both on CD and on the Lost In Time DVD set.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Tomb Of The Cybermen

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Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria to the wasteland of the planet Telos, where they spot a human expedition on a journey to unearth the lost tombs of the Cybermen, a threat thought to be long extinct. Despite the Doctor’s vocal misgivings, Professor Parry and his fellow explorers insist on breaching the enormous doors and venturing into the apparently vacant tombs. But when automatic defense systems begin to pick off Parry’s team one by one, the expedition begins to look like a doomed one. When someone in the expedition reveals their true purpose – to reactivate and take control of the Cybermen – the entire galaxy begins to look doomed unless the Doctor can confine the Cybermen once more.

Order this story on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
directed by Morris Barry
music not credited

Guest Cast: Roy Stewart (Toberman), Aubrey Richards (Professor Parry), Cyril Shaps (Viner), Clive Merrison (Callum), Shirley Cookin (Kaftan), George Rubicek (Hopper), George Pastell (Kleig), Alan Johns (Rogers), Bernard Holley (Haydon), Ray Grover (Crewman), Michael Kilgarriff (Cyber Controller), Hans De Vries (Cyberman), Tony Harwood (Cyberman), John Hogan (Cyberman), Richard Kerley (Cyberman), Ronald Lee (Cyberman), Charles Pemberton (Cyberman), Kenneth Seegr (Cyberman), Reg Whitehead (Cyberman), Peter Hawkins (Cybermen voices)

Broadcast from September 2 through 23, 1967

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Invasion

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Doctor WhoThe TARDIS reforms itself after what appears to be a cataclysmic explosion in space, only to become the target of a missile fired from the dark side of Earth’s moon…in 1968, when there still isn’t a human presence there. The timeship finally materializes in a nondescript field on Earth, but instead of a police box, it’s completely invisible. The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie set off for London on foot to seek Professor Travers’ help with the TARDIS’ visual stabilizer circuit, but soon hitch a ride on a passing truck, whose worried driver informs them that they’re in danger as long as they’re on International Electromatics property. He gets them safely out of IE’s corporate compound, but is then gunned down in cold blood by armed IE guards.

In London, the Doctor and friends discover that Professor Travers has gone to America with his Yeti findings, but his friend Professor Watkins might be able to help. But Watkins has gone missing – he’s never returned from International Electromatics – and his niece is holding down the Fort. The Doctor and Jamie return to IE’s headquarters building, where they cause just enough trouble to get a personal audience with the head of the company, Tobias Vaughn. The Doctor immediately suspects that Vaughn is up to no good, but he and Jamie don’t have time to think about it before they’re intercepted by two cars that have been following their movements. They’re taken to the mobile headquarters of a military organization called UNIT – the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce – whose British branch is headed up by their old friend Lethbridge-Stewart, now promoted to Brigadier. The Brigadier and his troops are monitoring IE closely: many brilliant, prominent scientific minds have entered, but none have left. The Doctor suspects that Tobias Vaughn wants control of more than just the world’s largest maker of electronic devices…but whose help does Vaughn have to pull off such a coup?

Order this story on DVDwritten by Derrick Sherwin
from a story by Kit Pedler
directed by Douglas Camfield
music by Don Harper

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Corporal Benton), Murray Evans (Lorry Driver), Walter Randall (Patrolman), Sally Faulkner (Isobel Watkins), Geoffrey Chesire (Tracy), Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn), Peter Halliday (Packer), Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins), Ian Fairburn (Gregory), James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters), Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner), Sheila Dunn (Operator), Edward Dentith (Rutlidge), Peter Thompson (Workman), Dominic Allan (Policeman), Stacy Davies (Perkins), Clifford Earl (Branswell), Norman Hartley (Peters), Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, Richard King, John Spradbury, Peter Thornton (Cybermen), Peter Halliday (Cyber Director voice)

Notes: Parts one and four of this eight-part story (the only story of that length in the show’s history) were lost in a purge of black & white BBC shows after the BBC switched to color. (Ironically, part one of 1974’s Invasion Of The Dinosaurs, a Jon Pertwee story, was simply titled Invasion to avoid giving away that story’s adversaries, and it was mistaken for part of this story and junked, rendering an otherwise intact color story incomplete. A B&W copy of part one of that story was recovered later.) In 1993, BBC Video released The Invasion in incomplete form with Nicholas Courtney narrating encapsulated versions of the missing episodes, while a 2006 DVD release took the unprecedented step of completely reconstructing the missing segments with cartoon-style animation.

Broadcast from November 2 through December 21, 1968

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Mantrid

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LexxDespite the defeat of the Gigashadow, His Divine Shadow has one last trick up his sleeve – he has taken Kai as his host body. Kai reanimates himself and insists on returning to the Light Universe via an extremely risky maneuver to create a new fractal core bridging the two universes. Kai plans to retrieve one of the enormous insect larvae left over from the Gigashadow’s destruction to extract more protoblood from it – or so he says. Stan and 790 experience a rare moment of complete agreement when they both suggest blasting the larva that Kai retrieves back into space. Kai suddenly presents Stan and Zev with a new mission: to find Mantrid, His Divine Shadow’s imprisoned bio-vizier. Mantrid’s knowledge was critical to the Divine Order, but his knowledge and ambition were both dangerous enough that he was kept alive but imprisoned. When they reach the distant world where Mantrid has languished for centuries, Stan and Zev are horrified when Kai offers Mantrid passage on the Lexx. Using his independent floating self-replicating “arm” drones, Mantrid embarks on an experiment to transfer his consciousness to the more powerful insect body. But under the Divine Shadow’s influence, Kai attacks Mantrid and instead transfers the Shadow’s consciousness to the insect – and the prospect of a new insect race hunting down all human life is imminent, unless Zev can convince Stan to destroy the planetoid while she and Kai are still on it.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Brian Downey (Stanley Tweedle), Eva Habermann (Zev), Michael McManus (Kai), Xenia Seeberg (Xev)

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan
directed by Cristoph Schrewe
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Dieter Laser (Mantrid), Holger Kunkel (Mantrid’s Assistant), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Chris Duffy (Captain), Burgandy Code (Navigator), John Davie (Rockhound)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Containment

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Eleventh HourA man’s body is found in a disused church, having decayed unusually rapidly; when a volunteer disease containment team is called in to remove the body, they find to their horror that he’s only just now dying. Professor Hood is called to the scene not long afterward. With mere hours to determine the contagious potential of the disease, which could be a new strain of smallpox, the carrier must also be found. A number of leads turns up, including a group of migrant workers who are enduring barely-livable conditions to lie low and avoid deportation, but even with Hood’s best efforts to track the source of the disease down, something isn’t adding up – and worse yet, Rachel may have been contaminated while trying to keep one of the migrant workers from fleeing. Is someone on the team that’s trying to contain the potentially catastrophic outbreak actually working to make sure the disease spreads?

written by Stephen Gallagher
additional material by Simon Stephenson
directed by Terry McDonough
music by The Insects

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Professor Ian Hood), Ashley Jensen (Rachel), Nicholas Woodeson (Martin Callan), Jack Deam (Ellis Gibson), Michael Begley (Ned), Benedict Wong (Danny), Neil Bell (Luke), Will Tacey (Undertaker), Claire Oberman (Eunice), Rina Mahoney (Disease Nurse), Lindsey Dawson (Ned’s Wife), Karen Asemper (Ned’s friend), Lorraine Bruce (Ellis Gibson’s partner), Vincent Wang (Chase victim), Steven Chapman (Bus station guard), Colin Meredith (Tram person), Ian Blower (Grave digger), Danny Burns (Grave digger), Jennifer Chan (Cantonese translator), Michael Woodford (Megaphone copper)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rise Of The Cybermen

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Doctor WhoThe TARDIS plunges out of the time vortex and into a parallel universe, and the Doctor fears the last TARDIS in the universe has made her final flight. Trapped on a parallel version of Earth, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey quickly find out what’s the same (they’re in London) and what’s different (Pete Tyler, Rose’s dad, is still alive, well, and hawking energy drinks from interactive signs on every street corner). Zeppelins fill the sky, carrying the rich and powerful – one of whom, inventor John Lumic, is stricken with a terminal disease. Lumic invites the President of Great Britain to hear a pitch for the newest innovation from his corporation, Cybus Industries. Cybus has already made Lumic unimaginably rich with the sales of its ubiquitous “EarPods,” devices which download news, sports, and even phone calls directly into their wearers’ brais ns. Now Lumic wants to offer “the ultimate upgrade” to the British public – constant connectivity, and virtually indestructible exoskeletal armor, which will virtually transform humanity into a new species – one which Lumic calls Cybermen. The President forbids any further experimentation along these lines, but Lumic has already begun creating an army of Cybermen in secret. The President goes to the lavish Tyler home that night for Jackie Tyler’s birthday party, but thanks to his ability to retrieve information from EarPod wearers, Lumic knows where he’ll be. The Doctor loses control of both of his companions – Mickey goes to see if his grandmother, dead in his reality, is still alive in this world, while Rose insists on finding her family. Curious about the effect that the EarPods are having on humanity, the Doctor tags along with Rose to the Tyler home, but this just means they’re present when Lumic’s army of Cybermen attack, killing the President and anyone else who won’t submit to Lumic’s “voluntary upgrade.”

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith / Ricky Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Don Warrington (The President), Mona Hammond (Rita-Anne), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Antony-Barber (Dr. Kendrick), Adam Shaw (Morris), Andrew Ufondo (Soldier), Duncan Duff (Newsreader), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Age Of Steel

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Doctor WhoThe Doctor and his friends are trapped by Lumic’s new breed of Cybermen. Using the last remaining power source from the TARDIS, the Doctor immobilizes the Cybermen with an energy beam, and the survivors of the Cyberman attack on the Tyler mansion are now on the run. Ricky, the alternate universe’s battle-hardened version of Mickey, is killed by Cybermen while trying to escape. Pete and Rose try to infiltrate the Cyber-factory, using fake EarPods as a disguise, to find this universe’s Jackie, only to discover that she has already been converted into a Cyberman. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore, a resistance fighter from Ricky’s operation, discover an army of dormant Cybermen hidden beneath London. Mickey forms an uneasy alliance with Ricky’s friend Jake to storm Lumic’s zeppelin and try to find the controls Lumic uses to guide the Cybermen. Lumic, however, is no long in control – his enfeebled body is scheduled for an “upgrade” by the Cybermen, whether he wishes to remain human or not – and when he is in control, he is no longer Lumic. The Doctor still sees an opportunity to thwart the Cyberman invasion and return the TARDIS to its own universe, but not everyone who came with him will be making the return trip.

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Lost Tapes

Max HeadroomA yearly festival surrounds the return to earth of debris from fallen broadcast satellites. Edison and Theora get out of the control room to join Blank Reg and Dominique for the festivities, a much-needed diversion as a new censorship body has just notified Edison of his on-air “transgressions” of what has now been deemed good taste. But even off duty, Edison can’t help but stumble across a story, when a Metrocop raid hits a nearby home and a man is arrested for showing pirated educational programs to children. A street performer is also picked up by the Metrocops…acting in conjunction with Network 23’s new censor agents. The woman’s daughter is rescued by Edison, who tries to launch a “live and direct” investigation into the night’s events. But if the censors block Edison’s broadcasts, will anyone ever learn what really happened…or, for that matter, will anyone ever be allowed to learn anything again?

teleplay by Adrian Hein and Steve Roberts
story by Colman Dekay & Howard Brookner
directed by Victor Lobl
music by Michael Hoenig

Guest Cast: W. Morgan Sheppard (Blank Reg), Hank Garrett (?), Lee Wilkof (?), Sharon Barr (?), Concetta Tomei (Dominique), Laura Carrington (Francis), Mike Preston (Drago), John Durbin (Metrocop Chief), Rick Lieberman (Metrocop), Guyy Christopher (Drago’s henchman), Peter Crook (Blank Bruno), Ainslee Currie (Mink), Lewis Dauber (Blank Tracher), Richard Lion (Orville), Jason Zahler (Doc Friendly), Melissa Behr (Festival queen), Ed Trotta (Bresson), Larry Cortinas (Man on motorcycle)

Notes: This episode yields numerous interesting tidbits – Blank Reg can’t read (despite him touting the virtues of reading “old-fashioned” books in an earlier episode), and Murray is divorced with one daughter. This was the final episode produced, and shows a few hints of changes that might have stuck in future episodes: Bryce acting as Edison’s controller in Theora’s stead, and Theora and Murray being far more involved in the action. This episode did not air during the series’ original broadcast run and only appeared later in syndicated packages.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Children Of Earth: Day Four

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TorchwoodThe full extent of Jack’s involvement in the original 1965 contact with the 456, and the resulting abductions, is revealed: he was sent to deliver a dozen children, including young Clement McDonald, to the 456, in exchange for the antidote to a virus with which the 456 had infected humanity. Clement escaped, unsuitable since he was on the cusp of puberty, but was left with a residual psychic link to the 456. Through Lois’ contact lens cameras, the team sees, hears and records deliberations among the Prime Minister and his cabinet, debating not how to save the children, but precisely which children should be handed over to meet the aliens’ demands. It is eventually decided that “lower class” children in “lessser” schools will be sacrificed. Jack vows to fight back, setting a plan into motion: Rhys will go into hiding and stand by for a signal to release the evidence gathered by Lois’ contact lens cameras to the public; since this act would topple the British government, it’s a last-ditch bargaining chip. Gwen and Clement will remain in Torchwood’s London warehouse and wait for the government shock troops to arrive, which they inevitably will after Ianto places a phone call to Gwen. Lois is instructed to deliver Torchwood’s terms to the Prime Minister directly, which she does just as Jack and Ianto arrive to begin a more aggressive form of negotiation with the 456. But while Jack may be able to bring Britain’s government to a stunned stand-still, he may not be persuasive enough to drive the 456 from Earth.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by John Fay
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Ben Foster

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Peter Capaldi (John Frobisher), Paul Copley (Clement McDonald), Nicholas Farrell (Brian Green), Susan Brown (Bridget Spears), Lucy Cohu (Alice Carter), Ian Gelder (Mr. Dekker), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba), Liz May Brice (Johnson), Colin McFarlane (General Pierce), Deborah Finlay (Denise Riley), Nicholas Briggs (Rick Yates), Patric Naiambana (Defense Secretary), Charles Abomeli (Colonel Oduya), Katy Wix (Rhiannon Davies), Rhodri Lewis (Johnny Davies), Hillary Maclean (Anna Frobisher), Sophie Hunter (Vanessa), Luke Perry (David Davies), Aimee Davies (Mica Davies), Bear McCausland (Steven Carter), Julia Joyce (Holly Frobisher), Madeleine Rakic-Platt (Lilly Frobisher), Simon Poland (456 voice), Gregory Ferguson (young Clem), Ben Loyd Holmes (Operative), Louise Minchin (Newsreader), Anthony Debaeck (French Newsreader), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells)

Notes: Nicholas Briggs, seen on-screen as Rick Yates, has already provided Dalek, Auton, Cyberman and Judoon voices for the series, but is perhaps better known to Doctor Who fandom as the current producer of audio Doctor Who for Big Finish Productions; prior to that, Briggs was one of the leading figures in a number of fan-made direct-to-video releases in the 1990s. The fan videos and Big Finish may well have been factors in keeping Doctor Who alive for both fandom and the public at large, and arguably may have been vital stepping stones to the show’s return to TV and its swarm of spinoffs, including Torchwood. This is Briggs’ first on-screen appearance “in universe” for the BBC itself. Since Clement McDonald was unsuitable for the 456 due to the approach of adolescence, presumably the young lead characters of The Sarah Jane Adventures were also immune to the 456’s effects during this crisis. The location of the abandoned Torchwood One warehouse is narrowed down to Shoreditch – appropriately enough, a location close to the junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane in which the TARDIS first landed when the first Doctor and Susan escaped Gallifrey. Given Torchwood’s original mandate – to track the Doctor’s activities – this location may or may not be mere coincidence.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Deimos

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Doctor Who: DeimosThe Doctor and Tamsin arrive in a human-built museum on Deimos, the largest of Mars’ two moons, and the site of a frozen enclave of the now-extinct Ice Warrior species. Only the Ice Warriors aren’t extinct: they’ve reawakened and have begun killing some of the tourists visiting the museum and taking others as hostages. Naturally, the moment that the human administrators on Deimos notice that something is going horribly wrong, it’s easiest to place the blame on the time travelers. The Doctor takes more decisive action, leaving the hapless humans with no choice but to trust him. He allows himself to be captured by the Ice Warriors so he can attempt to negotiate with them directly, but Ice Lord Ssladek is in no mood to talk – and he and his platoon are in a mood to kill indiscriminately. The body count mounts as the Doctor tries to keep either humans or Ice Warriors from being killed, but it all comes down to evacuating every human from Deimos so a last-resort failsafe – a man-made self-destruct mechanism that will destroy the entire moon – can be activated. But then a message is received from Deimos from a human who didn’t evacuate – a human who the Doctor didn’t even know was there. A human named Lucie Miller.

Order this CDwritten by Jonathan Morris
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Niky Wardley (Tamsin Drew), David Warner (Professor Boston Schooner), Nicky Henson (Gregson Grenville), Susan Brown (Margaret), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Temperance Finch), Nick Wilton (Harold), Nicholas Briggs (The Ice Warriors), Jack Brown (Pilot)

Notes: Phobos is mentioned as a “hippie retreat,” so it would seem that Deimos is set broadly in the same period as the eighth Doctor’s earlier visit to the other moon of Mars, though the two stories don’t necessarily happen in the same year or decade. The Doctor mentions having been present when the Ice Warriors had to abandon Mars; this is a reference to The Judgement Of Isskar, the first story in Big Finish’s Key 2 Time trilogy. There are also references to the Ice Warriors attack on Earth’s moon and takeover of T-Mat (The Seeds Of Death) as being somewhat ancient history.

Logbook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Nightmare In Silver

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Doctor WhoWith Clara’s babysitting charges, Artie and Angie, having discovered her travels in time, she introduces them to the Doctor, who offers to take them aboard the TARDIS for a trip to one of the universe’s most impressive amusement parks, Hedgewick’s World of Wonders. Once there, though, the park is a bit underwhelming, occupied only by Mr. Webley and – to the Doctor’s alarm – what appears to be a severely-damaged Cyberman who plays chess against anyone willing to pay. It turns out that a small man named Porridge is controlling the Cyberman, but the Doctor is still suspicious, and with good reason: Hedgewick’s World is also the home to a tomb of the Cybermen, and they’re evolving new abilities, including downsizing Cybermats into Cybermites to aid in converting unwitting humans into Cybermen. One of the Cybermites manages to gain control of the Doctor himself, and he finds himself fighting for control of his own mind with the consciousness of the Cyber Planner. Clara joins forces with a “punishment platoon” of space soldiers sentenced to patrol the run-down amusement park, but even then she may not be able to save the Doctor – or the children she’s meant to be babysitting.

Order the DVDwritten by Neil Gaiman
directed by Stephen Woolfenden
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara), Eve de Leon Allen (Angie), Kassius Carey Johnson (Artie), Jason Watkins (Webley), Warwick Davis (Porridge), Tamzin Outhwaite (Captain), Eloise Joseph (Beauty), Will Merrick (Brains), Calvin Dean (Ha-Ha), Zahra Ahmadi (Missy), Aidan Cook (Cyebrman), Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Cybermen)

Notes: Tombs of the Cybermen have been seen in previous episodes, such as Tomb Of The Cybermen (1967) and Attack Of The Cybermen (1985). The Cyber Planner was last encountered in 1968’s The Invasion. Doctor WhoGuest star Warwick Davis (incorrectly credited on-screen as “Warwick Davies”), making his first Doctor Who appearance, is usually associated with the Star Wars franchise, having played such characters as Wicket the Ewok in 1983’s Return Of The Jedi (and two TV movie follow-ups), and a podrace spectator in The Phantom Menace, among other roles. He was also the star of another George Lucas production, the 1988 film Willow.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Time Of The Doctor

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Doctor WhoThe Doctor is confronted with a mystery: a powerful signal is emanating from a backwater planet, defying any attempt to translate or decipher it, and luring ships from nearly every spacefaring race to that world. Having salvaged the severed head of a Cyberman to harness its processing power, the Doctor attaches a piece of Gallifreyan communications technology to the head, presumably capable of translating any language, much like the TARDIS herself, and “Handles” promptly identifies the planet from which the signal is transmitting as Gallifrey, though it bears no resemblance to the Doctor’s home planet. The Doctor and Clara are invited to board the first ship to have arrived here, the Papal Mainframe of the Church. The head of the Church, Tasha Lem, reveals the true name of the mystery planet: Trenzalore. The Papal Mainframe is protecting Trenzalore with a force field, but all hell will break loose the moment that the other ships realize that not only has someone been granted access to the planet, but that someone happens to be the Doctor. Upon first setting foot on Trenzalore, the Doctor and Clara find that others lie in wait, including Weeping Angels. They narrowly escape, and this time the Doctor insists on visiting Trenzalore on his terms, using the TARDIS instead of Tasha Lem’s teleport. The signal emanates from a large crack in the wall of a church tower on Trenzalore, shaped like the crack that the Doctor witnessed numerous times during his early travels with Amy and Rory. The signal is in the Gallifreyan language, repeating one question over and over: “Doctor who?” – the question that the Doctor has been warned must never be answered. Soon, the occupants of the many ships orbiting Trenzalore lose their patience, and try to invade the planet, only to find that the Doctor has given up his travels in space and time to defend it. Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Weeping Angels and others attempt to land on Trenzalore, and are either driven back into space or destroyed.

Involuntarily returned to Earth by the TARDIS, Clara tries to resume her day-to-day life, only to be visited by Tasha Lem, piloting the Doctor’s timeship. She wants Clara to return to Trenzalore. Hundreds of years after he last saw her, the Doctor is dying of old age, able to regenerate no more. Tasha Lem wants Clara to visit him because the Doctor shouldn’t have to die alone.

But yet another force in the universe seems to believe that the Doctor shouldn’t have to die at all.

Order the DVDwritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Jamie Payne
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara), Orla Brady (Tasha Lem), James Buller (Dad), Elizabeth Rider (Linda), Sheila Reid (Gran), Doctor WhoMark Anthony Brighton (Colonel Albero), Rob Jarvis (Abramal), Tessa Peake-Jones (Marta), Jack Hollington (Barnable), Sonita Henry (Colonel Meme), Kayvan Novak (voice of Handles), Tom Gibbons (Young Man), Ken Bones (Voice), Aidan Cook (Cyberman), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek/Cyberman voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek 1), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek 2), Ross Mullan (Silent), Dan Starkey (Sontaran), Karen Madison (Weeping Angel), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Peter Capaldi (The Doctor)

Notes: Daleks, Cybermen (including a unique Cyberman made of wood, echoing the King and Queen from The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe), Sontarans and Angels are seen to attempt landing on Trenzalore; others, such as the Terileptils (seen in only one story, 1982’s The Visitation), are mentioned by name only. Silurian Ark ships (Dinosaurs On A Spaceship) are also seen besieging Trenzalore. The device the Doctor attaches to “Handles” is indeed a communications device given to the Master by the High Council of Gallifrey before venturing into the Death Zone with orders to rescue the Doctor (The Five Doctors, 1983); the significance Doctor Whoof this reference lies in what happened before the Master was given that device in The Five Doctors: he was offered “a complete new life cycle” of regenerations, something which one may infer has been granted to the Doctor by the end of this story. The Punch & Judy-style puppet show performed on Trenzalore recounts the Doctor’s misadventures with the one-eyed Monoids in The Ark (1965).

The Silence, seen throughout the eleventh Doctor’s era, are part of the Church, and stand with the Doctor to defend Trenzalore; the Silents that pestered the Doctor in seasons past (The Impossible Astronaut, Day Of The Moon, The Wedding Of River Song) were part of a rogue task group led by Madame Kovarian to prevent the Doctor from ever reaching this point; obviously that group was not successful, even when they took great pains to kidnap infant Melody Pond to program her to assassinate the Doctor. The cracks, first glimpsed in The Eleventh Hour (and, in that story, attributed to Prisoner Zero), are apparently the Time Lords attempting to signal their location to the Doctor so he can retrieve Gallifrey and return it to its proper place in reality.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Power Of The Doctor

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Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Yaz, and Dan intercept a Cybermaster attack force as it launches an assault on a hyperspace train. The Cybermasters are targeting a container holding a Gallifreyan girl. During the battle, Dan barely survives a breach of his spacesuit helmet, and decides to leave the TARDIS and resume a life that, while it may be less exciting, is also far less dangerous. On Earth, former time travelers Ace and Tegan now work for UNIT, each of them chasing down different unusual events: Tegan is trying to retrace the steps of seismologists who have gone missing, while Ace is investigating a series of paintings that have been abruptly removed from public display. The Doctor receives a warning from a Dalek of an imminent attack on Earth, and, surprisingly, an offer of information to prevent that attack. But the message ends before any useful information can be conveyed, and the Doctor’s attention returns to tracking down the Gallifreyan child… and the fact that there’s suddenly an extra planet near Earth’s orbit in the year 1916 – the same year in which the Master is posing as Rasputin in Russia.

The Doctor and Yaz visit the extraneous planet, finding that the Gallifreyan child is simply a disguise employed by a Qurunx, a powerful sentient energy being chained to a Cyber-conversion planet by the Master and the Cybermen. But before the Doctor can unravel that mystery, the TARDIS is summoned to UNIT HQ in 2022, where Kate Lethbridge-Stewart needs the Doctor’s expertise on the parallel mysteries of the missing paintings and missing seismologists, which seem like a distraction from the events in 1916…until the Master’s hand is detected in the disappearances as well. The Doctor is briefly, awkwardly reunited with Ace and Tegan, but soon resumes the chase, tracking down the Master in Naples, and discovering he is responsible for killing the missing seismologists. UNIT takes the Master into custody, but this is exactly what he wants, as this allows him to bring an entire Cyber invasion force directly into UNIT HQ. The Doctor and Yaz, however, have already left again, once again following a lead from the Dalek’s message, leaving Ace and Tegan to try to help fend off the Cyberman attack. As Yaz anticipates, the Dalek message proves to be a trap. The Doctor is taken back to 1916 Russia, where the Master instigates a forced regeneration during which his consciousness is forced into the Doctor’s body, as Yaz is helpless to watch.

But the Doctor’s friends and allies, past and present, are legion. Yaz, with help from Vinder, Ace, and Graham, and with some helpful advice from a hologram of the Doctor, reverses the forced regeneration and thwarts the Daleks’ plan, and arrive just in time to see Tegan and Kate Stewart end the attempted Cyberman invasion. Even the Qurunx is freed. As the Doctor’s former companions return to their normal lives, Yaz prepares to return to hers, as the Doctor’s body, as a result of the trauma caused by the forced regeneration, is once more wearing a bit thin.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor Who: The Power Of The DoctorCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), John Bishop (Dan Lewis), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), David Bradley (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Paul McGann (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Jo Martin (The Doctor), David Tennant (The Doctor), Sacha Dhawan (The Master), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Patrick O’Kane (Ashad), Joe Sims (Deputy Marshal Arnhost), Sanchia McCormack (Train Marshal Halaz), Danielle Bjelic (Curator), Anna Andresen (Alexandra), Richard Dempsey (Nicholas), Jos Slovick (Messenger), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices / Cybermen voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek), Simon Carew (Cyberman), Jon Davey (Cyberman), Chester Durrant (Cyberman), Mickey Lewis (Cyberman), Felix Young (Cyberman), Richard Price (Cyberman), Andrew Cross (Cyberman), Matt Doman (Cyberman), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Katy Manning (Jo Jones), William Russell (Ian Chesterton)

Doctor Who: The Power Of The DoctorNotes: This marks the first televised appearance of Tegan and Ace since their final TV appearances, in Resurrection Of The Daleks (1984) and Survival (1989), respectively. Dialogue for both characters seems to contradict adventures chronicled in other media. Ace says the last time she saw the Master, he was “half cat” (which would seem to indicate she hasn’t seen him since Survival, contradicting the New Adventures novel First Frontier); Tegan hasn’t seen the Doctor in 38 years, contradicting the Big Finish audio story The Gathering, which reunited an older Tegan with the fifth Doctor in 2006. However, the Master’s description of Ace’s eventual falling-out with the seventh Doctor lines up well with both the 1992 New Adventures novel Love And War and the later Big Finish audio adaptation of that novel, so perhaps this is something to blame on the wibbly-wobbliness of time. Tegan and Ace aren’t the only companions making their first appearances in a very long time; Melanie was last seen in Dragonfire (1987), and Ian Chesterton was last seen in The Chase (1966), winning William Russell the official Guinness World Record for the longest time between television appearances as the same character (56 years). Jo Jones (formerly Jo Grant), on the other hand, had made a relatively recent appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures (The Death Of The Doctor, 2011). All of these actors, however, have been reprising their roles for Big Finish audio productions for many years. The Doctor says the Master couldn’t “corral Daleks and Cybermen” (see also: Frontier In Space and The Five Doctors, respectively). The Master also tried to forcibly steal the Doctor’s body in the 1996 TV movie, though in that instance the process was interrupted. Other than being the finale for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and Chris Chibnall as showrunner, The Power Of The Doctor was also intended to celebrate 100 years of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green