Paying the Bill with a Pearl

Trying to be clever with blog post titles can be tricky so I apologise now for this one... But I couldn't let this moment pass without posting it. On Thursday, it was announced that the new companion would be revealed during half-time in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final match. Well there's an odd thing to do! The tabloid and gossip press were already ahead of the game as it turns out, which is why I hate them. If something is supposed to be a surprise when it's announced then keep it to yourself until then. But I digress. There seemed to be no connection between football and Doctor Who so why had they chosen this moment to make the announcement? It would be approximately 6pm and possibly the biggest audience of the evening but apart from that it risked being missed by those who don't care about football (I'm sorry, but that includes me) and being overshadowed by the football. It would be an odd juxtaposition when the pundits wanted to talk about the match and it could easily have been missed by viewers taking a toilet break or putting the kettle on! The only connection I could come up with, other than a former footballer taking the role, was that Doctor Who traditionally followed the Final Score so they were kind of broadcast neighbours.

Moff is Off

It was officially announced yesterday that Seven Moffat will be stepping down as show runner at the end of the next series! That's perhaps not a shock or barely even a surprise since his departure had been hinted at over the last year or two, one way or another with general, vague comments that he won't be there forever and that he was closer to the end of his time than the beginning. The inclusion of River Song in the Christmas episode was explained by Steven as maybe his last chance to write for the character, as well as being an inappropriate time to introduce a new companion. So now it all adds up to one final series for him and hopes and prayers that Peter Capaldi will stay on with the new Exec Producer (Chris Chibnall, by the way) as that has not yet been mentioned. Also confirmed however, is the fact that 2016 will not see a new a full series. The full story there is that the only Doctor Who we will have in 2016 is the Christmas special and that Series 10 won't air until spring 2017! The reason for this is, no doubt, money saving. The official line is that 2016 already has some big event television (Football and Olympics) and BBC One controller Charlotte Moore wanted to "hold something big back for 2017 - I promise it will be worth the wait!" well it better had.

Chris Chibnall, for those who don't know, is the man behind the hugely successful "Broadchurch" and its American flavour "Gracepoint". He was also Co-Producer and effective lead writer for the original series of Torchwood, as well as writer of Doctor Who episodes 42, The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, and The Power Of Three... that's one featuring David Tennant, four with Matt Smith, but nothing since Clara was introduced.

It is unclear at this point when Chibnall will actually take over. Whether it will be for the expected Christmas special in 2017, an odd starting point, or the start of the new series in 2018, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, I need to get back to my reviews! Again! Some things [i]never[/i] change!

Time and Relative Dimension

It's been a while since my last review was posted. Technically, I've only just posted my last review but I wanted to get that out of the way before I made this post, for fear of losing interest in writing again... As I write this, the penultimate episode of Series 9 has aired and without posting any spoilers it makes everything OK again, which is good because the next episode I am to review was pretty painful viewing. It's that pain that put me off writing before I even finished Before The Flood and it really put a downer on the series. The next episode after that felt slow and dull and I even dozed off for a minute or two! But don't worry, the Zygons would be returning after that and there was strength in those episodes, only they were a bit heavy on the drama and adult (grown up) feeling. That fits in with the show's later start times this year, but it isn't good for the show or its viewing figures. The Zygons were followed by a creepy single episode from Mark Gatiss that had audiences divided, an episode like none seen before which I really enjoyed. Then a second single episode story lead into the two part finale (which itself is really two single episodes tied together!)

So in review terms, I'm about to drop to the bottom of the Doctor Who scale, but I can do it with sight of the light at the end signalling the way forward to increasing greatness that ties everything together and gives the lesser moments a purpose. The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived are two stand alone adventures that tie together and at first seemed to be nothing more, but they are in fact the beginning of something far more reaching than the tie between themselves...

Time - It's all relative

Well what can I say? Since my last post, a rift has opened up somewhere near my desk and on one side it is sucking time away from me whilst on the other side it is spewing out more time than I can measure. On the one hand I simply haven't had time to watch Doctor Who and review the classics as I have been. On the other hand I am busy at work and catching up with all sorts of TV recordings that I'd been used to watching during the day and the time is just flying past me.

It's hard to believe that my last review was nine months ago and, frustratingly, I still have notes from "The Evil Of The Daleks" waiting to be typed up. I'll almost certainly have to re-watch it before I can start typing, which wouldn't be a bad thing were it not a recon.

First Doctor Reviews Completed

As the current series passes its half way point, I am happy to announce that I have finally reached the end of William Hartnell's episodes. Writing reviews for the new series along with the classics has proved a little troublesome so I have fallen further behind, currently five weeks. Hopefully, with the next three classics being missing stories followed by one on DVD and another three missing after that, I should be able to claw my way back on track since there will be no extras or commentaries to watch. That said, there are another five new episodes to work around so it won't be plain sailing just yet...

Meanwhile, I thought I would post a list of Hartnell's stories and order it according to how they scored. You may be surprised at some of the positions, I know I was, but I've tried to stay consistent with my scoring and just because I like something on the surface doesn't mean it's actually good. Ordering by Production and Content scores produce interestingly different lists.

#	Title	Content	Production	Total
12	The Romans	71%	100%	85.5%
21	The Daleks' Master Plan	81%	86%	83.5%
17	The Time Meddler	74%	90%	82.0%
10	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	77%	82%	79.5%
11	The Rescue	73%	86%	79.3%
7	The Sensorites	69%	88%	78.5%
2	The Daleks	73%	78%	75.5%
3	The Edge of Destruction	73%	76%	74.5%
9	Planet of Giants	68%	80%	74.0%
16	The Chase	71%	74%	72.5%
27	The War Machines	68%	76%	72.0%
13	The Web Planet	65%	78%	71.5%
6	The Aztecs	59%	84%	71.5%
4	Marco Polo	47%	96%	71.5%
8	The Reign of Terror	48%	92%	70.0%
1	100,000 BC (An Unearthly Child)	61%	76%	68.5%
29	The Tenth Planet	60%	74%	67.0%
26	The Savages	68%	64%	66.0%
20	The Myth Makers	47%	82%	64.5%
24	The Celestial Toymaker	53%	74%	63.5%
5	The Keys of Marinus	53%	72%	62.5%
14	The Crusade	44%	80%	62.0%
25	The Gunfighters	43%	78%	60.5%
18	Galaxy 4	36%	80%	58.0%
23	The Ark	51%	50%	50.5%
22	The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve	38%	62%	50.0%
15	The Space Museum	42%	38%	40.0%
28	The Smugglers	27%	52%	39.5%
19	Mission to the Unknown	29%	46%	37.5%

Where episodes have equal scores, preference is given to content.

By way of comparison, when listed by Production scores the top five would be "The Romans", "Marco Polo", "The Reign of Terror", "The Time Meddler" and "The Sensorites" showing that historicals were by far the BBC's strong area. Conversely, when listed by Content scores the top five would be "The Daleks' Master Plan", "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", "The Time Meddler", "The Daleks", and "The Edge of Destruction" which clearly highlights the strength of the Daleks and the value of science fiction in a, well, science fiction series!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, at the bottom of the list in Production terms are "Galaxy 4", "Mission to the Unknown", and "The Smugglers", while Content puts "The Ark", "Mission to the Unknown" and "The Space Museum" at the bottom.

All this gives William Hartnell's stories a total score of 66.6% (Content 58%, Production 76%), though there is a strong bias towards the 70-75 mark and it's the bottom six that really drag him down so I'd be inclined, pragmatically, to score him 70% (+/- 5)

Season Three Reviews Completed

The turbulent third season was made up of 10 stories across 45 episodes and came to an end with the reasonably high scoring The War Machines which had a score of 72% (matching the two previous season scores). However, even The Daleks' Master Plan's 84% wouldn't be enough to bring the Season Three average in line with its two predecessors because the lows were just too low...

#	Title	Content	Production	Total
018	Galaxy 4	36%	80%	58%
019	Mission to the Unknown	29%	46%	38%
020	The Myth Makers	47%	82%	65%
021	The Daleks' Master Plan	81%	86%	84%
022	The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve	38%	62%	50%
023	The Ark	51%	50%	51%
024	The Celestial Toymaker	53%	74%	64%
025	The Gunfighters	43%	78%	61%
026	The Savages	68%	64%	66%
027	The War Machines	68%	76%	72%

The resulting final score for Season Three is therefore just 61%, 11 down on the previous two.
There will now be at least a two week break because I'm away on holiday!

Summer Slowdown

As Summer arrived, it was perhaps inevitable that my watching/reviewing would slow down. Hot lazy days and warm breezes making the curtains 'breathe' are classic distractions from any form of activity. As Steven Moffat said a few years ago, the long warm evenings are a time to be outside having fun, not staying in watching dark scary television.

In fact, although this is all true, my slow down has been triggered by computer issues. Not problems as such, but upgrading first my parents' and then my own computer from Window XP, getting everything settled and replacing outdated software and getting used to the new. On top of this, the next story to watch was The Gunfighters which is quite possibly my least favourite so the pull to get back to it just wasn't there. Having eventually watched it, re-watched it with the commentary and again to read the production subtitles (which I think all happened on three separate days) I was in no mood to sit down and write about it as well. But I finally have and you can read it HERE

This does of course mean that I am now two weeks behind and with Wimbledon starting next week, I wouldn't be surprised if I drop another week before heading off on holiday (which will certain hold things up for two weeks). Returning from holiday could prove an interesting time as well with the new series due to start in August. I should be OK to review that at the same time but only time will tell how well I manage it...

While I'm here, I'd also like to express my joy at Julie Gardner receiving an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list on Saturday for "services to the Economic Development of the Television Industry in Wales", a pivotal point of which must surely have been her part in bring Doctor Who back. She was always a joy to watch on Confidential and in behind the scenes DVD extras and it was her passion along with Russell T Davies's that made it happen and enabled it to grow, much like Verity Lambert forty years earlier.

John Barrowman was also honoured with an MBE for his entertainment and charity work, while Peter Capaldi received an RTS Scotland Award for his outstanding contribution to television and the show itself won "Best Science Fiction, Action, and Fantasy" and "Best Scripted Programme" at the Banff World Media Festival. All within the last week!

Season Two Reviews Completed

Exactly two months on from completing the First Season, the Second is now complete - 9 stories over 39 episodes. Frustratingly, I'm still four stories behind schedule and with Easter next week I expect that to increase. However, half the stories for Season Three are missing or partially missing and one of those is the twelve part The Daleks' Master Plan so in terms of episodes the percentage is much higher (68%). I will of course be watching the Loose Cannon reconstructions of these episodes but since there are no commentaries or production subtitles I won't need time to watch them three times!

So without further ado, here is the summary of scores for Season Two

#	Title	Content	Production	Total
009	Planet of Giants	68%	80%	74%
010	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	77%	82%	80%
011	The Rescue	73%	86%	79%
012	The Romans	71%	100%	86%
013	The Web Planet	65%	78%	72%
014	The Crusade	44%	80%	62%
015	The Space Museum	42%	38%	40%
016	The Chase	71%	74%	73%
017	The Time Meddler	74%	90%	82%

This then gives us a combined over-all score for Season Two of 72% (the same as Season One!)

Season One Reviews Completed

So here we are, two and a half months into the epic project and I've just completed the first season - 8 stories over 42 episodes. For some reason, I've found myself writing up The Reign Of Terror a week late and when combined with the delay at Christmas, I'm currently 4 stories behind schedule! I don't mind dropping back because of holidays but dropping random weeks isn't good. Thankfully, like last time the next story should be a breeze - Planet Of Giants was originally a four part adventure but was cut down to just three before broadcast. The unedited version no longer exists but has been reconstructed for the DVD... it's interesting to watch but easy to see why it was cut down and I won't be watching again this time around.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd post a round up of my scores for season one since I've been including them in the reviews (something I hadn't originally planned). My scores are devised from various content and production categories (which I'll breakdown in another post at some point) which give me two percentages that I then combine for an over all score...

#	Title	Content	Production	Total
001	An Unearthly Child	61%	76%	69%
002	The Daleks	73%	78%	76%
003	The Edge of Destruction	73%	76%	75%
004	Marco Polo	47%	96%	72%
005	The Keys of Marinus	53%	72%	63%
006	The Aztecs	59%	84%	72%
007	The Sensorites	69%	88%	79%
008	The Reign of Terror	48%	92%	70%

This then gives us a combined over-all score for season one of 72%

Christmas is coming and getting in the way...

Next up on my reviewing schedule is the missing story Marco Polo, it's presented on the The Edge Of Destruction in a mini form using audio a photos taken from a TV set when it was broadcast and I was going to use that for my review... I then realised that all the missing episodes have been reconstructed by Loose Cannon in the same manner but without being cut down so when I found Marco Polo on YouTube (which they had only managed to create earlier this year) I watched that as well, all seven episodes. Meanwhile, Christmas preparations are getting in the way of me sitting down and writing about it fully and with the new Christmas episode on its way, Marco Polo may not appear in my reviews until the New Year... you'll just have to wait and see...

Progress check

He he! Three weeks into the project and I have already fallen behind! Fortunately, although I only posted the review for serial two The Daleks yesterday, serial three The Edge Of Destruction is only two episodes so I should be able to squeeze it in this week... It is itself an anomaly only created out of necessity when the series was extended at relatively short notice and with no creative budget. The only solution was to set the story entirely in the TARDIS so there was no need to for new sets or cast. The result is a great character and mood piece which develops both the relation between the characters, finally settling them into a full team comradery, and reveals (or sets up) aspects of the TARDIS that will be echoed for many years to come. It's also a little surreal at times so understandably isn't to everyone's taste...

Happy Birthday Doctor Who!

Fifty years ago today at 5:16pm a brand new television show was broadcast for the very first time. There had been nothing like it before and the opening titles of swirling, swooshing shapes and the wobbly, hissing and howling tune reflected that. Almost a year earlier, the BBC's new Head of Drama, Sydney Newman, had been charged with devising a new show to bridge the gap between the flagship sports program Grandstand and popular music show Jukebox Jury. Audience figures were very good for Grandstand but they soon dropped off when it finished and were slow to rebuild. What the BBC needed was something to keep viewers from getting up off their sofa and changing channels (for these were the days before even the most basic remote control)

The birth of Doctor Who had not been an easy one, with early ideas being rejected and production start dates put back. Expenses were higher than anticipated and demands on the staff were tougher than many cared for. There were obstacles from all angles and at one very late stage there was a call to cease production once the first four episodes had been completed. However, producer Verity Lambert and those closest to the show persisted and the series was eventually extended to thirteen episodes.

On the morning of 22^nd November 1963, just one day before the first episode was scheduled for broadcast, the series was finally given some good news, another thirteen episodes. But the launch would not be without it's problems. Not only had the BBC's own television listings magazine Radio Times reversed a decision to dedicate its front page to Doctor Who, as news came in from America that President Kennedy had been shot it became clear that very few people would be interested enough to watch this new show with the attention it needed and deserved.

Thankfully, BBC management were starting to see the potential of this new show and allowed the first episode to be repeated the following week immediately before the second episode was broadcast and from there it went from strength to strength.

Of course, Doctor Who also took a slide in the ratings as it's low budget suffered by inflation of costs and expectations and the 1980s saw the show gradually killed off by disinterested controllers and after 26 years it was taken off air indefinitely. It was not completely abandoned but attempts to revive and revitalise the show were underfunded and attempts to bring in American money were complicated and ultimately doomed to fail. A co-produced TV movie eventually emerged in 1996 but wasn't well received and it would be another nine years before the show finally received the regeneration it needed.

From there, it has been like the old days going from strength to strength, growing an international fan-base and here we are today celebrating the 50th anniversary with a special feature length episode being broadcast in over 80 different countries simultaneously (in HD and 3D) and getting cinema screenings in numerous countries as well.

I am also taking this occasion as an opportunity to regenerate my website, following a huge drop in my contentment and confidence in my previous host. I will be using Blogspot.com to finally get my main reviews under way, starting at the very beginning. My personal way of marking this anniversary shall be to watch that first episode this afternoon at 5:16, exactly fifty years after the original broadcast and from there I invite you to join me on a journey through time as I watch and review each story in order... hopefully one each week...