It’s the End…

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve got bored writing about Doctor Who. I never thought I’d say that but it’s true. I enjoy talking about it far more - and the podcast I produce with two of my friends, Cadmium2, is going from strength to strength and has a focus that this blog is lacking. So come and have a listen, thousands are (seriously! I was as surprised as anyone) and we have fun!

On top of all that, I’ve been overwhelmed with apathy about 21st Century Who. It has a lot of things going for it (David Tennant, I think you are wonderful), but just as many things that drag it down. I was tempted to make this last post a rant about where I think it’s going wrong - but it isn’t worth it.

I shall carry on watching of course, I’ve been a fan for 30 years and I’m hardly likely to stop now, even with some of the ghastly things RTD has done with it (stand up and take a bow, Last of the Time Lords). I just hope that Series 4 doesn’t end disasterously with some effects heavy, guest cast loaded, plot-lite mess cynically designed not only to pull at the heartstrings in the most mawkish way possible, but tying everything off so that we can have another effects heavy, guest cast loaded, plot-lite mess of a Christmas special that will make my dinner sit really uncomfortably.

Hmm…

I’ll be back eventually, I’m sure. So keep your eyes open for me. I’ll leave the archive up and pop back when I decide to start again!  Until then, have fun and don’t give Catherine Tate too hard a time - I thought she was really good in Partners In Crime and could end up surprising all her enemies…

The Fridge Door of Rassilon

I have to say that I love the 25th Anniversary edition DVD of The Five Doctors. Leaving aside the fact that it makes me feel so very, very old (having been ten years old when it was broadcast) and that I was so excited in 1983 about being able to SEE past Doctors in an adventure with my Doctor, that I was actually sick ten minutes before it started… Leaving aside all of that, it actually stands up very well as a cracking birthday party for the show.

Yes, Turlough and Susan get bugger all to do and yes, the Cybermen are unusually sluggish. But given all the ingredients that had to be squeezed in, it’s astonishingly good. I recall there being quite a lot of flak thrown at it not long after it was transmitted and ever since then it has been regarded as a bit of a hotch-potch. The embarrassing panto.

Rubbish. I think it’s brilliant. It’s leagues ahead of the flabby 10th anniversary story, The Three Doctors, and the Restoration team have done a spectacular job putting the life back into it. The picture is super sharp and the colours are fantastic - in fact, I don’t remember it looking this good 25 years ago…

One of the best things about it is having the original version as well as the special edition from the mid-90s. I never really liked the latter, as the former does exactly what it sets out to do without the need for extra twiddly bits. There are plenty of extras which include one documentary presented by Colin Baker and another narrated by Paul McGann. It’s a pity they couldn’t find something for Sylvester to do, then we would have had all the Classic series Doctors taking part in some way!

But for me the greatest extra is the Easter Egg commentary by David Tennant, Phil Collinson and Helen Raynor. Recorded in 2006, whilst filming third series episode; Gridlock, they get some champagne and sit down to wallow in nostalgia. Like all good fans they love every second of it but can also giggle at the daft bits too. And they do. Particularly over the growing number of items that ‘belong’ to Rassilon! 

I also do mean that they are fans. We all know that Tennant grew up with the show and knows his stuff, but he is still in the nursery compared to Collinson. He is a true anorak in every sense of the word - but in a very good way.  It’s a fun commentary, not done as “new series team members saying how they would do it” but as “new series team members who genuinely have a love for the show they now happen to be making”.

It’s all great and I thoroughly recommend you picking it up.

Black Orchid

I don’t think the cover for this has made it to the former Outpost Gallifrey News Page yet, so here it is. Quite nice I think.

Black Orchid is out on April 14th. Interesting, considering that Invasion of Time was advertised at the end of The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary DVD as the next release. Obviously we won’t have seen the Sontarans in Season 4 by then…

One of the ‘basic’ releases, the extras are:

‘Stripped: The Fifth Doctor’ Featurette

‘Now and Then’ Featurette

Deleted scenes

Blue Peter clip

It’s a nice little story, nicely told, featuring “my” Doctor.

Invasion of Time is out on the 5th of May.

Verity on BBC4

From this morning’s MediaGuardian: 

BBC4 is to show a special tribute night of programmes and a profile honouring the work of drama producer Verity Lambert, who died at the end of November after a long illness.

The themed evening, planned for BBC4 in April, will include a specially made documentary about Lambert’s work, which included Doctor Who, Minder and the Quatermass dramas, featuring interviews with friends and colleagues.

This will be followed by repeats of her best known and most notable programmes in a rare dedication to a television executive.

Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who and one of the most respected figures in television drama, also worked on Adam Adamant Lives!, Minder and Jonathan Creek during a career spanning more than 40 years. In 1990 she gave the keynote MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Those who have already filmed interviews for the documentary include the former Channel 4 chief executive Jeremy Isaacs, her friend Nina Myskow, and Kenith Trodd, the drama producer best known for his work with Dennis Potter. Trodd worked with Lambert on the Potter drama Dreamchild.

Other figures who are thought to be in the frame to feature include the Doctor Who executive producer Russell T Davies and Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies.

The documentary is being made by the BBC’s in-house entertainment department and overseen by producer Louis Heaton and executive producer Caroline Wright.

In December, Lambert was given a posthumous lifetime achievement award by Women in Film and Television. Lambert was the BBC’s only female producer in 1963 when she worked on Doctor Who. She also received an OBE in 2002 for services to film and television.

Other dramas produced by Lambert include The Newcomers, cult science fiction drama Quatermass, as well as the BBC1 comedy Love Soup, the second series of which Lambert had just finished producing when she died.*

After her death, Jane Tranter, the BBC fiction controller, described Lambert as “a total one-off”, adding: “During her long and brilliant career there was no form of drama that was beyond her reach and that she didn’t excel at.”

* and starts on BBC1 next week.