Old Doctor Who - Part 4

[McDead]

I wonder if they ever considered using a real DJ? surely Mike Read was available?

[Bad Ambassador]

Kenny Everett was suggested.

[JamesTC]

People were questioning Nicola Bryant's version of events over what JNT did so she has had to tweet about it. Pretty shitty thing to question, as if she would make it up.

1/5 When a woman goes on record and tells the truth about bullying (or other issues) in the work place, there are always people ready to "rationalise", "discard" their account, or when it is long after the event, say "the memory cheats", so she has to keep on defending herself.

2/5 To set the record straight:
Of course JNT waited until I'd finished the pantomime and filming season 22 before telling me I wouldn't be on Jim'll Fix It.
This makes complete sense - if you actually think about it.

3/5 I was told directly to my face by JNT that I would not be doing the show and that he would be getting Janet because " She doesn't say no to things". The implication of his words was clear.

4/5 I was so upset by this, my then husband booked a very last minute holiday to Venice which was then used by JNT as the "official reason" I was not taking part.
We went to Carnival, where I could easily hide behind a mask, so no one would recognise me and we could be a couple.

5/5 Sorry @jfmouthonlegs
 to have to associate you with this time-storm in a teacup. I'm sure you understand.

[McDead]

Kenny Everett was suggested.

He'd have been perfect.

[pigamus]

Always got the impression from old interviews that I've seen of JNT that he was a bit of an arse.

Seems like he could be a cunt sometimes but then people made it up with him. From what I've read it was his partner Gary Downie who was the real arsehole.

[Alberon]

Kenny Everett was suggested.

Just imagining a crossover with Captain Kremmen.

[JamesTC]

Shockeye has me wondering what a Sontaran would taste like. I think something like beef.

[Malcy]

Shockeye has me wondering what a Sontaran would taste like. I think something like beef.

I thought they would taste along the lines of facon or something!

[JamesTC]

I thought they would taste along the lines of facon or something!

Good shout that. Definitely a rubbery texture.

[McDead]

Like eating a shoe, i suspect.

[Malcy]

Werner Herzog would be first in line for Shockeye's restaurant then.

[Deanjam]

Shockeye has me wondering what a Sontaran would taste like. I think something like beef.

Meat loaf

[Bad Ambassador]

A BAKED POTATO FOR FUCKS SAKE

[Bad Ambassador]

From Doctor Who: The Eighties, on Revelation casting

[Alberon]

Thank god they didn't get Glitter.

Did they honestly try to get Paul McCartney for this? He wouldn't have done it at the height of Nu-Who's mania. Doctor Who missed its one chance in The Chase.

Though I'd have been intrigued to see Ringo Starr tackling the role.

[Bad Ambassador]

This was immediately post-Give My Regards to Broad Street, so they probably thought he would be both cheap and available.

They repeatedly tried to cast Roger Daltrey around that time - he was considered for Glitz in Trial and the Deputy Chief in Paradise Towers, and I think offered the role of Sharaz Jek after they got a no from Bowie's people. I think it was just for the Who connection.

[JamesTC]

Ahhhhhh, a 90-minute audio interview with Robert Holmes from late 1985. Manna from the heavens.

[Gurke and Hare]

Zygons would be a bit like tofu.

[McDead]

Rutan, that's your fried egg. Sontaran, that's your sausage.

If you're feeling adventurous, Morbius chop suey

[Bad Ambassador]

Galactic emperor burger

[JamesTC]

Dalek tapas.

[13 schoolyards]

Into the Michael Grade interview on the Season 22 set.

Michael Grade insisting that he couldn't take into account overseas sales of Doctor Who into account because Doctor Who was funded by public money and then a few minutes later is talking about how he was promoting the show in America with Peter Davison because, as Matthew Sweet so wonderfully clarifies, the money from overseas sales is put right back into the BBC.

Maybe the BBC just didn't operate in a financially sensible way back then and simply only took decisions based on the current budgets available but that seems like incredible mismanagement. I can't imagine BBC Enterprises would have been happy with the higher ups during the 80s.

Matthew Sweet is a great interviewer. A shame he won't really have any interviewees where he has to pleasantly provide the rope to hang one's self with.

I don't doubt that Grade was a complete shit, but this sounds more like "we couldn't keep making a show with UK public money that was only successful overseas".

I'm sure the overseas money was very handy but I'm guessing they couldn't spend their local production budget on something nobody in the UK was watching, as the next (extremely unlikely) step would be a BBC that just made shows for overseas audiences who want dull but pretty costume dramas oh wait.

[Registering to lurk]

This was immediately post-Give My Regards to Broad Street, so they probably thought he would be both cheap and available.

They repeatedly tried to cast Roger Daltrey around that time - he was considered for Glitz in Trial and the Deputy Chief in Paradise Towers, and I think offered the role of Sharaz Jek after they got a no from Bowie's people. I think it was just for the Who connection.

They tried to get Rik Mayall a couple of times as well. I'd love to have seen him as the Celestial Toymaker in The Nightmare Fair.

[Replies From View]

I wonder if Paul McCartney was an absolutely enormous fan of Doctor in Distress.

I reckon he was and that he would have taken a role in the show for free after that, if he'd been asked.

[JamesTC]

I don't doubt that Grade was a complete shit, but this sounds more like "we couldn't keep making a show with UK public money that was only successful overseas".

I'm sure the overseas money was very handy but I'm guessing they couldn't spend their local production budget on something nobody in the UK was watching, as the next (extremely unlikely) step would be a BBC that just made shows for overseas audiences who want dull but pretty costume dramas oh wait.

The point is that Sweet gets Grade to admit that overseas sales funnel back into the budget. Effectively meaning Doctor Who paid for itself. Cancelling it one season would lead to a lower budget the following season unless the replacement show made the same money.

Effectively they just didn't operate the BBC with the logic it operates now. A show which gets middling viewers but does well overseas would stay on the air now. The last trollop that Chibnall served up got the lowest viewers in the show's history but it will remain on the air as it a big money spinner.

Besides, where is the logic in wasting all the money that went into pre-production of Season 23 and losing the BBC Enterprises money in favour of cancelling it. In the end, Grade didn't like Doctor Who (which he openly admits and says none of the higher ups did) and just wanted it gone.

[McDead]

The last trollop that Chibnall served up

I don't think Jodie was well cast, but this is a bit much

[purlieu]

Omen by Orbital
'Omen' is the second single by Orbital, and is one of their least known singles, not appearing on any album or compilation. It- oh, wait, sorry.


Frontier Worlds by Peter Anghelides

Every time I picked the book up, I thought of that Orbital cover. Very distracting. This is actually the first Doctor Who paperback I've read since the first half of the NAs, being part of the large batch I got in a charity shop a few years ago that started me off on this whole voyage.

Anyway, Frontier Worlds is a much-needed 'trad' Who story after a run of more experimental works. Its core idea - a corporation genetically altering plants to become more hardy, and the scientists using it on themselves to become immortal, inadvertently turning into plant-people hybrids - isn't tremendously original in itself, but it's not the main focus of the book. To be honest, the plot in general is incredibly underdeveloped. The actual issue is that these plants - the Raab, apparently - have evolved to grow on very small celestial bodies, and send their spores into space; accidentally drawn into a planet, they will inevitably take over the whole planet. There's also some corporate espionage, some skin-shedding body horror, and a few death-defying trips on a rickety cable-car. None of this adds up to much, though. There's rarely any sense of tension or danger, with things puttering along in the background.

Thankfully, the middling plot is very much a way of exploring the characters of Fitz and Compassion, and their relationship. Fitz is still uncertain about who he really is, after the events of Interference, and shares his concerns; he also spends a lot of the book narrating what happened to him to the Doctor, meaning there are huge chunks that are incredibly funny and entertaining. He's fast becoming an excellent character, and it's great to see both sides of him at full force here. Compassion is similarly excellent here, generally cold and logical, but utterly adept at putting on an act, convincing Fitz she cares about him and even doing a good impression of flirting with a security guard. I think I've figured out who she actually is; I suppose I'll find out in a few books time. They're superb paired together, like an exaggerated Kirk and Spock. If more authors can capture even some of this character stuff, it'll be great, especially after such a dull run of books with Sam.

The Doctor is fine, energetic and enthusiastic with a streak of uselessness (mostly, in this case, in some amusing scenes involving a robot who's one step ahead of him) and a penchant for being captured and tortured. It's not really his book, though. The other characters are generally decent, if not hugely original. Fitz's girlfriend is the only real weak link. Still, you can't have everything.

Next time on The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield... it's time to say farewell to the New Adventures.

[JamesTC]

Just read an explanation from Richard Molesworth which makes much more sense of the Michael Grade interview. Michael Grade kept insisting he cancelled the show and never went back on it despite the fact that he left the BBC before it was cancelled in 1989. Turns out he was kind of right.

Doctor Who was officially cancelled in 1985 by Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell. JNT heard of this, leaked it to the press through fan channels and Ian Levine by which point it reached the managing director of the BBC who overruled Grade and Powell and concocted the 18-month hiatus as a way of saving face and keeping it on the air (not that this didn't cause problems).

[Camp Tramp]

I think Sopntarans taste like the American chlorinated chicken in a can.

[A Hat Like That]

Post-Interference upturn continues. A bit of a runaround but excellently done and enough references to whatever the arc will be to keep that thread alive.