Old Doctor Who - Part 4

[A Hat Like That]

I do wish they'd gone on to make an adaptation of The Chase, however.  Whereas The Daleks and Dalek Invasion of Earth were already solid stories, I'd love to see how they'd have dealt with The Chase's flaws.

I read the Target of the Chase and its great and I stick by that.

I also read the Target of the Space Museum and could only picture McCoy in the role. Odd.

[Replies From View]

The Chase - the original TV version I mean; I haven't read the novelisation - fascinates me for its readiness to turn the Daleks into a joke.  It's exactly the same mindset that leads to terrifying slasher films transforming into comedies after a sequel or two.

I wonder whether a third cinematic outing for Dr Who would have performed the same idea, or whether they would have ironed out that specific goofiness (whilst introducing comedy elsewhere).  I suspect it would have presented the Daleks in a straighter manner, as by then the TV series itself had moved on and they were back on course as purely hard bastards again.

[imitationleather]

Here's the full article that picture is taken from.

This is great.

Really, really mad that they printed his address as part of the article though. Different times...

[Replies From View]

I keep reading that headline in the voice of Ace of Bass.  I wonder if TARDIS is code for lover as well.

[Norton Canes]

This popped up in Mrs Canes' wordsearch mag:



There's some mightily obscure ones there, someone's a fan! Anyone get them all? (I mean which stories they featured in, not in the grid)

[samadriel]

Wow, Drahva, not even Galaxy Four!

[mjwilson]

This popped up in Mrs Canes' wordsearch mag:



There's some mightily obscure ones there, someone's a fan! Anyone get them all? (I mean which stories they featured in, not in the grid)

Are they even all off the telly? Some of them sound like ones from the books.

[Bad Ambassador]

Starfall doesn't seem to be a planet at all, according to the Doctor Who wiki.

[superthunderstingcar]

No, it's a James Bond film.

[daf]

There was a Pre-Big Finish Tom Baker BBC audio called Starfall - one of the Nest Cottage series from around 2010, written by Paul Magrs. Maybe that's where they got it from?



It's not a planet though, the story's set in 1970's New York based around a comic Strip character called Starfall.

Spoiler alert

New York, July 11, 1976: New York City resident Buddy is working a street pretzel stand, as his girlfriend, Alice Trefusis, watches from her office window. Alice's supervisor, the elderly and awful Mimsy Loyne, employs her as a literary secretary, helping with Loyne's memoirs; Alice hates the job, but needs the money. Nearby, a cult meets to perform bizarre rites. That night, a meteor crashes into Central Park; Buddy and Alice search for it, but fail to find it. The next day, Doctor Who, Mike Yates, and Mrs. Wibbsey arrive in the TARDIS; Doctor Who is almost immediately struck with an ill feeling, which he attributes to something in the atmosphere. He notes the now-empty pretzel stand, and then they go into the park.

Buddy, meanwhile, has abandoned his post to take Alice on a walk in the park while Alice vents over her boss. They stumble upon the meteor; Alice says it is singing to her. She touches it and is knocked back; Buddy sees her glowing with strange golden light. Doctor Who and his companions come upon Buddy and Alice, and offer to help; but Alice fears him, and tries to get rid of him. Suddenly, energy bolts shoot from her eyes, and she can't control them. Wibbsey points out that this is all in the comic, which says Alice will become a loved superhero called Ms. Starfall—indeed, Alice seems to embrace the idea, before passing out.

Doctor Who carefully collects the meteor (wrapped in a coat), and Wibbsey helps Buddy take Alice back to Loyne's apartment, with Wibbsey recognising Loyne's name as a once-famous actress. Back in the TARDIS, Doctor Who feels better; while analysing the meteor, it splits open, revealing half a golden heart, which is stamped "SEPUL"—short for "Sepulchre", presumably. He realises that Mrs. Wibbsey is in danger, and takes Mike to find her. Along the way, they find the brutally-murdered body of a young man, who has been desiccated like previous victims. At that moment the police arrive, finally alerted to the strange happenings, and—jumping to entirely the wrong conclusion—arrest them both.

At Loyne's apartment, Buddy at last meets Loyne, and takes Alice to her own room. Alice awakens, and says that she feels amazing. Loyne sees the police entering the park, and demands to talk to Buddy; Wibbsey goes to talk to her instead. She accidentally leaves behind the comic, which is dated for today, and includes all of them, as previously described. Alice likes the idea—and suddenly discovers she can fly. She takes an old Hollywood Valkyrie costume from Loyne's collection, and notes it is the same as in the comic; she puts it on, and starts exultantly using her powers, flying over the city. Buddy looks again at the comic, and sees that the writer's name is the same as his. In the window, Wibbsey sees Doctor Who and Mike escorted out of the park by the police. As she prepares to go after them, Loyne orders Buddy to bring back her secretary, then leave.

Alice is using her powers to stop petty crimes and avert minor disasters. Meanwhile, Doctor Who and Mike are in a squad car; Doctor Who continues to feel worse now that he is away from the TARDIS. They discuss the Demon; Doctor Who says it is "a potpourri of physiognomy and DNA", and could be anyone around them. They witness Alice flying around, and then watch as she lands in front of them and demands their release from the police. When the police refuse, she disarms them, and removes Doctor Who and Mike from the car. At the apartment, Loyne gloats over the progress of the situation, shocking Mrs. Wibbsey; Loyne puts her out, with Buddy. While exiting, they see glimpses of Doctor Who, and return to the apartment in search of him—but the glimpses begin to pile up, as if there are multiples of him. Buddy and Wibbsey hide on the stairs to watch as the figures go past, but none of them are the actual Doctor. The figures go into the door at the top of the stairs.

Alice brings Doctor Who and Mike back to the apartment through a window, landing in Loyne's bedroom. Doctor Who feels his worst so far, and thinks he is near the epicentre of the effect. Upstairs at the attic level, Buddy and Wibbsey listen at the door where the figures entered, hearing what sounds like ritual chanting; they peek in, and see a weird, dancelike ritual in progress. The Doctor-like figures are dancing around the final piece of the spatial geometer, which is glowing. The figures discover they are being watched, but they continue the chant.

Doctor Who confronts Loyne, and says that he knew her in 1922, on Sunset Boulevard, when he had a different form. Alice demands to know where Buddy is, and says she will find him; Doctor Who asks her to bring back Mrs. Wibbsey as well. When Alice leaves, Loyne changes demeanour and tries to paint Alice as her captor, and possibly the Demon, as well; she also admits to remembering the Doctor. He does not believe her claims, though. She claims to have heard Alice consorting with demons. Doctor Who expounds his own thoughts briefly, and then sends Mike to make tea. While Mike is out, Doctor Who admits that he never had a past acquaintance with Loyne, and therefore she is lying about remembering it—and is the Demon. She admits it, but says that he is too weak to resist—and she needs him.

Mike returns and finds Doctor Who weakened on the floor, and Loyne absent. Doctor Who insists that they must find the true epicentre of the debilitating effect. The cultists in the attic admit to working for a mysterious boss, presumably the Demon; they say that she has ordered them to complete this ritual as the Doctor dies. Alice arrives and breaks in to rescue Wibbsey and Buddy. She easily overcomes the cultists, knocking them out; Wibbsey takes the opportunity to go after the spatial geometer component. The cult leader intercepts her. Loyne arrives and claims leadership over the cult. Doctor Who and Mike also arrive, and confront Loyne; Doctor Who suddenly appears recovered, which he attributes to the interruption of the ritual. Loyne is not dismayed; she changes to the form of the Demon, announcing that her preparations are already complete anyway. She admits to having been all the villains of the preceding stories; she also claims to have been responsible for the meteor which gave Alice her powers. She intends to dispose of the others as irrelevant now that she has the Doctor; Doctor Who points out that they are never irrelevant, as Mike has just reclaimed the geometer component while she was distracted. In retaliation, the Demon grabs Mrs. Wibbsey and drags her into the dematerialisation chamber. The chamber dematerialises, but not before the Demon announces that the Sepulchre is prepared for the Doctor.

The group returns to the TARDIS; Doctor Who says they must go after Mrs. Wibbsey. The Doctor tells Buddy and Alice they must stay in New York; but unfortunately, now that the Demon is gone, Alice's powers will fade in a few hours. Buddy is not dismayed; he plans to write a comic series about Alice, or rather, Ms. Starfall.

[close]

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Starfall_(audio_story)

[Deanjam]

Starfall is a planet in The Resurrection Casket, a BBC book spin off by Justin Richards from 2006.

[Gurke and Hare]

Is The Star Beast available to buy in any reprinted omnibus or similar anywhere?

[daf]

Yes, it's included in 'Doctor Who: The Iron Legion' - an A4 sized 162 page 'perfect bound' paperback - currently yours for the princely sum of £11.28.



Features the stories :
• The Iron Legion
• City of The Damned
• The Star Beast
• The Dogs of Doom
• The Time Witch
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Iron_Legion_(graphic_novel)

I think some of the strips were later coloured, but these are the original black and versions. Also, it's printed on very good quality paper - so probably the best these have ever looked.

[Gurke and Hare]

Marvellous, thanks.

[daf]

The Big Finish adaptation is also a lot of fun - they even got Angela Rippon in to recreate her cameo!

[Replies From View]

And they also got Angela Rippin on.

[purlieu]

Just watching an episode of Casualty, a patient has come in, claiming to be working for a secret government department who collate information about aliens, and possessing a silver wand that fixed a computer.
They got Colin Baker to play the role.

[Midas]

Watched this old documentary produced for one of the DVDs where Toby Hadoke goes to visit John Levine, which seemed to paint a portrait of the actor as an aggressively performative nutcase. At one point he revealed he'd assembled a replica Sergeant Benton costume that he kept stashed in his wardrobe. Surprised they released it because it felt like following someone in the midst of a crisis. Was bloody weird.

[maett]

I can't remember if it was here or on Gallifrey Base that a link to a voicemail of John Levene admonishing (unhinged ranting) the maker of some fan-made thing. It was quite the eye opener. I'll see if I can find the link.
No joy.

[Alberon]

I think Levene is less someone who's having an episode and more someone who is permanently eccentric.

[purlieu]

Oh I love that documentary. He's wonderful, totally off his rocker but incredibly endearing.

[Malcy]

I have a signed copy of this. Definitely one of the more random pieces of my music collection!

[Ron Maels Moustache]

I think Levene is less someone who's having an episode and more someone who is permanently eccentric.

Yes, he's a right oddball. I remember an interview from way back where he mentioned turning down a cameo in The Five Doctors(as the voice on the intercom who tells the 2nd Doctor "You can't go in there, sir!") as it would damage the carefully crafted character work he'd put in to Benton over the years. Seriously.

There's another priceless bit on the commentary for Inferno where he claims he based his performance for when Benton gets turned into a slobbering primordial beast...on Richard III. I don't think he was joking.

[Replies From View]

And he once nearly killed everyone by mucking around with a helicopter.

[Malcy]

Yes, he's a right oddball. I remember an interview from way back where he mentioned turning down a cameo in The Five Doctors(as the voice on the intercom who tells the 2nd Doctor "You can't go in there, sir!") as it would damage the carefully crafted character work he'd put in to Benton over the years. Seriously.

There's another priceless bit on the commentary for Inferno where he claims he based his performance for when Benton gets turned into a slobbering primordial beast...on Richard III. I don't think he was joking.

I can understand the first bit to a degree. It's based long after Pertwee left so he wouldn't have said that line. He would have had a similar reaction to seeing Troughton in The Three Doctors.

[Malcy]

I have a signed copy of this. Definitely one of the more random pieces of my music collection!

Just realised thie image didn't work...

It's his Ballads Of Sergeant Benton album.

[Deanjam]

There's another one where Hadoke goes to live with Matthew Waterhouse that's really good too. Matthew comes across really well. He's a big fan of Dark Shadows and Graham Greene (the author, not the actor.)

[purlieu]

Vanderdeken's Children by Christopher Bulis.

I was looking forward to this book, if only because it's the last Bulis novel I'll have to read. Ok, so he's occasionally written a decent book - his First Doctor stories are solid, although he has no grasp of that particular TARDIS crew, and his Sixth Doctor ones are pretty good - but on the whole, he's mostly churned out annoyingly bland, sluggish affairs filled with non-characters and predictable plots, often based around some sort of journey or quest that removes the need for any tight plotting, enabling the book to be little more than a string of "this happened, then this happened," chapters. So, on the whole, not an author I'm going to miss.

Which makes Vanderdeken's Children a particularly remarkable feat. It's a bold, often grotesque headfuck of a book, leaning heavily into proper sci-fi, and populated with some genuinely likeable characters. The Doctor and Sam appear by a strange, vast spaceship just as two warring planets are trying to stake a claim on it. Instead of heading off into two bunches of soldiers vs some aliens territory, however, we get time paradoxes, ghost-like shape-shifting creatures that turn out to be the future selves of all the guest characters and a ship that acts as a hyperspace tunnel linking the main events of the story to a future where both planets have been wiped out. The Doctor is unable to stop the war and save the worlds, which, while a happier ending is afforded to some of the guest characters, is a remarkably bleak twist.

Ok, some of the characters are one-dimensional, their names are typically Bulis in that 'alien names made up by a 12 year old' kind of way (apparently a few hundred years into the future, most humans have an 'x' in their surname) and he's very partial to a cliche, as well as the word 'macabre'. But for the most part, a brave and memorable story with a great mystery at heart. I wasn't expecting one of the best books from the first couple of years of the EDAs to be by Bulis, and that's actually saying more about this book than the range. Although it's also saying something about the range.

Next time on The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield... the naming chapters after songs convention gets out of hand with Another Girl, Another Planet.

[A Hat Like That]

Been waiting so long for this review tbh.

I like this book, probably one of the EDAs I still have in paper copy. It's a great mystery and the 'aliens' scene when the ghosts first appear is properly creepy. I distinctly remember a scene with lights turning off then on as the ghost approaches one character.

The first years of the EDAs had very few gems and, honestly, I would have to go back and look to see where we are for any hint of the next really good one.

[purlieu]

I like this book, probably one of the EDAs I still have in paper copy. It's a great mystery and the 'aliens' scene when the ghosts first appear is properly creepy. I distinctly remember a scene with lights turning off then on as the ghost approaches one character.

Aye, definitely. It's really un-Bulis for the most part!


Another Girl, Another Planet by Martin Day and Len Beech
And now I reach the point where the 'New Adventures' name is removed from the cover of the New Adventures, and the drawings replaced by this weird CG style. It's very late-'90s, I'll give it that. I don't like it, though. I haven't read any explanation for the change, but I get the feeling the series probably didn't pick up any new readers and by this point they'd probably given up trying to link it too heavily to the prior Doctor Who books. With only ten remaining in the series, and things subtly ramping up in terms of hints at big future plots, this feels almost like the beginning of the home straight.

Another Girl, Another Planet is the lowest rated Benny book and, I think, the lowest rated New Adventure on Goodreads. I don't really know why. It feels mostly very small scale, eschewing large sci-fi concepts and daft comedy runarounds for an espionage story, but it's pretty well told, with snappy writing, a fast paced plot and some excellent character work. Benny goes to visit an archeologist friend who believes she's being stalked, and ends up involved in either a government or corporate cover-up of the dig's findings. In the process she ends up getting worryingly close to her friend's ex, while said friend falls for a man who turns out to be the brainwashed reincarnation of an otherwise extinct species' sole survivor. It's this last plot that presumably hints at the future of the range, with a God-like force of evil mentioned and discussed, but never found. And Lizbeth, Benny's friend, reveals that she knows more about the history of the planet Benny lives on than is otherwise known, but won't reveal it. So, big things to come, I'm sure.

It's not a standout book, but a brisk and fun read that I enjoyed.

Next time on Doctor Who... some strangeness, no doubt, as it's Paul Magrs.