Doctor Who - The Power of the Daleks Review

Doctor Who:
The Power of the Daleks
By David Whitaker

"I am your servant."

The TARDIS materializes on the planet Vulcan which is home to an Earth colony.  Inside the newly renewed Doctor is getting to grips with his regeneration into a younger and healthier man.  Ben is skeptical that this new person standing in front of him is indeed The Doctor but Polly is more trusting and believes that the stranger is in fact The Doctor.   The three travelers eventually exit the TARDIS and explore the planet when The Doctor stumbles upon a dead body of what was the examiner from Earth.  The Doctor takes the button that says examiner before he is knocked out from behind.  Ben and Polly are found by a group of the colonist who save them from Mercury poisoning.

While impersonating the examiner from Earth The Doctor is introduced to Lesterson who is really excited about a spaceship that has been discovered but more importantly what is inside the spaceship.  The Doctor doesn’t want Lesterson to open the door of the spaceship but he has an inkling that Lesterson already has.  The Doctor, Ben and Polly return to Lesterson’s lab and break into the spaceship.  Inside The Doctor sees a familiar sight that fills him with dread.  There are two dormant Daleks on the ship and what has The Doctor alarmed is that a third Dalek is missing.

Doctor Who - The Moonbase Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

DoctorWho:
The Moonbase
By Kit Peddler

“Funny. Funny. Go to all that trouble to make the men do the work. Why? Do it themselves, easy. They're using the men as tools. Why? Don't know. Yes, I do though. There must be something in here they don't like. Pressure? Electricity? Radiation? Maybe. Gravity! Now there's a thought. Gravity. Oh, yes. Gravity.”

After the events of The Underwater Menace The Doctor makes the attempt to get Ben, Polly and Jamie to Mars.  Where they ended up was not Mars but in fact the moon.  The travelers have fun experiencing the low gravity of the moon until Jamie gets hurt.  Luckily there is a base on the moon that is there to help control the weather on Earth.  But there is a problem in the base.  A mysterious plague has swept over the base only infecting a certain few.  The Doctor has no idea what is causing the crew of the moonbase to get infected but once The Cybermen have been seen sneaking around it becomes all the more obvious what is going on.

Doctor Who - The Tenth Planet Review

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the First Appearance of the Cybermen and the First Regeneration

Doctor Who:
The Tenth Planet
By Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis

“Emotions. Love, pride, hate, fear. Have you no emotions, sir?”

The Doctor, Ben and Polly arrive at the South Pole by the TARDIS in the year 1986.  There they quickly find the Snowcap Base which is a monitoring base for space rockets.  The crew of Snowcap Base is now in the process of supervising the mission of the Zeus 4 spaceship which is running a routine check of the Earth’s atmosphere.  But something unexpected happens.  Zeus 4 picks up a new planet heading toward Earth and suddenly Zeus 4 starts to experience power failures and the crew of Snowcap Base tries to help Zeus 4 back to Earth but to no avail as the ship is destroyed.

The Doctor quickly realizes what the planet is.  It is the Earth’s twin planet Mondas and he predicts its inhabitants will be visiting Earth soon.  While the crew of Snowcap Base are distracted with what happened to Zeus 4 no one noticed the three visitors that have entered the base wearing parkas that they acquired from the search party they killed earlier.  Once General Cutler realizes that something is wrong the Cybermen made their presence known and successfully takes over the base.  The Cybermen plan for the destruction of Earth has begun and it’s up to The Doctor, who isn’t quite his old self, with the aid of Ben and Polly to stop The Cybermen from siphoning the power from Earth causing Earth’s own destruction.

Long Lost Doctor Who Story Power of the Daleks To Be Released As An Animation

Power of the Daleks the long lost Patrick Troughton debut story will finally get a DVD release but not in the way most fans have expected.  All six episodes will be released as an animation release exclusively on the BBC Store on Saturday the 5th of November which is the 50th anniversary of Power of the Daleks and Patrick Troughton's first episode.


Power of the Daleks does not have any surviving episodes in the BBC Archives as it was junked back in the 70's during the time most of the classic BBC shows were destroyed.  But the soundtrack and lots of telesnaps do survive and that is what helped the animators create this special release.  With this special animated release it is probably a certain that Power of the Daleks will not be found but at least the BBC did give us this special release.  The special release will be availble exclusively from the BBC store from November 5th to November 14th and then will see a DVD release on the 21st of November. Below is the official press release from the BBC and BBC Worldwide.

It's one of the Doctor’s most celebrated adventures and yet no complete film recordings of The Power of the Daleks are known to have survived. The master negatives were destroyed in an archive purge in 1974. 

BBC Worldwide has announced that a brand new black and white animation based on audio recordings of the programme using the original cast, surviving photographs and film clips will be released 50 years to the minute after its only UK broadcast on BBC One.

The six half hour episodes feature the regeneration, or as it was then called ‘renewal’, of First Doctor William Hartnell into Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, as the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks is being produced by the team behind the highly successful animation of lost Dad’s Army episode A Stripe For Frazer, first released on BBC Store in February this year. The producer and director is Charles Norton, with character designs from acclaimed comic book artists Martin Geraghty and Adrian Salmon.

Charles Norton says:
The Power of the Daleks animation is the most ambitious Doctor Who archive restoration ever attempted and we’re all very honoured to be a part of such a an exciting project. Intelligent, suspenseful and magnificently staged, Power of the Daleks is one of the great lost classics of 1960s television and a superb example of the black and white era at its finest.

Paul Hembury, Executive Producer, BBC Worldwide says:
Charles and his team are remarkably talented and passionate about Doctor Who and we are thrilled that fans will soon be able to enjoy this rather sinister but wonderful, classic story.

Doctor Who - 50 Years of Ben and Polly: The War Machines Review

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first appearance of Ben and Polly.

Doctor Who:
The War Machines
By Ian Stuart Black

“DOCTOR….WHO…. Is …. REQUIRED”

It’s the swinging Sixties and London is a buzz.  The hottest club in town is The Inferno and that is where The Doctor meets two new friends.   The lovely and swinging girl of the 60’s scenes Polly and her soon to be boyfriend the grumpy sailor Ben soon to be travelers in the TARDIS.  Well soon and unexpected and quite soon as the pair gets entangled with The Doctor and WOTAN.

WOTAN is a super computer who thinks humans are inferior and should be ruled by machines.  Thus WOTAN uses hypnotic influence to get humans to assemble The War Machine to use in taking over the world. What is funny about WOTAN is that he calls The Doctor Doctor Who.  One of his instructions is Doctor Who is required. For such an intelligent computer you would have thought it would know The Doctors name.

Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace DVD Review

Doctor Who:

The Underwater Menace

By Geoffrey Orme

“Nothing in the world can stop me now!”

The Doctor, Polly, Ben and new companion Jamie McCrimmon find themselves on a beach near a cave that looks somewhat mysterious and begs to be explored.  Upon investigation they group ends up getting captured and finds themselves far underground in what is the missing city of Atlantis. There The Doctor finds himself in the crazy graces of Professor Zaroff.  Zaroff’s dream is to destroy the world and plans on doing it with the Atlantian technology and their unwitting help.  The Doctor is horrified that a man of science would want to blow the world up just for the sake of doing it and has devised a plan to try and stop him.  But first he must get Ben and Jamie freed from the mine and prevents Polly from being turned into a fish person.  It will be tough as Zaroff is just that type of crazy that will not be stopped from his destiny.

Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace DVD Details

BBCWW have released the details for The Underwater Menace which is to be the last classic Doctor Who story on DVD to be released.  It also looks like the missing episode one and four will be telesnaps as the animation was cancelled last year.  Fans will be able to see the recovered episode two which was returned back in 2011.  Finally this DVD and the extras will finally be seen and hopefully someday we will get the missing parts found.

The Underwater Menace
Release date: 26 Oct 2015 UK 

Starring Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who, with Michael Craze as Ben Jackson, Anneke Wills as Polly, and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon
Written by Geoffrey Orme
Directed by Julia Smith

Broadcast: 14 Jan - 4 Feb 1967

The TARDIS lands in the lost city of Atlantis, where the crazed Professor Zaroff has convinced the Atlanteans that he can raise their city from beneath the sea. But the Doctor discovers the terrible truth behind Zaroff’s plan – he intends to destroy the entire planet. With the doomsday clock ticking, the Doctor and his companions must battle to prevent the apocalypse...

The Underwater Menace is the fifth serial of the fourth season, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 14 January 1967 to 4 February 1967. The story introduces Jamie McCrimmon's (Frazer Hines) on his first journey with the Doctor as a travelling companion. This special release will contain the two re-mastered existing episodes, with the two missing episodes represented with restored audio and surviving stills, as well as over an hour of extras.

Special Features:
Commentary - For episode 1, Interview with actor Michael Troughton Part 2 (from The Ice Warriors). For episodes 2 and 3, a commentary with actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Catherine Howe, special sounds supervisor Brian Hodgson and floor assistant Quentin Mann. For episode 4, archive material featuring Patrick Troughton, directors Julia Smith and Hugh David, and producer Innes Lloyd. Moderated and linked by Toby Hadoke.

A Fishy Tale (Feature, dur. 28’ 30”) – cast and crew look back on the making of the story. With actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Catherine Howe, AFM Gareth Gwenlan, production assistant Berry Butler and new series writer Robert Shearman. Narrated by Peter Davison.

The Television Centre of the Universe – Part Two (dur. 32’ 10” ) – Yvette Fielding continues her tour of BBC Television Centre in the company of actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, with contributions from former colleagues along the way. With senior camera supervisor Alec Wheal, AFM Sue Hedden, former BBC producer and writer Richard Marson, exhibitions assistant Bob Richardson, production assistant Jane Ashford and videotape engineer Simon Anthony.

Doctor Who - The Moonbase DVD Review By @Paul_Bowler

Doctor Who:
The Moonbase DVD Review
By Paul Bowler

The TARDIS is thrown off course and makes a bumpy landing on the Moon in 2070 where the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and companions Jamie (Frazer Hines), Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) discover a weather control station where a mysterious plague has broken out. Jamie has been injured exploring the lunar surface, while he recovers the Doctor offers to help Hobson (Patrick Barr) deal with the epidemic. The Doctor discovers the illness was caused by an alien poison the Cybermen have used to contaminate the food stores after secretly entering the base.

After taking over the Moonbase and seizing control of the Gravaton with crewmembers they’ve converted into slaves, the Cybermen prepare to use the weather controlling gravity beam to destroy all life on Earth. Polly and her friends manage to destroy the Cybermen in the base using a cocktail of chemicals sprayed from the fire extinguishers, which dissolves their plastic chest units. As more Cybermen begin advancing across the lunar surface, the Doctor gets Hobson to use the Gravaton against them, blasting them and their ships into space with the gravity beam. The Doctor and his companions return to the TARDIS where the Doctor activates the Time Scanner - a device that can show a glimpse of the future - and the image of a giant claw suddenly fills the screen…