Into The Time Vortex Podcast - Episode 74 - Doctor Who - Paradise Towers

Into The Time Vortex - Interview - with Sylvester McCoy of Doctor Who

The interview was conducted on November 10, 2017 and Long Island Who Convention.  Thanks to Amanda-Rae Prescott for arranging the interview.

Into The Time Vortex Podcast - Episode 59 - Doctor Who - Ghost Light

Details for Doctor Who Magazine 517

Out now is the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine in which they celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Sylvester McCoy era of Doctor Who. Issue 517 is out now in the UK and everywhere else next week.

ISSUE 517 OF DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF THE SEVENTH DOCTOR WITH SYLVESTER McCOY!

Thirty years after he first appeared as the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy reflects on the role that changed his life…

“We didn’t know that we were breaking rules. And I think we were also blessed by the fact that we didn’t have all that baggage of the past to get in the way…”

“We didn’t know that we were breaking rules. And I think we were also blessed by the fact that we didn’t have all that baggage of the past to get in the way…”

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE…

DEBORAH WATLING TRIBUTE
DWMremembers the late Deborah Watling, who played the Second Doctor’s companion Victoria from 1967 to 1978, with contributions from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Frazer Hines.

VICTORIA’S SECRETS
A previously unpublished interview with Deborah Watling from 1990.

VICTOR PEMBERTON TRIBUTE
Remembering the late Doctor Who writer and story editor Victor Pemberton.

GAIL BENNETT
An interview with original American Doctor Who superfan Gail Bennett.

FURY FROM THE DEEP
This month’sFact of Fiction explores 1968’s Fury from the Deep, the last story to feature Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield.

THE PARLIAMENT OF FEAR
Part Three of our brand-new comic strip adventure, The Parliament of Fear, featuring the Doctor and Bill; written by Scott Gray and illustrated by Mike Collins.

DOMINIC GLYNN
The composer recalls writing and recording the score for 1989’s

THE TIME TEAM
The Time Team continues its mission to watch every episode of Doctor Who with 2012’s The Doctor’s Wife.

PLUS! Previews, book and audio reviews, news, the Watcher’s column, prize-winning competitions and much, much more.

Doctor Who Magazine 517 is on sale from Thursday 21 September, price £5.99.

Details for Doctor Who - The Silurian Candidate

This months main range release sees the 7th Doctor going up against the Silurians.  You can order this Doctor Who audio adventure from the Big finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-silurian-candidate-1259

The year is 2085, and planet Earth remains on the edge of a nuclear precipice. At any moment, either of two vast rival power blocs, to the West and the East, might unleash a torrent of missiles, bringing about the terrible certainty of Mutual Assured Destruction.

But there is another way – or so Professor Ruth Drexler believes. Hence her secret mission deep in Eastern bloc territory, to uncover a hidden city, never before glimpsed by human eyes: the Parliament of the Silurians, the lizard people who ruled the Earth before humankind.

There, she’ll encounter a time-travelling Doctor, who knows the Silurians well. A Doctor on a secret mission of his own.

Written By: Matthew J Elliott
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Fiona Sheehan (Ruth Drexler/ Avvox), Nicholas Asbury (Chairman Bart Falco), Nicholas Briggs (Chordok), Caitlin Thorburn (Karlas), Ignatius Anthony (Gorrister), Louise Mai Newberry (Director Shen).

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details for Doctor Who - The Blood Furnace

This month's main range features the TARDIS crew of the 7th Doctor Ace and Mel.  This time they are in England of 1991 and on the hunt of an alien assassin.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-blood-furnace-1258

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ace and Mel to a recently reopened shipyard in Merseyside. It's 1991, the hardest of times - but now they're shipbuilding once again, thanks to the yard's new owners, the Dark Alloy Corporation. A miracle of job creation - but is it too good to be true?

While the Doctor and Ace go in search of an alien assassin at loose in the yard, Stuart Dale, discoverer of the near-magical Dark Alloy material, has an extraordinary proposition to make to his old college friend, Mel.

But who is the Corporation’s mysterious client? Who does she really represent? And what's the secret of the Blood Furnace? Seeking answers, the Doctor and friends are about to find themselves in very deep water…

Written By: Eddie Robson
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush), Julie Graham (Carolyn), Jade Anouka (Danuta), Todd Heppenstall (Stuart Dale), Clare Calbraith (Orla), Louis Tamone (Vinny), Ignatius Anthony (Lee).

Other parts played by members of the cast.

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details for Doctor Who "The High Price of Parking"

This months main range release sees the 7th Doctor in an adventure with his two companions Mel and Ace. You can order this audio adventure at the Big Finish website.

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-high-price-of-parking-1257

The planet Dashrah is a world of exceptional beauty. Historical ruins; colourful skies; swirling sunsets…

Unsurprisingly, it’s a major tourist trap. So if you want to visit Dashrah, first you’ll have to visit Parking, the artificial planetoid that Galactic Heritage built next door. Parking, as its name implies, is a spaceship park. A huge spaceship park. A huge, enormous spaceship park.

When the TARDIS materialises in Parking’s Northern Hemisphere, the Doctor, Ace and Mel envisage a quick teleport trip to the surface of Dashrah. But they’ve reckoned without the superzealous Wardens, and their robotic servitors… the sect of the Free Parkers, who wage war against the Wardens… the spontaneously combusting spaceships… and the terrifying secret that lies at the lowest of Parking’s lower levels.

Written By: John Dorney

Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush), Gabrielle Glaister (Cowley), Hywel Morgan (Kempton/ Tribesman), Kate Duchene (Regina/ Seraphim), Leighton Pugh (Fulton), Jack Monaghan (Dunne/ Selfdrive), James Joyce (Robowardens).

Producer David Richardson

Script Editor Alan Barnes

Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details for Doctor Who Shadow Planet/ Worlds Apart

Out this month is a 7th Doctor adventure that takes place during the Ace and Hex companion era. You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/shadow-planet-world-apart-1256

Shadow Planet by AK Benedict

Troubled? Anxious? Tormented by self-doubt? Come to Unity, the psychic planet! From our therapy centre beside Unity’s idyllic shores, the Unity Corporation can help you overcome all your problems. How? By using a patented combination of technology and Jungian psychology, we can bring you face to face with your shadow self. The hidden you. The dark you. The you that no-one knows…

Rest assured: the process is perfectly safe. Nothing can possibly go wrong. And that’s guaranteed!

World Apart by Scott Handcock

If you’re reading this, it’s too late. 

There’s no way off this planet. 

You will never escape Nirvana.

Written By: AK Benedict, Scott Handcock
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy(The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Belinda Lang (Mrs Wheeler), Sarah Thom (Sandy/Captain Karren), Nickolas Grace (Professor Grove), Ben Mansfield (Loglan/Shadow Loglan). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who - Harvest of the Sycorax Review

Doctor Who:
Harvest of the Sycorax
By James Goss
Starring Sylvester McCoy

The third disc in the Classic Doctors: New Monsters Box set sees the 7th Doctor taking on the Sycorax.  Now this was another monster from the new series that I wasn’t all that thrilled to see again as they were mostly one dimensional and didn’t seem all that interesting of an alien threat to warrant a return.  But Big Finish brought them back and did their best to try and make them threatening.  But I wasn’t buying it.  It just didn’t seem to work for me having the Doctor taking on the Sycorax and then doing his 7th Doctor manipulation act on them just didn’t seem be all that convincing.  But if you listen to this story you figure out quite quickly that the Sycorax are just a minor character in this story as the real problem is the drug corp Pharma Corps as they have developed a drug based on your blood type to help you with any ailment or mood.

Details on Doctor Who - Original Sin

Out now is the second release in the Novel Adaptions range with another 7th Doctor and Bernice Summerfield adventure that takes place on Earth in the future.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/original-sin-1231

A warning from a dying alien leads the Doctor and Bernice to Earth. However Earth in this time period is not a good place to be.

The murder rate is rising, but the killers seem to be acting without motive. The TARDIS crew's investigations lead them to a military training planet, a prison inside a star, and a terrifying old foe.

And all the time they are being pursued - by two dogged Adjudicators who've stumbled onto a terrifying conspiracy. Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester.

Things will never be the same again.

Based on the 1995 New Adventures novel by Andy Lane.


Written By: Andy Lane, adapted by John Dorney
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Lisa Bowerman (Bernice Summerfield), Yasmin Bannerman (Roz Forrester), Travis Oliver (Chris Cwej), Andrew French (Beltempest), Philip Voss (Robot/ Under-Sergeant), Amrita Acharia (Rashid/ Computer/ Shythe Shahid), Robbie Stevens (Dantalion/ Homeless/ Securitybot), Jot Davies (Powerless/ Pryce/ Hater/ Evan Claple).  Other parts played by members of the cast.

Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details on Doctor Who - Cold Fusion

Out this month is the first of two novel adaptions and another adventure directed by Jamie Anderson. This adventure also sees the meeting of two Doctors as the 5th and 7th meet up to take on adversary from The Doctor's past.  You can order this from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/cold-fusion-1232

A newly regenerated Fifth Doctor arrives on an occupied ice planet – where the Seventh Doctor is investigating dangerous energy experiments conducted by the Earth Empire. But events spin out of control when a refugee from the distant past arrives - Patience, the Doctor's Wife!

Written By: Lance Parkin
Directed By: Jamie Anderson

Cast
Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Yasmin Bannerman (Roz Forrester), Travis Oliver (Chris Cwej), Christine Kavanagh (Patience), Jeremy Hitchen (Medford/Quint/Quant/Ziyou Wanle/Ferutu), Sharon Maughan (Whitfield), Peter Caulfield (Adam/Falconstock/Sam/Concierge/Robot Voices)


Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
Silver Nemesis
By Kevin Clarke

“It's all over, Ace. My battle, all my battles, I've lost. I can only surrender.”

The Doctor and Ace are sitting and relaxing while they listen to a Jazz jam session when The Doctor’s alarm goes off.  It appears that he set it to remind him of a catastrophic event that would affect a planet but he doesn’t remember which one. It turns out to be the planet they are on Earth and The Doctor set it back in the 17th Century where we find Lady Peinforte making up a conncotion to get her and Richard to 1988 as that is where her astrologer has predicted that the comet Nemesis will crash back to Earth.  Lady Peinforte has the arrow and along with the bow, which a bunch of Nazi’s have, combined with the statue will grant that person ultimate power over everything.

To make matters worse there is another factor thrown in to disrupt The Doctor’s attempts to secure all three items and send Nemesis back into space, The Cybermen.  The Cybermen want the statue also to help their battle fleet, which is hidden from radar orbiting the Earth, to turn Earth into the new Mondas.  With this new X – Factor The Doctors game of chess might have to many players and it might be too much for him to save the Earth from the power of the Nemesis statue and the power that goes with it.  If the Doctor fails the Cybermen will win and be the true masters of the universe.

Into the Time Vortex - Episode 27 - Doctor Who - The Happiness Patrol

Details For Doctor Who Maker of Demons

Out this month from Big Finish's Main Range of Doctor Who audio adventures is the second of the Mel and Ace trilogy that sees the 7th Doctor returns them to the planet Prosper where things are not the same as before.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/maker-of-demons-1055

Decades ago, the mysterious time-travelling Doctor and his cheerful companion Mel became the toast of the planet Prosper, when they brokered a peace between the native Mogera and humans from the colony ship The Duke of Milan.

But when the TARDIS at last returns to Prosper, the Doctor, Mel and their associate Ace find only a warzone. The burrowing Mogera have become brutal monsters, dominated by their terrifying leader Caliban – and it's all the Doctor's fault!

Written By: Matthew J Elliott
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Andrew Hall (Alonso/Gonzalo), Lucy Briggs-Owen (Miranda), Rachel Atkins (Juno), Ewan Goddard (Talpa), Aaron Neil (Stephano/Klossi/Trink/Setebos). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who Fiesta of The Damned Cover and Details

This month's main range release sees the adventures of the 7th Doctor, Ace and Mel continue with an adventure set in Spain in the year 1938.  You can order this adventure from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/fiesta-of-the-damned-1054

In search of "a taste of the real Spain", the TARDIS transports the Doctor, Ace and rejoined crewmember Mel not to sizzling Fuerteventura, or the golden sands of the Costa Brava – but to 1938, amid the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

Having fallen in with a rag-tag column of Republican soldiers, the time and space travellers seek shelter from Franco's bombers in the walled town of Farissa – only to discover themselves besieged by dead men returned to life...

Written By: Guy Adams 
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Enzo Squillino Jnr (Juan Romero), Christopher Hatherall (George Newman), Owen Aaronovitch (Antonio Ferrando/Control Unit), Tom Alexander (Luis/Phillipe). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who - Details on Classic Doctors, New Monsters Vol 1

Out this month is a box set that pits Classic Doctors against enemies from the new show.  Doctors 5,6,7 and 8 take center stage in this intriguing set of adventures that is sure to bring new possibilities in the Doctor Who Big Finish Universe.  You can order this box set from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/classic-doctors-new-monsters-volume-01-1315

1.1 Fallen Angels by Phil Mulryne

2015: When sightseers Joel and Gabby Finch encounter a strange man in Edwardian cricketing garb in the Sistine Chapel, their honeymoon suddenly takes a terrifying turn.

1511: Michelangelo is commissioned to create some very special sculptures by a mysterious sect. But as he carves, angels seem to emerge fully-formed from the rock. Almost as if they are alive…

From Michelangelo’s workshop to the catacombs of Rome, the Fifth Doctor must keep his wits about him and his eyes wide open as he confronts the Weeping Angels.

1.2 Judoon in Chains  by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris

The Sixth Doctor is no stranger to courtroom drama, but faces a very different challenge when he prepares to defend a most unusual Judoon.

After an environmental clearance mission goes wrong, Captain Kybo of the Nineteenth Judoon Interplantary Force is stranded in Victorian England, bound in chains, an exhibit in a circus show. But he has allies: Eliza Jenkins – known to audiences as ‘Thomasina Thumb’ – and the larger-than-life ‘clown’ in the colourful coat.

Uncovering a trail of injustice and corruption, the Doctor and Kybo soon find themselves on trial for their lives…

1.3 Harvest of the Sycorax by James Goss

In the far future, humanity has a remedy for everything. Whatever the problem, Pharma Corps has the answer and a designer disease tailored to every human’s blood-type. Zanzibar Hashtag has no need to be sad, scared, stressed, or depressed ever again.

That is, until vicious aliens arrive on her space station intent on opening its Vault. What will it mean for the human race if the Sycorax take control of what’s inside?

And when the Seventh Doctor arrives on the scene, can he convince Zanzibar to care about her life long enough to help him?

1.4 The Sontaran Ordeal by Andrew Smith

An instant of the Time War brings centuries of conflict to the planet Drakkis, and the Eighth Doctor is there to witness the terrible results.

A Sontaran fleet, desperate to join the epic conflict, follows in its wake to take advantage of the fallout. But when Commander Jask is beamed down to the ravaged surface, there is more to his arrival than first appears.

Soon, an unlikely champion joins forces with the Time Lord to fight for the future of her world, and together they must face the Sontaran Ordeal…

Written By: Phil Mulryne, Simon Barnard, Paul Morris, James Goss, Andrew Smith
Directed By: Barnaby Edwards

Cast

Fallen Angels 
Peter Davison (The Doctor) Sacha Dhawan (Joel Finch), Diane Morgan (Gabby Finch), Matthew Kelly (Michelangelo), Joe Jameson (Piero), Dan Starkey (Priest). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Judoon in Chains
Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicholas Briggs (Captain Kybo), Kiruna Stamell (Eliza Jenkins), Trevor Cooper (Jonathan Jaggers Esq), Tony Millan (Justice Burrows/Jonty), Sabina Franklyn (Herculania) Nicholas Pegg (Business Owner). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Harvest of the Sycorax
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Nisha Nayar (Zanzibar), Jonathan Firth (Cadwallader), Rebecca Callard (Shadrak), Giles Watling (The Sycorax Chief)

The Sontaran Ordeal 
Paul McGann (The Doctor), Josette Simon (Sarana Teel), Dan Starkey (Jask), Christopher Ryan (General Stenk/Flitch), Sean Connolly (Tag Menkin/Ensign Stipe).

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Matt Fitton
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Into The Time Vortex Podcast - Doctor Who - The Curse of Fenric

Doctor Who - Details on A Life of Crime

This month's Main Range adventure sees The 7th Doctor and Ace meeting up with Mel as she is on the run from criminal associates.  This adventure can be purchased from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/a-life-of-crime-1053

Come to Ricosta! Tropical climate, untouched beaches, fabulous cuisine... and no extradition treaties. The perfect retirement planet for a certain type of 'business person' – such as Ms Melanie Bush, formerly the co-owner of the Iceworld emporium, now on the run from her former criminal associate's criminal associates...

Some other former associates of Ms Bush are abroad in this space Costa del Crime, however. Not long ago, the time and space traveller known as the Doctor arrived here, alongside his sometimes-criminal associate, the reformed juvenile offender Ace. But now the Doctor's gone missing – and Melanie Bush is about to learn that on the planet Ricosta, the wages of sin... are death.

Written By: Matt Fitton
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Ginny Holder (Gloria/Secretary), Des McAleer (Lefty Lonnigan), Stephen Hagan (Nathan Later), Harry Myers (Atomon/Sperovore Banker/Steward), John Banks (Mayor/Sperovore Auditor/Sperovore Financer). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who - Details on The Two Masters

This month's Main Range release sees the continuation of The Master Trilogy as we get two Masters teaming up.  It's up to the 7th Doctor to stop the dastardly duo. You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-two-masters-1052

The future is dying. All over the universe, gaps are beginning to appear. From the space lanes terrorised by the rag-tag remnants of the once-mighty Rocket Men, to the empire of the Gorlans, stricken by a terrible civil war. Gaps in space/time, portents of the end of everything.

Only three beings might prevent it. The Doctor, a renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey. The Master, another renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey. And another Master, yet another renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey.

One Doctor. Two Masters. What could possibly go wrong?

Written By: John Dorney
Directed By: Jamie Anderson

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Geoffrey Beevers (The Old Master), Alex Macqueen (The New Master), Lauren Crace (Jemima), Russ Bain (Blore/Baron Jarvill), Esther Hall (Tazmeena/Bauza/Mum), James Garnon (Sebastian/Gorlan), Neil Edmond (Sarlon/Gorlan/Time Lord). Other parts portrayed by members of the cast.

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who - Details For Nightshade

Out this month is another foray into the novel adaptions and this one is one of my favorite books from the New Adventures range.  This book came out in 1993 and was written by Mark Gatiss and this story is one of his best Doctor Who stories ever.  So  if you were luke warm about getting this audio adventure because of Gatiss you should pick it up it is a pretty good story.  As always you can pick it up on the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/nightshade-1230

Professor Nightshade - tea time terror for all the family, and the most loved show in Britain. But Professor Nightshade's days are long over, and Edmund Trevithick is now just an unemployed actor in a retirement home, fondly remembering his past.

It's the same through the entire village of Crook Marsham - people are falling prey to their memories. At first harmlessly, and then, the bodies begin to turn up.

The Doctor and Ace arrive on the scene - but, with the Doctor planning his retirement, it may be time for Professor Nightshade to solve one last case.

Nightshade is based on the novel by Mark Gatiss from the Virgin New Adventures series of Doctor Who books

Written By: Mark Gatiss, adapted by Kyle C Szikora
Directed By: Scott Handcock

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), John Castle (Edmund Trevithick), Samuel Barnett (Robin), Katherine Jakeways (Jill), Edward Harrison (Dr Hawthorne), Jonny Magnanti (Lawrence), Tom Price (Sgt Barclay) and Carole Ann Ford (Susan)