Our flight through Season 4 continues, plunging underwater and crash landing on the moon with The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace and The Moonbase. Nothing in ze vorld can stop us now!
Buy the stories!
Yet again, no episodes of The Highlanders exist. However, the audio survives, of course, and has been released by the BBC with a linking narration by Frazer Hines. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Things get even more complicated with The Underwater Menace. Episode 3 was included in the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). Episode 2 was rediscovered in 2011, and is the only extant episode of the entire show not yet released on DVD [citation needed]. An audio version exists, narrated by the charming Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Moonbase has been released on DVD, with passable animated versions of the missing episodes 1 and 3. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Other thrilling underwater frolics are also available here: Gerry Anderson’s Stingray and Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starring Barbara Eden.
David Banks wrote an exhausting history of the Cybermen which was published in the 1990s. (Amazon UK). So there’s that then.
The first episode of The Avengers featuring the Cybernauts is availiable in full, probably illegally, on Dailymotion. (Sadly no longer.)
The delightful Damian Shanahan is responsible for finding many surviving clips from otherwise lost episodes, clips that were cut from the program by the ABC’s censors because they were too violent. You can read about this on Steve Phillips’s Doctor Who Clips List website, where the surviving clips are exhaustively catalogued.
It’s the end of an era. In this episode, Brendan, Richard and Nathan say goodbye to the Doctor and hello to his suspicious new replacement, as we discuss The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet and The Power of the Daleks.
Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.
Buy the Stories!
The Smugglers is completely missing, but an audio version is available, narrated by the delightful Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Tenth Planet has been released on DVD, with an animated version of the missing Episode 4. One of the special features is a rare interview with William Hartnell. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
And, heartbreakingly, The Power of the Daleks is also completely missing. As usual, an audio version is available, narrated by the beautiful Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Smugglers
Did you know that The Smugglers has no music at all? (Awkward silence…)
Imagine two hip young people teaching the older generation about their fab mod ways: it’s not Richard’s longed-for alt-universe Season 4 with Billy, Ben and Polly: it’s It’s Trad, Dad!. To appreciate the full horror of this film, take a look at this. I dare you.
Dr Syn was a retired pirate posing as a clergyman while working as a smuggler in a series of novels by Russell Thorndike, written in the early 20th century.
And no episode’s shownotes would be complete without our obligatory reference to a Carry On film. This week: Carry On Jack (1963), which chronicles the adventures of midshipman Alfred Poop-Decker. Sigh.
The Tenth Planet
Dr Elizabeth Sandifer’s essay on this story is very strange and interesting. Read it.
The Big Finish audio adventure Spare Parts tells the story of the Genesis of the Cybermen. It’s unmissably good.
We’re too impressed by the story itself to spend much time on obscure cultural references. So no strange links for you here. Why not read what the Wife in Space thought about it?
And we’re back, now on the big screen in glorious Technicolor! This week, Brendan Who, Nathan Who and Richard Who discuss the two 1960s Peter Cushing films, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Come with us into that strange new world. We cannot guarantee your safety. But I can promise you unimagined cakes!
Buy the films!
You can get lovely remastered Blu-ray versions of both films. Dr. Who and the Daleks (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK).
Here’s a fabulous trailer from the alternative universe in which there was a third film based on The Chase: Daleks vs Mechons.
Here’s the entry on the TARDIS Wikia about Journey Into Time, the unbroadcast pilot for an unmade 52-episode radio series starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who. Sadly, we couldn’t find any details about the proposed fan recording of the script, which was re-discovered a couple of years ago.
Brendan’s pick of the week
The Peter Cushing Dr. Who Fannual is now available. What would a 60s–style Doctor Who Annual have looked like if it was based on the world of the Peter Cushing Dr. Who films?
We’ve finally reached the end of our flight through Doctor Who’s third season. It’s been a long and controversial journey, but happily it ends with The Gunfighters, The Savages and The War Machines. So have one on the house. It isn’t every day we get the over–twenties in this place. (Oh wait, it is.)
Buy the stories!
The Gunfighters exists in its entirety, and it’s unmissable. If you haven’t seen it yet, you must buy it at once. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (In the UK and Australia, it was inexplicably released along with the Peter Davison story The Awakening in a box set called Earth Story.)
The Savages is completely missing, but the soundtrack still exists, narrated for the last time by the ubiquitous Peter Purves. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The War Machines also exists in full. Which is nice. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Gunfighters
Ugh. Peter Haining’s book on Classic Doctor Who again, Doctor Who: A Celebration. Really, don’t bother. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Go on, buy The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloonon iTunes at once. You know you want to.
And if you’ve enjoyed this story, try these classic westerns: The Searchers, starring John Wayne, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, and True Grit, also starring John Wayne, who seems to be the Peter Purves of film Westerns.
All six episodes of Rex Tucker’s The Three Musketeers, starring Laurence Payne, Roger Delgado, Paul Whitsun-Jones and Adrienne Corri, have been lost. Sigh.
Nathan: Watch this 6-minute video of Jackie Lane in Paris in November 2010, created by her friend Julian Davies, and set to the music of Edith Piaf. (Oh, Jackie. If they find The Savages, would you come back and do the DVD commentary? Please say yes.)
Richard: Donald Cotton’s novelisations of The Gunfighters and The Myth Makers are sadly out of print. (Why aren’t they releasing all the Target novelisations as e-books, at least? What’s going on here?)
Still, all is not lost: Audible has an spoken-word version of The Gunfighters, read by a fantastically rough-sounding Shane Rimmer. (Audible US) (Audible UK). The Myth Makers is read by Mr Shouty himself, Stephen Thorne. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Our endless flight through Doctor Who’s third season chokes, stalls and crashes into The Massacre, The Ark and The Celestial Toymaker. And Nathan’s not at all happy. (Let’s put a cork on that, Nathan!)
These are three controversial stories, and we’d like to know what you think. Do you hate The Massacre, or do you love it as much as all right-thinking Doctor Who commentators? Is The Ark racist? Is The Celestial Toymaker appalling or merely terrible?
None of The Massacre exists (sigh), so it’s just not possible for Nathan to see how great it actually is. But here’s the BBC audio version, narrated by the indefatigable Peter Purves. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Ark exists, in all of its (possibly) racist glory. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Only the final episode of The Celestial Toymaker still exists, and it can be found on the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
You can also get the full BBC Audio version of The Celestial Toymaker, narrated by who else but Peter Purves? (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Massacre (of St Bartholomew’s Eve)
Cornell, Day and Topping’s Discontinuity Guide: “Not only the best historical, but the best Hartnell, and, in its serious handling of dramatic material in a truly dramatic style, arguably the best ever Doctor Who story.”
Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men, a novel about the history of humanity in the far, far future, can be found in its entirety on the Gutenberg Australia website.
Peter Haining’s seminal book on Classic Doctor Who, Doctor Who: A Celebration is out of print, of course. But you can still find copies on Amazon. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Our flight through Season 3 continues with an indefensibly shouty episode devoted to Doctor Who’s longest (oh, okay second longest) story ever: The Daleks’ Master Plan.
Is Katarina a companion? Which is the delegate with black balls all over his head? Is Bret Vyon a companion? Has anyone ever been more fabulous than Sara Kingdom? And should Doctor Who be doing this sort of story at all?
(A bit of overtalking at the start of this episode, I’m afraid. This is what the combination of Terry Nation and John Wiles does to your brain. It will never be allowed to happen again.)
Buy the story!
Only three of the twelve episodes are known to exist: episodes 2, 5 and 10. These can be found on the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The BBC audio version, narrated by Peter Purves, can be found here: (Audible US) (Audible UK).
Screen Online’s summary of Dennis Spooner’s superhero drama series The Champions. Sounds intriguing, and bears out Richard’s theory that Spooner is responsible for all the fun dialogue in this story.
Hold your breath, everyone! Brendan, Richard and Nathan besiege, invade and finally burn down the first three stories of Doctor Who’s highly controversial third season: Galaxy Four, Mission to the Unknown and The Myth Makers. Dusty Springfield wigs at the ready, girls!
Buy the stories!
Well, of the nine episodes we discuss this week, only one is known to exist. You can see episode 2 of Galaxy Four, Air Lock, as part of a reconstructed version of the entire story on The Aztecs: Special Edition DVD. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Daleks’ Master Plan audio, narrated by Peter Purvis (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Myth Makers audio, narrated by who else but Peter Purvis? (Audible US) (Audible UK). You can also buy Stephen Thorne’s reading of Donald Cotton’s excellent novelisation (Audible US) (Audible UK).
Ian Levine’s animated version of Mission to the Unknown can be found on YouTube, for the time being at least. (Part 1) (Part 2)
Here’s the interview by Loose Cannon with the cast of Mission to the Unknown — Edward de Souza (Marc Cory), Barry Jackson (Jeff Garvey) and Jeremy Young (Gordon Lowery).
The Myth Makers
Increase your classical cred, and your appreciation of this brilliant story, by reading Robert Fagles’s beautiful translations of the Iliad (Amazon US) (Amazon UK), and the Aeneid (Amazon US) (Amazon UK).
Brendan, Richard and Nathan bring Season 2 to a triumphant close with The Space Museum, The Chase and The Time Meddler. And we like them all. No, really.
“I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them, silly old fusspots. Come along, my dear, it’s time we were off.”
Richard: The Daleks comic strips in TV Century 21. Later reprinted as The Dalek Tapes in 1980s DWM, and as The Dalek Chronicles as a DWM Special in 1994. Adapted as an animation by Altered Vistas.
This episode, Brendan, Richard and Nathan tackle the difficult subjects of ants and fraternity as they discuss three ant-astic stories from the middle of Doctor Who’s second season: The Romans, The Web Planet and The Crusade. So tune up your lyres, pull up a dormouse, and listen along. There’s a bit of that cold peacock left in the fridge, I think.
The lovely Barbara Joss, who played Nemini. Her book My Left Breast: How Breast Cancer Transformed My Life is out of print, but you can see its Goodreads page here.
Brendan, Richard and Nathan take on the first three stories of Doctor Who’s difficult second season: Planet of Giants, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue. Spoiler alert: we think that almost all of them are fantastic!
John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (And don’t forget that Carole Ann Ford was in the 1963 film adaptation, for some reason.)
It’s 1964, and Brendan, Richard and Nathan take on the back half of Season 1: The Keys of Marinus, The Aztecs, The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror. More Barbara! More Billy-fluffs! More German Expressionism!
The online Doctor Who horoscope that Brendan mentions is at tardisday.com.
BroadDWCast, a comprehensive online guide to worldwide transmissions of Doctor Who. And if you want to know even more about Australian broadcast dates (and why wouldn’t you?), you can go to this page on Gallifrey Base.
Richard: David Whitaker’s Doctor Who novelisations: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (Amazon US) (Amazon UK), Doctor Who and the Crusaders (Amazon US) (Amazon UK).
Brendan, Richard and Nathan discuss the first half of the show’s first season: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, and Marco Polo. With hilarious results. (We hope.)
The Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD box set contains the first three stories of Season 1 — An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Loose Cannon Reconstruction of Marco Polo. (YouTube)
The boys kick off the podcast by discussing the untransmitted pilot episode of Doctor Who.
The Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD box set contains the first three stories of Season 1, as well as the untransmitted pilot episode, and the Origins documentary Nathan mentions. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
An Adventure in Space and Time, Mark Gatiss’s docudrama about the origins of Doctor Who. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
