Doctor's Regeneration Week:The Power of the Daleks

Hey there kids and welcome back to Day 2 of Doctor’s Regeneration Week and as promised from last blog I am jumping back into the first regeneration ever and its reason why.  The very first Doctor William Hartnell of While Parents Sleep, Nothing Like Publicity, They Drive by Night, Too Dangerous to Live and They Came by Night was suffering from arteriosclerosis (a hardening of the arteries) making it difficult to say lines and often quite winded after the physicality required of running about.  So the producer Verity Lambert suggested the Doctor is an alien why not have him renew himself with a different body and thus the series was saved.   Hartnell even suggested Patrick Trouton (Hamlet, Doctor Who, Scars of Dracula, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and The Omen) as a possible Doctor.  Without more fanfare this is Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks.

Dandruff shampoo!...not working!!!

Hensell: Now look here- I run this Colony. I’m entitled to know why you have come to Spoiler? What is your brief?

The Doctor: I am the Examiner.

Hensell: Why are you here?

The Doctor: To examine. And I intend to start my examination at once!

After defusing the Z-Bomb, being exposed to radiation and tiring his body completely out the Doctor strolls into the TARDIS telling both Ben and Polly this old body is a bit worn down then collapses on the floor.  In replace of the cantankerous grump with a heart of gold lays a younger man who bounds upward and babbles profusely about the Doctor, his collection and discoveries.  Ben and Polly both are startled that this man seems different than the Doctor they have come to know pulling them out of scrapes and danger but try their level best to inform him of who he is.  The Doctor starts reading vigorously through his own journal taking in all the accounts and tales of woe and triumph in the journal when the TARDIS comes out of flight has landed some time ago. 

Yes, a mercury filled swamp is ideal for a picnic.

The Doctor feels like a stroll and proceeds to head out with Ben and Polly in hot pursuit.

Finding themselves on Earth Colony Vulcan they move about looking at the technology and see a ship that is being unearthed (or unvulcaned) holding three complete Daleks.   The Doctor warns Hensell to leave them where they are but he will hear nothing of it as the Daleks promise to be subservient to Vulcan.   Quicker than you can scream, “This is a dreadful mistake and you are best to walk away, now.” The Daleks loose the benevolent ways and right back into the genocidal tendencies of extermination all things not Dalek.   Yes I am sure a few Whovians saw that maneuver coming more than a light year away.

 Polly, Ben and the Doctor must come up with a plan to defeat the Daleks and save Earth Colony Vulcan before the Daleks can send word back to their empire on Skaro.  Can they manage with all the madness or will they themselves become servants of the Daleks?   Oh go and watch it.   It is a great episode!

Either we exterminate these drapes or I am leaving...

Doctor Who: Patrick Troughton

Hiya kids we are back with Day 2 of Doctor Who Week and in spite of some requests for me to skip on ahead to Tom Baker I am sticking with the chronological order.  To recap, the Doctor had a lengthy battle with the Cybermen and seemed run down.  His stalwart companions Ben and Polly are worried and follow him into the TARDIS where the Doctor appears to be rapidly aging only to transform into a shorter and younger man.  Have they flipped?  Were they on a planet that makes you drop acid?  Have the writers pulled the wool over your eyes?  Let’s find out kids.  This is Doctor Who: The Power of The Daleks.

TV Viewers? Bah!  Go read a book.

Spoilers advance and attack! Attack and destroy!

The Doctor has gotten up from the floor of the TARDIS where it would appear he had simply dropped dead but instead of that matriarch scholar stands a man shorter and younger than he. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton of Hamlet, Macbeth, Treasure Island, The Phantom of the Opera, Jason and the Argonauts and The Omen) seems a bit perplexed, baffled as starts referring to himself, his past self in the third person.  Suffice to say things can go a bit wonky (that’s a technical term) with the regenerations.  Ben (Michael Craze of The Exorcism of Hugh, Terror, Evil Heritage and The Healer) and Polly (Anneke Wills of Some People, The Avengers, The Pleasure Girls and Strange Report) are bit of amiss to what is happened to the Doctor but  clearly it is still him as they head out of the TARDIS from its landing.  Ben and Polly protest as that they are not even certain they have landed, wither or not there is radiation or oxygen rich atmosphere.  The Doctor cracks up the 500 year old diary and without even looking up from it announces the temperature, oxygen content, negative on radiation and a curiously high concentration of mercury then proceed to stroll on out.

Why yes the pants are a breathable cotton/wool blend.

The misbegotten three find themselves on Earth colony Vulcan where the local scientist has made a 200 year old discovery and in spite of the Doctor warning this government and scientists and being slightly odd they unearth a vessel containing three Daleks.   The Daleks immediately recognize the Doctor based on his intelligence and Timelord DNA. Ben and Polly are somewhat at ease then.   Now it is up to the Doctor to thwart his old enemies, save the day and keep his young companions from harm.

I have just a few comments about this particular episode.  All six episodes were wiped by the BBC and there is no visual record of it, however through still and production shows and a wire recording the production company managed to piece together an almost radio drama of those original episodes and this is literally the only way to view it.  

Mammy!!

This story points out political and social upheaval between the working class, activists and a police state.  The Daleks take advantage of this chaos by behaving almost benevolently then the double cross ensues, followed by the triple cross for pudding.  A powerful and well thought out piece of science fiction but alas we do not have it in the medium we are accustomed to.

Doctor Who Week: William Hartnell

Welcome and hello to Day 1 of Doctor Who Week and I thought I would start us off with the very first actor to portray this monumental character of science fiction and start ushering a golden age for the genre.  So batten down the hatches, flip that defensive screen and take off the hand brake.  This is Doctor Who: The Dead Planet.

 

Gee, I wonder what this episode is about?

The only interest we have in the spoilers is their total extermination!!

The Doctor (William Hartnell of Sabotage at Sea, The Peterville Diamond, The Dark Tower, The Ringer, Hell Drivers and The Army Game) has shanghaied his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford of Horrors of the Black Museum, The Ghost Train Murder, The Day of the Triffids and Mix Me a Person) and her teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell of The Great Escape, Breaking Point, This Man Craig, Harriet’s Back in Town and Superman) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill of Joyous Errand, Out of This World, No Hiding Place and Romeo & Juliet) off  to an alien world with the TARDIS (Time and relative dimension in space) and the teachers demand to leave but our fuss budget  Doctor purposely sabotages the TARDIS so they need to look for mercury to repair it.   

Donner! Party of four.

Wandering out into this alien world it is noted that there are high concentrations of radiation and the party makes their way to a huge metal city.  As our brave four explore the city, Barbara gets separated from the rest of the part and is threatened by a creature with a metal arm.  Before too long the entire crew is captured by the Daleks.  Ian and Barbara feel horrible from the radiation in the area and Susan is sent back to the TARDIS to retrieve some anti-radiation pills when she comes across a second alien species known as the Thals.  These people have been engaging in war with the Daleks for some time.  Susan attempt to broker a peace treaty between the two warring factions and for a time it appears to be working but the Daleks open fire upon the Thals during a friendly exchange of food and supplies.  Yeah didn't see that one coming.

And now I have just a few remarks and observations about this particular episode.  This episode is the first appearance of the Daleks as a long running animosity towards the Doctor and his fellow Timelords.  This episode was watched by a little over 6 million viewer when it was originally aired. Their re-occurrence has of course continued into the current series as the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th Doctor has had to face his most hated enemy time and time again.

Vacuum cleaner salesmen will be exterminated!

 

This story follows almost a hostage escape scenario and the genocidal Daleks are completely devoid of emotion and mercy and have been a staple of this particular series.   This was filmed in 35mm anamorphic lens which does take the focus off your main foreground but can capture the whole surroundings of the film project.  As William Hartnell developed arteriosclerosis and made it near impossible to say his lines let alone run about, it was the producer Mervyn Pinfield came up with the concept that the Doctor could regenerate himself by altering his physiology into a completely different man but in essence the same fellow.  All memory and personality is still his and changes into Patrick Trouton and we shall go over the second doctor tomorrow.

Doctor Who Week!

Go around me then!

Bilbo Baggins! I have need of thee!!

My God, what a horrendous haircut she chose.

Good day ladies and gents.  Thought we could use a break from film genre and go right into some good old fashioned Science Fiction.  Oh don't worry we will not be seeing the likes of Lloyd Bridges nor Burt I Gordon or heaven forfend Roger Corman.  No I thought we would look at the humble beginnings of the UK's greatest sci-fi triumph, The Doctor.  So this week I will be filling some of the younger readers in on this phenomenal character and his many lives and our mature readers can reminisce over days of yesteryear.  So grab some decent running shoes, beware of rock quarries and for God's sake get the time spacial coordinates set.  It is time for Doctor Who!

Oh dear, I seem to forgotten my next line.

Yes Brigadier that is very common for a man your age.