Science Fiction

Doctor Who Project: The Reign of Terror

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I get the impression they don’t know where they’re heading for. Come to that, do any of us?

And so the first season of Doctor Who concludes with a six-part story set in far off and fantastical…France?

Revolutionary France, to be precise, during the period of Robespierre’s rule that gives our story its title, “The Reign of Terror” (Story Production Code H). The Doctor has brought Ian and Barbara “home,” as he promised (or rather threatened) to do after dealing with the Sensorites. France seems to be close enough to England for the Doctor, but by the time he realizes he’s off by two hundred years, he’s already been knocked unconscious, dragged out of a burning building by a French ragamuffin, and forced to work on a chain gang. And then he winds up looking like this:

Doctor Who 008 (1964) Hartnell -The Reign Of Terror3 on flickr.com by Père Ubu via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license.

Not entirely sure which is the greater indignity…

The Doctor has the sensible notion not to leave the TARDIS at the beginning of the story, but then, persuaded by Ian’s offer of a drink to make their parting amicable, off they go. Once Ian realizes that they’re not in England (or even the twentieth century), it’s his turn to wish to return to the TARDIS:

Ian: You know, I think we ought to get back to the ship while we still can.

Doctor: Nonsense. It was your idea to explore, anyway. Besides, that might be very interesting. Walk will do us good.

Once again, the writers contrive to split up the travellers, with Ian, Susan, and Barbara (who instinctively change into period clothing they find alongside bread, wine, maps, and daggers in a trunk in an abandoned house) captured by revolutionary soldiers and dragged off to await the guillotine; the Doctor, meanwhile, has been knocked senseless by royalist sympathizers hiding the house and remains undetected by the soldiers, who set the house ablaze. Then you get the kid, then the long walk to Paris, then the chain gang (from which the Doctor escapes by smacking the road works overseer over the head with a very large shovel). It’s a six-part story for a reason.

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A Companion to the End: Elisabeth Sladen

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Detail of 10/04/2009 17:24 on flickr.com by alun.vega via a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike license.The BBC has announced that actor Elisabeth Sladen, who played companion Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who alongside the Third and Fourth Doctors (and appeared again with the Tenth Doctor), has passed away.

Just as many people claim to have their own Doctor, the one who pops into mind when the Doctor is mentioned, Elisabeth Sladen’s portrayal of journalist Sarah Jane Smith is surely the most iconic of all the companions.

Her riveting performance in the Tenth Doctor episode “School Reunion,” early in David Tennant’s run, solidified my appreciation of the new series. Ever since Fourth Doctor Tom Baker dropped her off in what he thought, wrongly, was her native Croydon, Sarah Jane Smith had been waiting for the Doctor to return. He never did, until a chance meeting decades later brought them together again. The pain and wonder Elisabeth Sladen brought to her portayal of Sarah Jane Smith in “School Reunion” encapsulates the dilemma of all the Doctor’s companions: a few moments of wonder balanced against a lifetime that seems mundane in comparison.

Tor.com has a small appreciation of Elisabeth Sladen, as does Fourth Doctor Tom Baker on his website.

(Image detail courtesy of alun vega via a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike license.)

TARDIS Database Printout?

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Cyberman 1975 01 by Fredde Cooney Ahlstrom on flickr.com via a Creative Commons Attribution license.Given the vast numbers of foes the Doctor has encountered over his almost as vast number of regenerations, one wonders if he’s kept track of them.

Early episodes of Doctor Who emphasized the TARDIS’ powerful computing power, with rows of mainframe-like cabinets and whirring data tapes, and it’s not hard to imagine Hartnell’s Doctor inputting data in the brief lulls between random jumps through time and space.

The Guardian’s Datablog has taken on the task of enumerating all of the Doctor’s many foes, enlisting the hive mind’s assistance by creating a Google Docs spreadsheet, complete with motivations, number of appearances, episode titles, and which Doctor(s) they opposed:

Here’s a list of all the Doctor Who villains there have ever been since the very first episode in 1963. Whether it’s to help you put your bet on what will make a reappearance next series or just to satisfy hard-core Whovians, hopefully this will help you out.

The chart however doesn’t include villains exclusively in Doctor Who books, audio books and spin-off shows.

Definitely worth checking out the entire data set. The Daleks are, of course, tops in appearances, which is sure to annoy their rivals, the Cybermen…

(Image courtesy of Fredde Cooney Ahlstrom via a Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Happy 46th, Doctor Who

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Wired points out that today, November 23rd, marks the 46th anniversary of the first airing of Doctor Who, with BBC viewers tuning in at 5:15 P.M. to catch “The Unearthly Child,” the first episode of the first story, “100,000 BC,” in which two schoolteachers unwittingly stumble upon a Time Lord and are kidnapped for their curiosity.

Logo from 1963 to 1967

According to Howe, Stammers, and Walker’s Doctor Who: The Handbook: The First Doctor, only 4.4 million people can claim to have been with the Doctor from the beginning, the first episode coming in at 114th out of 200 shows that week. A repeat airing of the pilot, shown as a lead-in to the second episode the next week, did marginally better, climbing to 85th and 6 million viewers.

The show’s continued existence was, indeed, in doubt after this disappointing debut, the combination of poor ratings and high effects budgets potentially dooming the Doctor to be a footnote in the BBC’s broadcast history, until the Dalek’s appeared and decided to, ahem, Exterminate! all doubts…

So, happy anniversary, Doctor Who! Here’s to many more.

(Image from the BBC Doctor Who site.)

Cthulhu Primer: A Guide to Lovecraft

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When the stars are right, when mighty Cthulhu has risen (even in adorable plush form), and when the color beyond space is flashing in your eyes, you know you’re in H.P. Lovecraft country. It’s easy to get lost there.

Risen from R'lyeh again and sort of hungry.

Thankfully, science fiction superblog io9.com has provided those who seek to put their sanity to the test with a roadmap to the works and worlds of H.P. Lovecraft:

You’ve heard about Cthulhu, and you’ve probably heard about the man who created this tentacled horror, H.P. Lovecraft. Now you want to try delving into the world of Lovecraft, but where to start? Let us help you.

As with their earlier guides to Blake’s 7 and the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks, io9 does a nice job of providing an approach to entering the complicated and delightful Cthulhu Mythos through a variety of media, including the all-important Call of Cthulhu role playing game.

I would add Fantasy Flight Games’ Arkham Horror series of co-operative board games to the list of essential Mythos works. Any game where everyone can lose definitely captures the spirit of Lovecraft’s world.

Re-Branding a Time Lord

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Funny thing about Doctor Who is that the show’s visual identity has always centered on the current iteration of the Doctor and in the swirly title graphics; the title logo has never really been a focus for fan identity.

Current Dr. Who Logo

The lens-flare-esque logo for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors is a case in point. It’s just sort of there, really, not entirely memorable as it flips and flops in the time vortex as impatient viewers wait to for the show to start.

Prior logos were similarly utilitarian, as a nice BBC image gallery demonstrates.

io9 brings news that the BBC is updating the logo for the Eleventh Doctor, incorporating that most iconic of Doctor Who images, the TARDIS:

New Doctor Who Logo

While I’m admittedly circumspect about Matt Smith’s casting as the Eleventh Doctor, fearing that the new show runners are playing to a younger demographic than, well, the demographic that I inhabit, I like this new logo. Bit of a visual pun, and it’s surprising that the TARDIS hasn’t been used in the logo before.

But that lens flare is killing me!

(Images from the BBC Doctor Who site.)