#14 - Missing Persumed Wiped....Not for Two of Them

Sunday 11 December is an important date for Doctor Who fans as it was confirmed that two episodes of Classic Doctor Who that were presumed wiped had been found. Episode Three of Galaxy 4 and Episode Two of The Underwater Menace have been found which reduces the amount of episodes lost to 106. Being on twitter there seemed to be a tension to find out what the news was, I was initially excited by the news but then thought that it wouldn’t b e anything major. I had hoped it would be the missing episodes of ‘The Daleks Master Plan’ but in reality thought it would be that the Christmas Special of Doctor Who Confidential would air.

However just after 5pm, the news seemed to leak out from some of the people I am following that they had found these two episodes. I must admit that my initial reaction was that of perplexment. I knew it would be missing episodes found but wish it had been for a story that was missing one episodes. It was fun being on twitter after the news had broke because some had felt excited about this news, thinking it was the best news for a long time and an early Christmas present and then some thought it was a little bit of an anti-climax. I think after thinking about it, I am in the middle. Possibly because I had mentally prepared myself and being a pessimist.

The first episode found was episode three of Galaxy 4 which was when they named individual episodes and this one was called ‘Airlock’. It originally aired on the BBC on Saturday 25th September 1965 and was watched by 11.5 million people, it was written by William Emms and directed by Derek Martinus. Before today all four episodes were missing and only the audio recording existed. I think there is a very brief clip that exists which sees the Doctor, Steven and Vicki on the Dravhins ship so its good to see a bit more of this story. The next episode was Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace which was aired on Saturday 21st January 1967. It was watched by 7.5 million people, written by Geoffrey Orme and directed by Julia Smith. Now that this episode has been found only the first and last episode are missing. This is a story that would benefit from being seen in its entirety as opposed to just on audio with 25 minutes.

Been a fan of Doctor Who its one of the biggest bug bears and fans who haven’t seen anything pre-Eccleston will be wondering what the fuss is about but for completists like me its quite significant news. Over the last twenty years we have been treated to dribs and drabs of episodes. The first big release of missing episodes was ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ which was found in Hong Kong of all places. It’s a story that I was first introduced to via cassette tape (remember those days) and when I finally watched it on VHS some time later I was mesmorised. It’s only in later years that I have put it into context and whilst I think it’s a good story it has lost some of its shine since the early 1990’s. The most recent discover was in 2004 when an episode of the ‘The Daleks Master Plan – Day of Armageddon’ was found. It was great to see another episode from this epic as there were only two episodes to watch and ‘Day of Armageddon’ was from early on in the serial. It was an interesting episode and hopefully one day it will be found in its entirety.

I’m not a massive fan of these two stories but will appreciate that they have been found and hope that it wont be another seven years before we get more episodes. Hopefully we will live in a world where not one episode of Doctor Who is missing.

A guy can dream cant he!

The Tomfiles: #13 - 150 Not Out

Big Finish reached a milestone when they released their 150th Main Range release ‘Recorded Time and Other Stories’. In the 12 years since they were licensed to produce Doctor Who stories. Over the 150 releases the stories have varied quite a lot. Colin Baker, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy were there at the very beginning and Paul McGann joined in 2001. We have also been reintroduced to classic companions with only Matthew Waterhouse not coming back as Adric (though have we really missed him?). But we have also been introduced to new companions and that is what has made these adventures more than just Doctor Who on audio. These are new companions that we have seen from the start. I only started watching Doctor Who properly in 1993 so until the show returned in 2005, the Big Finish companions were the only ‘new’ characters that I have seen in their debut stories.

The format of these stories has changed over the years. From 1999 to 2007, the stories would be released in random order with a Fifth Doctor story being released one month and then a Seventh Doctor story being released the next month. Then after Nicholas Briggs took over as the executive producer of the main range we started to get ‘three + one’ releases. They didn’t really work because very often the three episodes would be great as they cut out all the padding that accompanies a normal four part adventure but very often the single part story would let the whole release down. It has taken me a while for BF to get a handle on these single episodes. But it was in 2008 when the format of the main range releases would change. Due to a story arc involving the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Thomas Brewster, it was decided that starting in 2009 there would series of stories that would be released one after another. So there would be three series of three adventures with a single release. With the Eighth Doctor having adventures in his own series, it would be Doctors 5,6 & 7 that would get their own series of adventures.

During these 150 stories we have seen some classic monsters return via BF. These include the Daleks, Cybermen and the Master which were obvious ones but it some of the lesser popular monsters that have returned. They included The Axons (Feast of Axos – 2011), Omega (Omega – 2003), Ice Warriors (Red Dawn – 2003 and Frozen Time – 2008), Rutan (Castle of Fear – 2009) and The Mara (Cradle of the Snake – 2010). It’s always a curious decision to bring back monsters that only appeared once or maybe twice in the classic era but usually its with good intentions and whilst I may not have been wholly positive about a story (Robophobia) I am always open to them bringing back monsters that only made a single appearance as long as it is justified.

The big names that have appeared in these 150 stories over the years has also been impressive. Names such as David Walliams (Little Britain and swimming the Thames), Mark Gatiss (League of Gentleman), Joe Thomas (Inbetweeners), Anna Masey (Peeping Tom) to name but a few. It’s always surprising to see the sort of people that will appear in audio Who as opposed to TV Who. To appear on TV Doctor Who I could understand because of the exposure it would give them but I think that the fact their in a Doctor Who is more of a personal thing than a professional thing.

The stories that have been done over the last 11 years have used a large number of writers. Some had written for the TV series and some would go onto write for the new series. In fact the 2002 story Spare Parts was inspiration for the 2006 David Tennant stories ‘Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel’ and in 2005 Robert Shearman adapted his 2003 adventure ‘Jubilee’ to become ‘Dalek. Due to the contract that BF has with the BBC it means that BF can’t use a monster or villain or even story if it mirrors one that is being used on TV. That’s why in the 2009 Lost Story ‘The Hollows of Time’ the Master wasn’t used as he was appearing on TV. It seems that this only really becomes a problem when they want to use a classic villain/monster, otherwise they are free to do whatever they want and the only restriction is really on what they want to do. There have been tendencies when the story has been complicated. The most obvious example of this was in the 2008 adventure ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ which is quite possibly the most complicated story that BF have done. Even Colin Baker wasn’t fully aware of what was going on. Most of the time it’s just me that doesn’t understand what’s going on but on some rare occasions like BOTD, it’s a group thing.

I decided to do a massive poll to decide what was the most popular Big Finish story in the main range. I suspected that ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ would have a good chance because it won the Toms Tardis ‘Story of the Decade’ award in 2009. If you didn’t vote then the way then let me explain how it worked. Basically I opened the poll so that you could select your 10 favourite stories. Not just one because I know how difficult that can be but 10.

Here is what I voted for in this poll.

1 – Live 34 (2005) 9 – The Chimes of Midnight (2002)
2 – Project: Twilight (2001) 10 – Medicinal Purposes (2004)
3 – Project: Lazarus (2003)
4 – Son of the Dragon (2007)
5 – Nocturne (2007)
6 – Enemy of the Daleks (2009)
7 – The Reaping (2006)
8 – The Nowhere Place (2006)

After all the votes had been counted the (not surprising) winner was the 2002 adventure ‘The Chimes of Midnight’. It got 51 votes, second was another 2002 adventure ‘Spare Parts’ which got 43 and quite surprisingly ‘The One Doctor’ from 2001 was the third most popular story with 38 votes. Now it is an enjoyable story but I don’t think that its one of the top 3 stories ever.

Winners of the Best Story category in the Toms Tardis Stories did as follows;

1999 – Phantasmagoria #42 with 5 votes
2000 – The Marian Conspiracy #8 with 29 votes
2001 – Project: Twilight #22 with 10 votes
2002 – The Chimes of Midnight #1 with 51 votes
2003 – Doctor Who and the Pirates #7 with 30 votes
2004 – The Harvest #27 with 8 votes
2005 – The Juggernauts #49 with 4 votes
2006 – Pier Pressure #84 with 2 votes
2007 – Son of the Dragon #22 with 10 votes
2008 – The Haunting of Thomas Brewster #36 with 6 votes
2009 – The Magic Mousetrap #36 with 6 votes
2010 – The Wreck of the Titan #6 with 32 votes

Out of 150 stories, there were only 16 stories that didn’t get a single vote. They were Minuet in Hell (2001), The Rapture (2002), The Sandman (2002), Nekromanteia (2003), The Creed of the Kromon (2004), The Roof of the World (2004), The Last (2004), The Game (2005), Three’s A Crowd (2005), Red (2006), Valhalla (2007), The Wishing Beast/The Vanity Box (2007), The Dark Husband (2008), The Chaos Pool (2009), Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge (2010), Recorded Time and Other Stories (2011).

Some of these I kind of understand, I’m not wild about Minuet in Hell, Red, Valhalla or Nekromanteia but then there are some that I think should have at least got a vote such as The Game which has William Russell in it. I also thought that Recorded Time and Other Stories and Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge should have received a vote. How something like …ish (111th with 1 vote) or Renaissance of the Daleks (60th with 3 votes) managed to score higher I will never know.

Big Finish have achieved a lot in 150 stories, they have used new and old monsters in these stories and also bought some popular combinations back. 2012 looks like being another good year with Tom Baker joining the Big Finish family but when/if we do a poll for the Best 200 stories I suspect that ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ will win. Congratulations to Big Finish, you were there when Doctor Who was on TV and you show that you can produce stories just as good as the ones on TV with a fraction of their budget.

To use a cricket term to describe my feelings about Big Finish -150 not out

The Tomfiles: #12 - Death of Doctor Who Confidential (2005-2011)

The news that Doctor Who Confidential has been axed has come as a great shock and sadness to a great deal of people. It has even prompted a campaign to get set up on twitter to try and bring the show back. This is due to the fact that the BBC has had its licence fee frozen by the Government until 2016. As a result this means that the BBC has to cut its budget by 16% as well as having to take control of the World Service and some of the costs of the Welsh language channel S4C. Over the last few months, the BBC has around 2,000 job losses as well as loss of sports coverage including Formula One.

The show was created in 2005 purely as a way that new fans to the show could understand its history and why the Doctor is the way he is and why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than on the outside. It last around 45 minutes and in recent years has focused on interviewing the cast and looking at some of the people that make the sets and other stuff. Ok this is mildly interesting but after about 25 minutes I have found myself getting restless and wanting to change channels. In the most recent series, I have not even watched them because I have found them to be very poor in entertainment.

BBC Three has had its budget cut by 10% or £8.5 million pounds. According to the BBC website it’s “to nurture and develop shows for BBC One with some reduction in drama, music and entertainment”. Now this means that we are supposedly getting more original programming which will be worthy of the licence fee but considering this is the channel that gives us ‘Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show’, ‘Snog Marry Avoid’ and ‘Don’t Tell the Bride’ I’m not holding out much hope. However despite these shockingly bad shows they do show ‘Family Guy’, ‘American Dad’ and ‘Russell Howard’s Good News’ so if they do more of these shows as opposed to bridal vanity shows then that will be ok.

No other drama gets a behind the scenes show apart from Eastenders which occasionally and I mean occasionally gives us a one hour show. So why is Doctor Who so special? Most shows that are released on DVD get a behind the scenes disc and even when they release Doctor Who on DVD they present the cut down version of Confidential. Ultimately the main reason why DWC was axed was because it was probably too expensive. When you think about how much time is spent interviewing people, recording what’s going on and more then it must stack up to a whole lot. Considering what the ratings are for this show it’s a very poor return rate.

As long as Doctor Who is on the air, should we really be bothered that DWC has been axed. No, Doctor Who was and still is the main priority and the fact we are all getting so het up about it is frankly baffling. If the show were to come back in some shorter format then that would be fine but I won’t miss DWC. Let’s not forget that people are losing their jobs and some of them may find other jobs but some won’t and if you compare some job losses to the cancellation of a mildly interesting show then you should see which the inferior problem is. Doctor Who Confidential has been a supporting show to the main show but lets get our priorities right. DW is the show we should be enjoying and when they decide to cut that then we should get angry until then, let’s pause for a moment and wave goodbye to DWC.

The Tomfiles: #11 - Doctor Who Abroad

Doctor Who is a thoroughly British affair. Over the course of 32 series, the show has filmed all over the UK where in recent years the show has been filmed in Cardiff. However sometimes the show decided to get on a plane and film as Matt Smith said ‘Somewhere new’. Remarkably in the first 26 years, the show only ventured on foreign soil three time and that was over the space of six years. Recently the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory have been having adventures in the good old US of A but is filming abroad a good idea or does it ruin the flow of a story or even a season?

The first time that Doctor Who was filmed abroad was in the 1979 adventure ‘City of Death’ where the Fourth Doctor and Romana travelled to Paris in France for four episodes. The story itself is a very good story despite it coming from the Douglas Adams era where comedy was a big part of the show. There are large chunks of location filming to help establish the show’s setting, however it is essentially just the Doctor and Romana running around Parisian landmarks but its filmed beautifully.

Arc of Infinity was the second adventure to travel abroad but the show still stays in Europe by filming in Amsterdam. Like City of Death, the story features a lot of running around but there are still the familiar sights. To be fair to AOI, there is a bit more to the filming that running around. There is some standing about and sitting in a café but more importantly the big finale scene is on location with the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa catching up with Omega and shooting him. In terms of purpose to the story, the scenes in AOI are far better than COD.

Two years later The Two Doctors would be filmed in Seville Spain for reasons no-one can work out. It doesn’t offer anything to the story and you could have filmed it anywhere in the UK. There are some beautiful shots of Seville which makes it look a beautiful place. However ultimately the purpose of the location is dubious at best as a result it’s not entirely satisfactory.

It was rumoured that Doctor Who would have gone to Asia in the abandoned 1986 season which would have seen the Autons running amok in Thailand or somewhere near. Who knows whether this would have been a good idea or not but we’ll never know.

It would be eleven years before Doctor Who would film abroad and this time it would be different because it would be in the TV Movie where the story was filmed in Canada doubling for San Francisco. It feels more like a US drama than a British one which makes it stand out in the history of Doctor Who. There are some lovely scenes but as most of it is filmed at night unfortunately I don’t think it shows off the city as well as it could have done. Had the ‘pilot’ turned into a series then there would undoubtably have been more location filming and chances to see more of the scenery.

During the early years of Doctor Who’s return featured filming switching between Cardiff (and surrounding areas) and London and during the Tennant era there was only one time where it was based outside of the UK and that occurred in Fires of Pompeii where the show went to actually went to the same studio in Italy where the HBO/BBC drama Rome was filmed. This was a fantastic idea and one of the reasons why the story is so good is because of the location stuff. It would have been silly to try and replicate those scenes in the UK because it wouldn’t have been as good. It’s one of the best uses of foreign filming so far. The Eleventh Doctor would be the Fifth actor to film abroad with two episodes being filmed in Croatia. The first episode was Vampires in Venice where the filming is beautfil and does create a different impression to the series. Despite Vampires of Venice and Vincent and the Doctor being filmed in the same place it doesn’t show in the stories. It’s quite impressive how they manage to do this and the best thing is that I wasn’t thinking about whether it made sense but just being bowled over by the story and enjoying the filming.

The most recent excursion out of the UK saw the show go to the country with the biggest fan base outside of the UK. The show went to America and filmed in the Utah desert. Despite it being a desert the filming was very good and helped create the impact that the show needed to set the current series up. The reason for the story being set in America was plausible and so the location stuff needed to compliment it and it certainly did that in this story with some fantastic arial shots. Much better than what you would get here.

The issue of coincidence occurs whenever the show films abroad because some argue that its convenient that the aliens would invade/attack in a foreign country but then I take the approach that it’s no more convenient than aliens attacking/invading just the UK when there are bigger and more powerful countries that they could pick. I think that providing the reason for setting a story in a foreign country makes sense then it doesn’t make it any less plausible setting a story in South Africa or Finland or even Vanuatu than it would be setting it in the UK.

Filming abroad always gives a Doctor Who story an international feeling and with the show popular in all corners of the world it’s only right that occasionally the show ventures outwards to embrace that popularity and more importantly the cash. Recently Steven Moffat said in a newspaper article that £300,000 of the £1 million that it costs to make a Doctor Who episode comes from merchandise. I wonder how much of the remaininig £700,000 comes from international TV stations. Going beyond that the issue of filming abroad shouldn’t really exist and occasional excursions outside of the UK are a good thing and should be a regular thing.

The Tomfiles: #10 - Big Finish Review of 2010

Big Finish has continued to flower in 2010. They had continued with the successful series format and this year saw the return of a few familiar names and voices. It also saw the debut of spin-off series and the regeneration of a Big Finish series.

JANUARY – MARCH: THE KLEIN SERIES
This series saw the return of Elizabeth Klein who had previously appeared in the 2001 adventure ‘Colditz’. Nearly ten years later after fans had been asking for this and they got what they wanted. All three stories were very good as they dealt with the character of Klein well. They didn’t gloat about her being a Nazi scientist but rather her own individual morals. This was well handled in all three stories. The first story was A Thousand Tiny Wings which was what I thought was a truly superb story and it was dark and at times quite grim. Then there was Survival of the Fittest which followed Klein’s story which told of what happened to Klein after Colditz which was better than SOTF. The final story was The Architects of History which was the best story of the series, it was a fitting end to the series and showed me why people have been asking for Klein’s return since Colditz.

APRIL-JUNE: THE JAMIE SERIES
These three stories saw the return of Jamie as played by Fraser Hines. Jamie had only been heard of in the Companion Chronicles. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped for. City of Spires wasn’t the best of starts as I wrote in my review “Ultimately though the main problem with this story is that it took way too long to get going. Had it not been for that final 20 minutes where pretty much everything was revealed, I would have found this a real disappointment.”. The next story was slightly better but the thing about The Wreck of the Titan as I mentioned in my review “When the story finished I found myself liking this story but not totally sure as tow why. I think that whilst it was mysterious for large parts of the story it wasn’t too confusing as for me to stop caring.”. The final story was Legend of the Cybermen which saw the return of Zoe Harriot to the series as played by Wendy Padbury and also it was the first Cyberman story since 2008’s Kingdom of Silver. In my review of the story I said “It’s the best story of the three but that’s not really a compliment. If I had to pick a fault with the story is that it spends too long getting started. The first episode has too much of Jamie and the Doctor running around the void. Its only when the Artful Dodger turns up that it really gets going. The thing about this story is that it has a lot of loose ends to type up and it does this effectively and in a way that a simple mind like mine can understand.”

Like I said before, it wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped and I still can’t quite figure out why. It’s not Frazer Hines or Colin Baker’s fault as they performed well. The only thing that I think it could be is the whole story arc didn’t quite work due to the way that the series are structured the arc becomes quite important to the series. Hopefully if Jamie returns they will do something a bit simpler.

JULY-SEPTEMBER: THE RICHTER SERIES
These three stories saw for the first time since 1983. Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough return with the Fifth Doctor. Janet Fielding had only made one appearance since leaving the show in 1984 and it was in the 2006 story ‘The Gathering’. The first story was in my opinion the best. Cobwebs was curiously set after Nyssa had left the series in Terminus but before Enlightenment. For Tegan and Turlough it had been a few days but for Nyssa it had been 50 years. I wrote in my review that I thought “The whole thing about this story is clever”. I also commented on how “it was slightly disappointing that Janet Fielding didn’t make more of an effort to sound like 1980’s Tegan.” The next story was The Whispering Forest which couldn’t quite live up to what we had been in Cobwebs. There was some quite interesting stuff in it but it lacked some action or energy. The final story was The Cradle of the Snake and saw the return of Mara which made this story the best of the series. It was a fitting end to the series and as it was a Marc Platt story it was neither too complicated or too dull.

The success of this series and popularity has led to another series of Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough series of adventures being planned for mid-2011. Its wonderful news to have Tegan back as her 2006 appearance in The Gathering wasn’t brilliant and it would have been a shame if that were her only contribution. I look forward to this new series with great enthusiasm.

SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER: THE HEX SERIES
Another series and another series with great expectations from myself. It had been over a year since the last series with Ace and Hex and at the end of that series, Hex had been shot. The first story was Project Destiny and was the best story of the series. It saw the return of Nimrod who previously appeared in Project Twilight (2001) and Project Lazarus (2003). From start to finish it was wonderful and whilst it wasn’t the best Project story it was still highly enjoyable. Hex departed in a ‘mock’ exit which implied that he was leaving for good. The story had a wonderful lead-in to A Death in the Family. However despite all this, A Death in the Family was massive disappointment. Despite being voted Best Story in the Toms Tardis 2010 Awards, I found it too be the worst story for quite sometime. That’s democracy for you. The story saw the return of the Word Lord or Nobody No-one which I found exciting because I liked the character in Forty-Five as well the return of Evelyn Smythe. Neither of these could rescue it. The final story was Lurkers at Sunlights Edge which was a nice ending to the series. It wasn’t a fantastic story but there was something about it and it was way better than the previous story.

Overall the series was a disappointment. Apart from Project Destiny, I found the series to be aimless and without direction. Whereas the Klein and Jamie series had a end point and you knew where it would go there was none of that in this series and out of the three series I would rate this one bottom.

The final main range story of 2010 was The Demons of Red Lodge & Other stories which was a series of stories quite like The Company of Friends and Forty-Five. This year it featured the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. This was a good release and totally changes my original opinion of single episode stories. It shows that with the right story that 25 minutes is an ok amount of time to tell a story.


THE COMPANION CHRONICLES
It’s been another fantastic year for Companion Chronicles. A particular highlight was The Suffering which saw two companion tell their story. Shadow of the Past was another top quality story and would rank in my top three companion stories of 2010. Night’s Black Agents was ‘the fourth story in a trilogy’ story which was a cracking story. The final story of Series 4 was brilliant as it featured India Fisher who was returning as Charley and David Ballie who appeared in The Nightmare Fair. Series 5 started off with The Guardian of the Solar System

THE LOST STORIES
This year saw the rest of the Sixth Doctor stories with a varying amount of success. There were stories like Paradise 5 and The Macros (written by the late Ingrid Pitt) which were enjoyable and left me wishing that they had been made for TV. Then there were stories like Point of Entry and The Hollows of Time which were just dreadful. In particular The Hollows of Time which was meant to feature the Master but due to the character been used in the David Tennant finale couldn’t be used by Big Finish so we are left with a mess of a story that frankly wouldn’t have been saved even if the Master had been in it.

We also got the First Doctor and Second Doctor stories which were more like Companion Chronicles but were still enjoyable. In particular Farewell Great Macedon which was a fantastic release read brilliantly by Carole Ann Ford and William Russell.

JAGO & LITEFOOT
Well after months of waiting and a successful ‘pilot’ in The Mahogany Murderers. In June we got four adventures. All four stories were great in their own way but I think that the best was The Bloodless Soldier. I did wonder how the series would work. It’s one thing in a Companion Chronicle but its another when you have four hour-long adventures. However credit where its due they managed it. This worked so much that two more series have been commissioned. Christopher Benjamin & Trevor Baxter were superb and its crazy that it took over 30 years to get to this stage. After the successful return of Klein & Jago and Litefoot, I learnt one thing. Don’t fret.

EIGHTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES
It was announced this year that 2010 would see the last separate series for the Eighth Doctor. At the end of 2009, Lucie Miller said goodbye and we said hello in 2010 to Tamsin. However this final series had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. The series seemed to be a bit lacklustre especially after Nevermore but then when we got to the Book of Kells things picked up and as we ended 2010 there are just a few more stories to go before this thrilling series concludes. It’s a shame in a way that the Eighth Doctor will have to return to the main range in 2011 because I think that the Eighth Doctor thrives from having more stories than the others and we will have to get use to just three stories a year instead of eight or ten.

2010 has been a superb year and was the best yet. There has been a concern for me at times that Big Finish have been stretching themselves too far but I think that they need to in order to find the revenue to continue making more Doctor Who stories. However it’s the quality side that I am more concerned about. Including the main range, Jago and Litefoot, Companion Chronicles, Lost Stories, EDA and the Four Doctors special, there were 47 releases and about 6 or 7 of them were duds which is quite a good percentage when you think about it. I go into 2011 with high hopes and a strong feeling that in twelve months time I will be writing that Big Finish has had another fantastic year. Everyone at Big Finish stand up and take your applause!!!

TOP 5 STORIES OF 2010
1. Guardian of the Solar System
2. Shadows of the Past
3. The Wreck of the Titan
4. Solitaire
5. Cobwebs

WORST 5 STORIES OF 2010
1. The Hollows of Time
2. Nevermore
3. Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code
4. Point of Entry
5. A Death in the Family

The Tomfiles: #9 - Series 31 Review

As the first series of Doctor Who with Matt Smith as the Doctor has now ended. It’s the perfect time to review everything about this series. From the look of the show to the different stories as well as the monsters/baddies but most importantly the main stars of the show. Ever since it was announced that Matt Smith would be replacing David Tennant as the Doctor, there has been a certain amount (some of it unfair) comments about whether Smith was too young and whether he was a big enough name to carry the role. I sat with my friends as we watched the final moments of ‘The End of Time’ and saw Smith ramble on about his fingers and legs and how he was a girl due to his long hair and not ginger. My friends seemed unconvinced and I simply told them to wait until the series had begun before making judgement. On the famous thing I personally I rather glad they didn’t go for a big name. The last time we had a big name (Christopher Eccleston) it seemed to make the show not seem like Doctor Who. When watching Eccleston you were thinking more of the ITV drama ‘The Second Coming’ and ‘Cracker’ instead of Doctor Who. Smith might be young but Peter Davison had that same problem and he turned out alright.

So Matt Smith was confirmed as The Doctor and Karen Gillan was the companion. Two unknowns in the biggest show on TV. If this wasn’t an indication that this was a revamp then I don’t know what is. Steven Moffat had written for the show since it returned in 2005 and was clearly a Doctor Who mad fan, so he was perfect to take over from Russell T Davies who I felt had become tired and lacking in original ideas. Moffatt would be joined by Piers Wenger and Beth Willis as Executive Producers. Two more things would be the source of much discussion, The Doctor’s outfit and the TARDIS interior. The Outfit has always been a big thing because it says a lot about the Doctor. From Hartnell’s Edwardian outfit to Colin Baker’s screaming mixed colour monstrocity. I have to admit that I really didn’t like the Tweed jacket that Smith was wearing when I saw it for the first time but it actually grew on me. The TARDIS was just as important that Smith’s suit. I’m still not 100% sold on it as it’s a bit too colourful for my likeing. I do like the different levels as it gives the TARDIS a different feel to it. With the little bits discussed through countless forums, it was the time to focus on the series.

This series saw the return of some familiar monsters. The Silurians returned after a 26 year abscence. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood was an enjoyable story and the look of the silurians whilst wasnt perfect was a damn sight better than the new Daleks. The new fatter Daleks debuted in Episode 3 called Victory of the Daleks. This saw more pure Daleks become born but this seem to cause outrage as they just look awful. The colours werent an issue for me but when you look at them from the back they look like Gok Wan's been at them. This series's story arc was the crack in time. Way back in Episode 1 there was a crack in Amelia's wall. In every subsequent episode the crack appeared and in Episode 9 the Doctor put his hand in the crack and pulled out a piece of the TARDIS. It was revealed that the cracks in time were created by the TARDIS exploding and this was deemed to be the Doctor's fault and he was subsequently put in the Pandorica Box. As story arc's go its not the strongest that there has ever been. I think it was more to do with the fact that it was slightly flat in its execution.

Something that was a surprise was the romance side of the characters. Smith's Doctor and Amy didnt start getting smoochy or something that hogs the screen and gets in the way of the main action. Also the introduction of Rory was something that I was wary of but once he began travelling in the TARDIS I actually quite liked him. I thought Amy's Choice was the best example of how their romance was clear but wasnt vomit enducing.

In terms of ratings which is what everyone worries about these days its difficult to say that the series was a success. True, the ratings were more consistant than in any previous series but when you put all five series ratings side by side the fifth series was the fourth best in terms of average ratings. Only the 2007 series drew a lower average rating. The highest rating came with Episode 1 where 10.08 million viewers watched. The ratings stumbled between 6 and 8 million with the lowest coming for Episode 13 where only 6.12 watched. Its the second lowest rated Doctor Who episode since it returned. Only The Satan Pit from 2006 scored lower (6.08). That said, four stories are in the Top 25 (The Eleventh Hour, The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone and The Beast Below) with four in the middle and four in the bottom 10 (Vincent and the Doctor, The Hungry Earth, The Lodger & The Big Bang). In times when bugets are beein cut any any show that isnt performing well is given the unceremonial axe. Its a worring time when the show doesnt blow the ratings into the water.

Overall I really liked this first season. It was a better first series for a new Doctor than Tennant's. Whilst I wasnt totally bowled over by the Lodger I thought that the whole look and feel of the series was a breath of fresh air. It had a more adult feel to it and didnt feel like a warm and cuddly teddy bear which is something that always bothered me about the RTD era. The show wasnt perfect. I think that there was a times too much complicated speeches which I thought was unncersary. Also the revamp of the Daleks were a total flop as was the resolution of the Pandorica Opens cliffhanger. Hopefully when the show returns for a full series in 2011, it will be a bit more fun and not so headscratching. Out of all the five series that have been made by BBC Cymru, I would have to say that this season was the most consistant and the one that I will look forward to the most on DVD.

The Tomfiles: #8 - Big Finish Review of 2009

Has this been a good year for Big Finish? This year seems to have seen a high output that ever before. It was major milestone for the company as it celebrated its 10th Birthday in July. This year saw Doctor Who split into 3 part series. This was partly because the Thomas Brewster story was spread over several months which meant the story lost some of its flow. So in 2009 there was going to be three sets of three series and a single release. Also in 2009 there was the continuation of the Companion Chronicles series which saw the third series end in June and the Fourth begin straight away in July. Also after over a year of waiting the Lost Stories began with The Nightmare Fair but I getting ahead of myself. The Eight Doctor and Lucie adventures returned for a third series but it was different from the previous two.

THE MAIN RANGE
JANUARY – MARCH: THE KEY 2 TIME
THE JUDGEMENT OF ISSKAR, THE DESTROYER OF DELIGHTS & THE CHAOS POOL

The first series saw the return of the Key 2 Time. Back in the 1970’s Tom Baker spent 26 episodes looking for the segments only for him to destroy them. This time the Fifth Doctor had the task of looking for them. He didn’t have Peri (who seemed to be frozen in time) but was given a new companion in the form of Amy (played by ex-Hollyoaks star Ciara Janson). The first story was The Judgement of Isskar which was a bit of a mixed bag. The Ice Warriors returned for this one and at the end of it we were finally treated to one of the best cliffhangers that Big Finish have produced for quite a long time. The return of the Black Guardian. David Troughton won a Best Guest Star Award for his portrayal of the Black Guardian. In The Destroyer of Delights we were again treated to a weird story which seemed slightly more structured than the previous story. The final story of the series saw the return of Lalla Ward. Instead of playing Romana like we (ok I) thought she ended up playing Princess Astra like she did back in the Armageddon Factor. The thing about The Chaos Pool was that it was a slightly complicated story that did seem to drag at times. Overall the series wasn’t bad but neither was it anything to write home about.

SERIES AVERAGE RATING: 71%

APRIL – JUNE:
THE MAGIC MOUSETRAP, ENEMY OF THE DALEKS & THE ANGEL OF SCUTARI

The second series saw the Seventh Doctor reunited with Ace and Hex. The first adventure was voted Story of the Year by Toms Tardis Fans. This story saw the return of the Celestial Toymaker, his first appearance in over 40 years. This was a very good story with a great setting and the use of the Toymaker was original and enjoyable. The second story was what I would consider to be story of the year and that was Enemy of the Daleks. This story saw the Doctor and company arrive at a point of time where the Doctor knew that something bad happened there and he had to make sure that it happened. The Daleks were returning because the research being done on this base would have destroyed them. This meant that the Daleks were doing their invade and conquer bit but were just trying to survive. The final story of this series was never going to be as good as the previous two stories but was more of a character piece. Hex has never really had much of a push since he joined the TARDIS back in 2004 and this one allowed him to use abilities and to help. This story was set during the Crimean War and saw the appearance of Florence Nightengale. The side of Hex we saw was one that sneaking about behind the Doctor’s back. Whilst this was a good story it was the weakest in terms of adventure. Overall this series was the best so far and showed that this way of distributing the releases has some merit to it.

SERIES AVERAGE RATING: 81%

JULY: THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS

The only single release story of the main range in 2009 saw the Eighth Doctor return from the Lucie adventures. This story was effectively the 10th Anniversary story and saw four companions that the Eighth Doctor had in different forms. There was Fitz (Matt di Angelo), Izzy (Jemmima Rooper), Bernice (Lisa Bowerman) and Mary Shelley (Julie Cox). Apart from Bernice we never heard any of the other characters before in Big Finish and this story was a superb effort. Each episode was well structured and thoroughly enjoyable.

RATING: 84%

AUGUST – SEPTEMBER: THE CHARLEY TRILOGY
PATIENT ZERO, PAPER CUTS & BLUE FORGOTTEN PLANET

This was the most anticipated series of adventures of the year. We were finally going to see what was going to happen to Charlotte Pollard. The first story saw the second appearance of the Daleks this year. It also saw the return of the Viyrans who first appeared in Mission of the Viyrans back in 2007. This story saw Charley been trapped thanks to a character called Mila who was someone who has been infected with a disease and called Patient Zero. This story was very good from start to finish and the moment that Mila became Charley and there was the possibility that Charley might leave like this was horrific. Then there was Paper Cuts which saw the Draconians make their first appearance in Big Finish. The story wasn’t as good as Patient Zero but was better than I thought and considering it was by Marc Platt actually made a lot of sense. The final story of this trilogy was the story that I rated the highest. Blue Forgotten Planet was well and truly the final story featuring Charley and the explanation as to how the Eighth Doctor doesn’t remember anything that has happened between his sixth incarnation and Charley was explained in a very clever way. Overall this series was as good as it could have been considering it had so much expectation piled on to it. After eight years it was really sad to see the end of Charley.

SERIES AVERAGE RATING: 83%

OCTOBER – DECEMBER: THE STOCKBRIDGE TRILOGY
CASTLE OF FEAR, THE ETERNAL SUMMER & PLAGUE OF THE DALEKS

The final series of 2009 saw the Fifth Doctor get a second series and sees the Doctor return to Stockbridge which was a setting that was used many times in the comic strips in Doctor Who Magazine. The first story was set in the past, the second was in the present and the third was set in the future.

The first story was Castle of Fear which spent the first half of its life in comedy and then became deadly serious in the second half. The story saw the Rutan’s return to the series and set up and interesting link to the 1974 adventure The Time Warrior. Overall it was due to the comedic first half that put me off from enjoying this story. The second story was one that for most of the voting period was the favourite to win the Best Story gong. To be honest I found it very impressive. There was a lot of shifting about times and also things happening again and again. The final story of the year was the third story of 2009 to feature the Daleks and also the fourth in 15 months. This story was set in the future and was a slightly disappointing adventure and let down the Stockbridge Trilogy a little bit. Overall these stories were enjoyable and better than the Key 2 Time at the beginning of the year.

SERIES AVERAGE RATING: 76%

Overall the main range in 2009 has been a superb year. The three story series has been a fantastic success. In fact it’s the best year in terms of average ratings. It’s the best year since 2001 and was nearly 4.5% better than last year. The only stories that were weakest were the Key 2 Time series but on the whole its been a great year in the main range.

Now its time to look at the other ranges that have been released in 2009.


THE LOST STORIES

In November the Lost Stories were released with the Nightmare Fair and in December Mission to Magnus. These two stories were supposed to be the first two stories of the 23rd series back in 1986. Due to the high level of expectation the Nightmare Fair for me fell a bit below expectation and only got 81% whereas Mission to Magnus was a more enjoyable story and was paced at a better level which is why it got slightly better rating of 82%. The rest of the series is due to be released in the first half of 2010.

COMPANION CHRONICLES

SERIES 3
The last five stories of the third series saw Ian Chesterton, Polly, Mike Yates, Jago and Litefoot and also the First Romana tell stories of their adventures with their Doctors. It was the Jago and Litefoot one that was the best received and got 88% which was the second highest rating for this series only behind the brilliant Home Truths which got 90%. The final story was quite impressive, the first Romana tells a story where she is the only person in the story. Normally the actor playing the companion has someone else to act against whereas Mary Tamm was acting solo.

SERIES 4
The fourth series started the following month after Stealers from Saiph was released. The first story of this series saw the first sequel in the Companion Chronicles range. Home Truths was so well received that Sara Kingdom came back in The Drowned World. Also during the course of the first half of the series we had another adventure from Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), King Peladon (played by David Troughton) told a third Doctor story. Romana II (Lalla Ward) was returning after her only other appearance in the first series. This start to the series was the best that I recall. Hopefully the second half in 2010 carries on this strong start.

EIGHTH DOCTOR AND LUCIE

With their being no TV series to speak of. The clever chaps at Big Finish decided to get the eight episodes they normally do and split each of them into two so we get 16 x 25 minute episodes which were available to download every Saturday.

The stories were all very good with particular notice to be drawn to Hothouse which saw the Krynoids return after their only appearance in the Seeds of Doom (1976). Also Wirrn Dawn saw the Wirrn make their first appearance in audio. Another return was the dreaded (quite literally) Eight Legs. This two part story saw the Eight Truths take over earth only to be foiled by the Doctor.

This third series was certainly different however I think that it didn’t quite have the same impact that I felt the second series had. That said it was the Christmas Special that was the most eagerly awaited release. Death in Blackpool won the Best Spin-Off award. This story saw the departure of Lucie. Lucie was the audio version of Rose Tyler but was more manageable. Her departure was very emotional and was the best ending for the companion.

AN EARTHLY CHILD

The subscribers special saw the return of Susan Foreman to a proper adventure (previously she was in Here There Be Monsters in 2008). The Eighth Doctor was the one that met his granddaughter some 30 years after the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It wasn’t about the plot but more about the emotional reunion between the Doctor and Susan. For anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the main range will have to wait until December 2010 before they can buy it and they will be in for a treat.

December saw the release of the second Cyberman series. I haven’t actually listened to this so this will probably be part of the 2010 review.

2009 has as mentioned been a fantastic year for all the different areas of Doctor Who. I have spent a small fortune buying the different series and I have to say that at no point during the course of the year have I regretted buying anything.

2010 has a lot to live up to!!!