New Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan ...

I say 'new' Doctor Who, but of course we're talking about some new 'old' Doctor Who.

This crazy show has something of a history around its past, which is ironic for a programme which is all about time travel. Just in case you're not up to speed ... while there have been 65 years or so of Doctor Who episodes transmitted by the BBC, not all of them still exist to enjoy today. This is largely as a result of the cost of videotape back in the sixties and early seventies, and the BBC's need to reuse it where they could, but also because the BBC saw themselves very much as a television producer and transmitter, and not as an archive. So they got rid of a large number of programmes by wiping the tapes for reuse, or throwing filmed copies away to make space for other things ... never stopping to think that someone in the future might be interested in seeing them again.

And thus it was that just 97 episodes of Doctor Who remained missing from the BBC's archives, consigned to the dustbin of history. The irony is that while they threw away the completed programmes, they kept all the production paperwork and photographs that had been taken. And enterprising fans had kept audio recordings of the episodes that they made at the time of transmission ... so we could listen to the episodes and look at the photographs, appreciating the details of which BBC studios they were made in and how much the costumes cost ... but we couldn't watch them.

After a long period in which there were no Doctor Who recoveries - missing episodes rediscovered in collections or at overseas television stations - hope was fading that anything more would be found. But then ...

In 2025, an organisation called Film is Fabulous managed to get access to the film collection of an elderly collector. It seems he didn't even know what he had ... but what he had included two episodes of sixties Doctor Who which were missing from the BBC's archives!

They were recovered, repaired and cleaned up, returned to the BBC, and on Good Friday, 3 April 2026, they went live on the BBC iPlayer for everyone to enjoy once more!

And what a treat. The two episodes both came from a 12 part story called 'The Daleks' Master Plan', a 1965/66 epic which saw the Doctor (William Hartnell), along with companion Steven (Peter Purves), and a handmaiden from ancient Troy called Katarina (Adrienne Hill), team up with  Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney in his first ever appearance in Doctor Who) and his sister, Space Special Security Service operative Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) to try and foil an invasion of the Solar System by the Daleks, aided by the Guardian of the Solar System himself Mavic Chen (Kevin Stoney). The story encompassed many worlds, escapes, chases, intrigue and excitement as the Daleks try to obtain the emm of the mineral taranium that they need to power the awesome Time Destructor weapon. 

Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney), the Doctor
(William Hartnell), Katarina (Adrienne Hill)
and Steven (Peter Purves) consider the
taranium core.

Some of the story existed (episodes 2, 5 and 10) but most was missing, and this episode recovery comprised episodes 1 and 3 of the adventure. So we could finally see how it all started, and, indeed, enjoy the first three episodes uninterrupted.

This was a fascinating time for Doctor Who. Under John Wiles' producership, the show was abandoning some of it's previous companion characters and tropes and trying to move into a more groundbreaking approach to the stories and adventures. Indeed, the whole of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was foreshadowed with a one episode adventure called 'Mission to the Unknown' which didn't feature the regular cast at all. This laid the groundwork for the Daleks' presence on the planet Kembel, and the alliance of aliens from the outer Galaxies who were coming together with the Daleks to attack the Earth. After this episode, there was then a four part story called 'The Myth Makers' which had the Doctor, Vicki and Steven adventuring in ancient Troy, and then, at the end of this, Vicki leaves, Katarina enters the TARDIS, Steven is injured, and they're off to the start of 'The Daleks' Master Plan'.

I enjoyed the first episode a lot. 'The Nightmare Begins' sets the scene with Mavic Chen heading off on a holiday (in reality to conspire with the Daleks) while the Doctor and friends arrive on Kembel so the Doctor can try and find something to help Steven. Bret Vyon is also there and he stumbles across the TARDIS and thus the scene is set ...

The direction from Douglas Camfield is as good as we have come to expect from him. Great visuals, tracking shots and interest in every scene. The performances are also good, and we come away somewhat in awe.

I found it interesting that in episode 2 the characters talk about something that we don't see! In episode 1, Bret Vyon is trapped in a magnetic chair in the TARDIS while the Doctor heads outside to see what he can find, leaving Katarina caring for Steven. Vyon persuades Katarina to give Steven some pills he has in his belt pouch which will help cure him. Then in episode 2, Katarina and Steven are suddenly outside the TARDIS, Steven has a jacket and shirt on (he was topless in episode 1), and Bret Vyon has escaped. It seems that he persuaded Katarina to release him from the chair and they all left the TARDIS as they thought it might be dangerous to stay there as the Daleks were outside ... in fact it was the safest place to be.  But we never see any of this happen. They just talk about it!

The second recovered episode is part 3, 'Devil's Planet', and this for me is the more enjoyable of the two. We're now in Mavic Chen's stolen Spar spaceship heading for the prison planet Desperus, and the Daleks take control of the ship remotely and bring it down on the planet. What makes all this so interesting is that there are very few photographs of the events on Desperus available, so we see sets and characters we have never seen before (except for on the original transmission). This is just sublime for a died-in-the-wool fan, and I loved the beardy men (and women) and their initial struggle over a knife. This reminded me of the show's first story, '100,000 BC' and the struggle to control fire: who controlled fire, controlled the tribe. And here we have the same thing with the knife being the symbol of power.

The giant feet of a 'screamer' bat
threatens Kirksen

There's also some giant 'screamer' bats on the planet to contend with, and to my surprise we don't actually see them, just a shadow. Which is very intriguing as there is a photo of one of the criminals, Kirksen (Douglas Sheldon), being attacked by a giant pair of legs and feet ... so they built it but never used it on screen (except to throw said shadow perhaps). Fascinating. Maybe Camfield felt it didn't work as a visual so decided to just go with suggestion.

The episode ends with a cliff hanger that the Daleks arrive on Desperus, but the Doctor and friends escape, taking off again in the Spar, but with an unwelcome passenger: one of the criminals, Kirksen; who grabs Katarina and holds her prisoner in the airlock of the ship. Exciting stuff!

While we had 3 episodes already, with a story like this which features a variety of characters and locations for which there is little or no visual record, this is a real treat. It makes me wish so hard that more of the story did exist and that we could enjoy it all again. But sadly this is not the case. 

As with much of sixties Doctor Who, there are episodes missing which we would love to revisit but cannot, relying on the memories of those who saw them on transmission to confirm that they were indeed some of the very best that Doctor Who had to offer at the time. When we get a discovery like this, it just cements that stories like 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was indeed a 'masterful' set of episodes, and truly deserves its reputation as one of the great lost classics of television of the time. 

For the moment, point your browser or television to the BBC iPlayer (in the UK) or to the BBC's YouTube channel (in the USA) to enjoy again the start of the greatest adventure that the Doctor has ever undertaken.

POSTSCRIPT

For my first viewing I wanted to get into the mood, so there are a couple of other things to seek out to watch in order to get an effective build up to the newly recovered episodes.  

I suggest:

'Mission to the Unknown' - the episode no longer exists, but the University of Lancashire remade it in 2019 using the same cameras and style as were originally used in the sixties. Moreover an enterprising fan matched the remade episode to the original soundtrack, and the result is probably as close as you can get to watching the original. The soundtrack matched version can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7nz2pu

After this, there is a rather lovely interlude/teaser which uses AI to recreate key visuals from 'The Myth Makers' and thus provide the introduction of Katarina and the injuring of Steven so that you go into 'The Daleks' Master Plan' reminded of the immediately preceding story. This is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmZ3yquMEqA

Then we have episodes 1-3 of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' to watch on iPlayer, but you then need to skip episode 4 and head to episode 5 ... or you can watch a photo reconstruction of episode 4 on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gw2s9

However you decide to watch these returned episodes, I hope they bring you as much joy and happiness as they have to me ... a little slice of classic Who has come home to rest. And may there be many more.

*****************************

While I'm here ... If you're a fan of film, then have a look at a Film Festival that I run with my wife, Sam.  THE SYKEHOUSE FILM AND WRITERS' FESTIVAL combines writing with filmmaking, and we have an amazing weekend coming up on the 16/17 May showing some of the films entered in this year's festival, plus guests and panels and talks and pitching sessions with agents and film producers ... all sorts of great things.  Here's a rundown of what to expect:

For more information and tickets, please visit www.slhfilmfest.com

Doctor Who LPs from Demon

Demon Music Group started out as Demon Records, a British record label, founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera (aka Andrew Jakeman), and also, possibly, Elvis Costello! In 1998, Demon was acquired by Crimson Productions and the record label was merged with its Westside Records operation. The date that BBC Studios acquired Demon Records/Crimson Records and their subsidiaries and labels is not recorded. 

As well as Doctor Who they also release many other items and specialise in the reissues of catalogue titles, with a focus on the various Record Store Days each year where many rare items are re-issued on vinyl specifically for sale at participating stores.

The Demon Records/BBC Doctor Who initiative came from Ben Stanley, Product Manager at Demon Records; their first Doctor Who release came in 2016 when they produced a new vinyl edition of the 'Genesis of the Daleks' adaptation (first issued in October 1979) for the April Record Store Day that year. They also put out 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' and 'City of Death' before Oink Creative and Michael Stevens came on board in 2019 to create a revamped look for 'The Daleks’ Master Plan' soundtrack release. 

As the years have gone by, the Doctor Who releases have become more elaborate and complex. From initial reissues of some of the single- and double-LP historic Doctor Who recordings, they moved into releasing LPs of the Doctor Who soundtracks in 2018 ... and have since augmented the range with some reissues of Big Finish's Doctor Who audios on LP as exclusives to certain retail stores.

The disks themselves are very nicely produced and packaged, and as the range has expanded, so various variants have been introduced. The soundtrack LP covers have been created by various artists at Oink Creative, including (but not limited to) Tom Fournier, Sam Goddard, John Conlon and Louise Barden. The packaging design is by Oink, based on art direction by Michael Stevens; Michael gives the team a detailed brief on each release and supplies photo assets, story detail, sleeve text and suggestions for key elements to illustrate. Michael and Oink decide the vinyl colours and effects between them and he then gives each one a story-appropriate name. 

The pressing plant they use for the LPs is a dab hand at creating all manner of different effects on the disks, which Michael names with suitably 'Who-ish' descriptions for the releases: 'Skaro swirl', 'Tibetan blizzard' and 'Animus splatter' among them ... and these are usually special releases exclusive to the online retailer Amazon.

Most of the Doctor Who soundtrack releases are re-issues of audio previously released on CD, with an overlaid narration from one of the actors from the show, but the release of  'The Web Planet' had not been previously made available and featured an all new narration from Maureen O'Brien. A CD release was subsequently made available the following year.

Looking at the most recent releases, and we have two soundtracks. One is a boxed set of three LPs covering 'The Sensorites', and the other is a two LP release covering 'The Celestial Toymaker'. Each 25 minute episode of the original show takes one LP side, so the number of LPs is dictated by the number of episodes. And the packaging too, to some extent, though the releases have settled into something of a 'format'. There is a box or gatefold case with stunning new artwork on the front, and then each LP has it's own slipcase with a standard design on one side (colour themed to whatever the colour palette of the release is), and the other containing the cast and credits details for that episode. The outer sleeves within the box sets also have imagery on each side which, when placed together, makes up a larger picture.

'The Sensorites' also comes with an embossed, frameable art print of the cover artwork and the Sense-Sphere blue marble vinyl LPs are presented in individual pockets which, when placed in order, reveal a double-sided composite illustration, again of the cover artwork. An accompanying booklet supplies cast and credits, and inner bags feature complete episode billings. It's an impressive package!

'The Celestial Toymaker' comes on red (king) and blue (queen) coloured LPs and is in a more simple gatefold packaging with inner bags.

If it's sheer luxury you want though, then the two LP boxed set releases of two of Paul Magrs' audio series for AudioGo really push the boat out.

Hornet's Nest and Demon Quest were two 2009 and 2010 five-part audio releases featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor, but strangely having adventures in England while living in a cottage with his housekeeper, Mrs Wibbsey. There is a third series of adventures called Serpent Crest, coming on 23 May 2023! The stories were typically Doctor Who, and Baker effortlessly fell back into his classic portrayal ... but here even more eccentric if that's possible!

For these special LP releases Demon Records have really gone the extra mile!  

For Hornet's Nest, the set comes with an exclusive, frameable portrait of the Fourth Doctor - every copy of which has been individually signed by Tom Baker himself. There's an impressive, die-cut removable outer sleeve housing a hornet-adorned lidded box, inside which are ten individual, alternating yellow and black vinyl LPs, within exquisitely illustrated LP sleeves featuring full cast and credits for each story. Also included is The Doctor’s Journal, a large 16-page full colour booklet detailing the Time Lord’s notes and illustrations from his battles against the hornets.

Demon Quest also has ten LP records, alternating red and black, each one containing one episode of the series. Every copy of the vinyl edition includes an exclusive, frameable portrait of the Fourth Doctor, again hand signed by Tom Baker himself. There's an intricately die-cut, removable outer sleeve revealing a demonic lidded box, inside which are ten individual illustrated LP sleeves featuring full cast and credits for each of the five stories. The Time Lord’s encounters with the mysterious demon are detailed in The Doctor’s Journal, a large 16-page full-colour booklet featuring notes and illustrations from this epic pursuit through time.

Each are superbly produced and are in themselves true works of art. Sadly the cost reflects this - they're not cheap, each retailing for around £190 each! But some outlets have them discounted ... so shop around! As a very special present for the Doctor Who fan in your life, they're probably hard to beat!

Released for Record Store Day 2023 (22 April) wasanother Demon release, this time of stories in part from The Amazing Worlds of Doctor Who hardback book, published in 1976 through a special promotion with TyPhoo teabags. The promotion included 12 collectible photo-cards given away with the boxes of tea, and a poster onto which they could be mounted.

This 2023 audio edition included 'The Sinister Sponge' (also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976, previously released on CD on The Sinister Sponge and Other Stories (2019)), 'The Vampires Of Crellium' (original to The Amazing World of Doctor Who), 'On The Slippery Trail' (original to The Amazing World of Doctor Who) and 'The Mission' (also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976). There are two stories not contained in the book The Amazing World of Doctor Who: 'A New Life' (from The Doctor Who Annual 1978) and 'Avast There' (from The Doctor Who Annual 1976). The release also contains audio adaptations of two comic stories: 'The Psychic Jungle' and 'Neuronic Nightmare' (both also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976). 

Dan Starkey (Strax), Louise Jameson (Leela) and Geoffrey Beevers (The Master) read these weird and wacky stories. Published in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary year, the 140g clear vinyl LPs are presented in a gatefold sleeve with illustrated inner bags. Chris Achilleos' iconic artwork for the original book provides a stunning front and back cover to the LP release.

Tom Baker signs copies of the Demon Quest print

The May 2023 Serpent Crest release follows the pattern of the two earlier box sets. This time the colour theme is green and black, and there's the usual quality booklet, art print personally signed by Tom Baker, ten LP records (alternating black and green) and artwork adorning the whole package. This time the slipcase has 'serpent scale' cutouts in the outer box and the whole package just screams 'luxury'.

Author Paul Magrs with his copy of the Serpent Crest LPs

15 September 2023 saw the release of a 4 LP set of stories featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor. Genesis of the Daleks, Doctor Who and  the Pescatons, Exploration Earth: The Time Machine and The State of Decay. Limited to 600 copies, the set comes with a personally signed picture of  Baker.

The Tom Baker Record Collection

Also an LP release in the DOOM'S DAY spin off series: Four For Doom's Day.

For the twin story release Pest Control/The Forever Trap, the set of LPs had an illustrated lift off lid, and features 6 x 140g vinyl LPs three in transparent red and three in transparent yellow each housed in a unique inner sleeve. A four page booklet features sleeve notes by authors Peter Anghelides and Dan Abnett, who reflect on the process of writing for the Tenth Doctor and Donna, and how they regard the stories 17 years later.

'The Edge of Destruction' features an impressive picture LP with the ormolu clock on one side and a TARDIS zoetrope on the other. The soundtrack, it's first audio release in any format, has narration from Carole Ann Ford, and also features an interview with Ford. 

'The Highlanders' was an exclusive vinyl for HMV, and released on 14th June 2024. Narration is by Frazer Hines. It boasts translucent red and blue disks, and the usual information on the slip sleeves.

The Jon Pertwee Collection brings together two of the audio novelisations readings that Pertwee did originally for cassette tape, along with several archival pieces. The box set comes with a print of Jon Pertwee.

LP 1 Side A Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart One / Goodwood Races mini-drama

LP 1 Side B Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Two / Profile interview

LP 2 Side C Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Three / Newsbeat interview

LP 2 Side D Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Four / Simon Bates interview

LP 3 Side E Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part One / The Skivers comedy sketch

LP 3 Side F Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Two / Local radio interview

LP 4 Side G Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Three / Radio Lives tributes

LP 4 Side H Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Four / Who Is The Doctor?

Here's the covers for further releases from Demon.

Here's a checklist of all the Doctor Who LPs that Demon Records have released so far ...

Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks 16/04/2016 DEMREC160

Doctor Who and the Pescatons (Victor Pemberton) / Doctor Who Sound Effects No 19 22/04/2017 DEMREC202

Doctor Who: City of Death 21/04/2018 green vinyl DEMREC254

Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen 21/04/2018 silver vinyl DEMREC253

Doctor Who: Cold Vengeance (Matt Fitton) 19/10/2018 DEMREC327

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 13/04/2019 2x180g splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP001

Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks 13/04/2019 2x180g splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP002

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan 15/02/2019 6x180g translucent blue vinyl. DEMWHOBOX001

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Amazon) 15/02/2019 6x180g translucent 'splatter' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX001X

Doctor Who: The Creeping Death (Roy Gill) 24/05/2019 DEMREC433

Doctor Who: Wave of Destruction (Justin Richards) 02/08/2019 'ocean swirl' vinyl. DEMREC453

Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks 19/07/2019 translucent red vinyl. DEMWHOBOX002

Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks (Amazon) 19/07/2019 'Skaro swirl' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX002X

Doctor Who: Death and the Queen (James Goss) 06/09/2019 DEMREC370

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen 27/09/2019 3x180g white vinyl DEMWHOBOX003

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen (Amazon) 27/09/2019 3x180g 'Tibetan blizzard' vinyl DEMWHOBOX003X

Doctor Who: Max Warp (Jonathan Morris) 15/11/2019 DEMREC554

Doctor Who: The Web Planet 13/12/2019 180g pink vinyl. DEMWHOBOX004

Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Amazon) 13/12/2019 180g 'Animus splatter' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX004X

Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death & The Ghosts of N-Space (Barry Letts) 28/02/2020 3x180g blue vinyl & 3x180g yellow vinyl DEMWHOBOX005

Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death & The Ghosts of N-Space (Barry Letts) (Amazon) 28/02/2020 3x180g space world splatter vinyl and 3x180g spectral splatter vinyl DEMWHOBOX005X

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace 06/07/2020 180g 'volcanic eruption' vinyl. DEMWHOLP004X

Doctor Who: The Massacre 29/08/2020 'Parisian blaze' vinyl DEMWHOLP003

Doctor Who: Marco Polo 11/09/2020 sandstorm vinyl DEMWHOBOX006X

Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious: The Minds of Magnox (Darren Jones) 04/12/2020 DEMWHOLP005

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time (Richard Wilkinson) 22/01/2021 140g red and purple vinyl DEMREC713

Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock 19/02/2021 140g Rutan blob green vinyl DEMWHOLP006

Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors 04/06/2021 molten ice vinyl DEMWHOBOX007

Dalek Terror 12/06/2021 2x140g 'extermination splatter' vinyl DEMWHOLP007

Doctor Who: The Myth Makers 27/08/2021 'Trojan sunset' vinyl DEMWHOLP008

Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet 18/03/2022 'sky demon' splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP009

Doctor Who: Dead Air (James Goss) 23/04/2022 2x140g soundwave green vinyl. DEMWHOLP010

Doctor Who: Hornet's Nest: The Complete Series 06/05/2022 10x140g alternating yellow and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX009

Doctor Who: The Sensorites 22/07/2022 3x140g Sense-Sphere blue marble vinyl. DEMWHOBOX008

Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker 30/09/2022 2x140g king and queen (red and blue) vinyl DEMWHOLP011

Doctor Who: Demon Quest: The Complete Series 02/12/2022 10x140g alternating red and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX010

The Amazing World of Doctor Who 22/04/2023 2x140g red and orange vinyl REF: DEMWHOLP012

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest: The Complete Series 26/05/2023 10x140g alternating green and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX011

Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Record Collection 15/09/2023 4x140g orange, green, red and blue vinyl DEMWHOBOX012 (the label on the front has DEMRECBOX012)

Doom's Day: Four For Doom's Day 15/09/2023 2x140g translucent purple and blue vinyl DEMWHOLP013

Doctor Who: Pest Control / The Forever Trap 24/05/2024 6x140g translucent red and yellow vinyl DEMWHOBOX013

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction 24/04/2024 1x140g zoetrope picture disc vinyl DEMWHOREC1190

Doctor Who: The Highlanders 14/06/2024 2x140g translucent red and blue vinyl. DEMWHOLP014

Doctor Who: The Crusade 04/10/2024 2x140g translucent green and yellow vinyl. DEMWHOLP015

Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet 12/04/2025 2x140g white and silver vinyl. DEMWHOLP016

Doctor Who: The Jon Pertwee Collection 01/08/2025 4x140g Green and Blue vinyl. DEMWHOBOX014

Doctor Who: The Moonbase 19/09/2025 2x140g translucent 'blue moon' vinyl. DEMWHOLP017

Doctor Who: The Last Voyage 28/11/2025 2x translucent yellow vinyl. DEMWHOLP018

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space 13/02/2026 3x translucent 'bernalium' blue vinyl. DEMWHOLP019

Doctor Who: The Rescue 18/04/2026 1x translucent 'rescue red' vinyl. DEMWHOLP020

Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker: The Deadliest Weapon 31/07/2026 1x translucent 'purple coat' vinyl. DEMWHOLP021

Review: Doctor Who: The Reality War

Sorry it's taken me a bit of time to get to reviewing the climax to the latest season of Doctor Who. Blame too much else happening in my life!

But here we are at last, and despite a couple of weeks wondering how to approach the review I'm still no closer, so I'm just going to start typing and see where it all takes me.

Fundamentally, the episode had too much to do. Russell T Davies had decided to try and bring together all the threads from Ncuti Gatwa's second season, but also to introduce aspects of his first season, and to try and bring together the concept of the 'Gods' which started in the 14th Doctor specials before that. And on top of all this, there was an apparent change of direction somewhere in there which meant that Gatwa was leaving and so the whole thing needed to end on the usual (traditional?) cliffhanger of a new Doctor coming in. That is a fair amount to try and juggle in about 66 minutes!

Sad to say that I don't think the final episode was wholly successful in its aims. There's just too much to try and sort out. There's too many hanging threads which were not addressed, and this is important as in this day and age of TV series apparently needing to have a 'season arc', if you're going to do that, then it's important that you actually complete the arc and have the whole thing making sense at the end. If you don't then you're going to alienate your audience who then may not come back for more the following season. These endings are important!

Thus not addressing who 'the Boss' is as referred to by the Meep way back, not addressing why the Doctor saw his granddaughter Susan in the episodes leading to the climax, not addressing how this Vindicator device, supposedly invented and built by the Doctor to triangulate routes back to the Earth, ends up being the perfect fit for a giant clock face that the Rani has built (and even has a hand which points the time), but then is also some sort of ultimate weapon thing which can fire power beams to force Omega back to his Underverse place. This was just so convenient that it beggared belief.

And what about all the 'clues' that the Doctor was not in the real world anymore? An entire episode about fiction and imagination 'The Story and the Machine' in which Mrs Flood and Poppy seemed to be stories. Mrs Flood breaking the fourth wall all the time and speaking to the audience ... nothing came of it all.

The Rani's plan, as discussed in my review of the previous episode, 'Wish World', also made no sense whatsoever. She wanted to create a world based on the wishes of Conrad (who we discover here learned from the Doctor's little lecture, and created the world were people were nice to each other) so that the Doctor could doubt it, and that doubt would crack reality and release Omega. And why did she want to release Omega? So that his DNA could be used to repopulate the Time Lord race as they are all infertile from the Genetic explosion during the Time War. Twice the Doctor refers to Omega as a Time Lord, but he was never this - he was a Stellar Engineer who detonated the black hole which then gave the Gallifreyans the power they needed to become Time Lords. Omega himself was thrown through the black hole into a universe of anti-matter where he stewed and plotted and lost who he was, becoming an entity of matter created by his own mind. He was not a Time Lord.

As someone in the episode commented, why not use the DNA you have: the Rani's and the Doctor's? But that wasn't going to work for some reason as they are sterile. But the Rani is a genetic scientist and genius (even if she seems to have inherited some of the Master's craziness here) and so couldn't she create Time Lord babies in test tubes if she had the DNA?

In and around all this jiggery pokery we have the mystery of Poppy - supposedly the child of the Doctor and Belinda while in Wish World (except that neither could actually remember having her or bringing her up - we just have to accept that this is the case) but then, because reality shatters, Poppy isn't the Doctor's child at all, and even though he gets Susan Triad to create a handy (and impossible) Zero Room at UNIT HQ and puts Belinda and Poppy in there so they don't get affected when the Wish is cancelled, Poppy still vanishes shortly after.

What I really didn't understand about this sequence was that everyone else remembered everything that had been the case, but that was now not the case (like the actor Ernest Borgnine not being dead), but could not remember Poppy being there, or anything related to her. And this included the Doctor (who usually can remember stuff from alternate timelines and so on as he's a Time Lord). Only Ruby could remember, but there's nothing to explain why this would be. It just is. So Ruby has to convince the Doctor that Poppy being missing is one of those 'glitches' and he decides to use his regeneration energy to force the universe to slip a gear and to set things back right again.

Of course once he does this, Poppy does now exist, but she's still not his child. She's Belinda's. And we further discover that she is the reason that Belinda wanted to come home on 24 May - as Poppy and Belinda's mum were waiting for her. This all seems a very weak and 'normal' reason. And it's backed up by lots of clips of Belinda explaining to the Doctor all about Poppy - clips that we didn't see in their respective stories. I wondered whether the clips were recorded at the same time as those stories which would mean that Davies had this ending in mind all along, or whether they were reset with the same costumes and CGI backgrounds and so on while the final episode was being recorded. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it was a nice way of showing how reality had shifted and that things were now not the same as before.

On this subject though, how many beings lost their lives or just ceased to exist because the Doctor jogged reality over a cog. Maybe more actors are now dead who were not before. Maybe more were alive who had been dead? The Doctor doesn't seem concerned about any of this.

His and Belinda's reactions too when Poppy is being erased and Ruby is trying to let them know seemed callous and harsh. Not like the Doctor at all. He and Belinda are just self-obsessed with where to travel to next, even ignoring Ruby and the obvious pain this was all causing her. 

There's just so many elements in the episode which don't make sense when you think about them. Kate uses a chip embedded in all the UNIT personnel to 'wake them up' and to bring them to UNIT HQ. But they are all in the Wish World. UNIT is only reverting back to the real reality because Anita is keeping the Time Hotel door open. So in the Wish World, why would these people have a UNIT chip? And why would it work? Shirley 'didn't exist' in the Wish World but she was obviously there and functioning, if not realising that she had been a UNIT officer. And Mel? Well she did exist in the Wish World ... and Rose (Donna's daughter), well she just appeared from nowhere as Conrad had literally made her vanish as she was trans. And how did Mel ride her scooter through London and up into UNIT HQ, up in the lifts (or did she take the stairs) and then drive straight into the main control room without anyone questioning it? Was it just the control room which reverted to real reality or the whole building? Didn't it have any security at the front entrance? How did she get it through the revolving doors and turnstiles? Too much is just handwaved away and shortcut in the narrative for it to really make sense. You just have to smile and move on - it's not meant to make sense, it's just nice and dramatic.

So opposite the giant clock in the Rani's bone palace we have a giant Gallifrey logo. Not sure why. And then it changes to the symbol that Omega had on his costume in 'Arc of Infinity'. And then it's a doorway to the Underverse. And then Omega is there, but rather than being a powerful and vengeful creature of thought, he's a giant CGI monster (as Sutekh was) and he's so big he can't even get through this doorway! They didn't think that through did they. So he scoops up and eats the Rani with no apparent ill or beneficial effects. The other Mrs Flood/Rani grabs the Time Ring (she never had a TARDIS, apparently the Doctor has the only one) and vanishes off somewhere else. I guess she lives to fight another day. 

But why was she swanning around dressing as all the Doctor's previous companions? Was this solely because in 'Time and the Rani' she pretended to be Mel to try and trick the newly regenerated Doctor who was confused at the time? There was a reason for it in that earlier story. I got that she was monitoring the Doctor and making sure the Vindicator thing was doing what it was supposed to, but why dress as his companions?

And if you've got a Time Ring that can apparently take you anywhere and anytime, then why do you need a TARDIS anyway? If you really want one then you could just use the Time Ring and go in time and space to somewhere where you knew there were operational TARDISes (the Master's? The Monk's? The War Lord's SIDRATs? The Doctor's? The Daleks'?) and just steal one? When you're talking about a Time Machine, how can there only be one left? Have all others been erased from all of time? If that happened then the whole of the Doctor's past history would be rewritten if there was no Master and no Dalek time machine etc etc ... so it doesn't seem likely.

And while we're back on the whole Rani plan thing, why, at the end of 'The Robot Revolution' did we see fragments of the Earth floating in space, suggesting that the Earth has been destroyed on the 24 May? The plot at the end suggested that the 24 May never came as the world 'reset' at the end of the 23 May and the only day they all ever lived in Wish World was the 23 May. Was this a suggestion that if Omega had emerged and run riot then the Earth would have been destroyed on the 24th? And the Doctor's actions stopped that happening and thus when the Wish ended, it all carried on (mostly) as it had been before, but then the Doctor jumped reality a little more ...

And then we get to the ending. There's lots of speculation online as to what happened, what the 'original' ending should have been - that it involved Susan and a party or something - that there were hasty remounts and material recorded late in the day ... all sorts of stuff. But of course we can only really judge on what we actually saw.

For reasons I can't recall, the 13th Doctor appears in the TARDIS and gives the 15th a bit of a talking to, advising him on how to make the regen energy into the TARDIS thing work, and then she vanishes off again. Then the Doctor fires his regeneration energy into the TARDIS which causes reality to skip. But then the Doctor is about to actually regenerate, so he puts it off so he can be sure that Poppy and Belinda are safe ... and then he's off in the TARDIS. He wants to have a witness to his regeneration and so turns to Joy - the lady from 'Joy to the World', the Christmas Special, who became a literal star - and he blasts his regeneration out into the universe of space (where does all this energy go I wonder. I thought the point was to turn it inward to make him regenerate, not to allow it all to escape ... but anyway) and he regenerates.

Next thing we have Billie Piper saying Hello! But the end credits don't credit her as the Doctor, just 'introducing'. What a strange way to end the episode. Especially when, if you can believe half of what is talked about on the interwebs, there is no interest from Disney in more Doctor Who, and the BBC is trying to find another partner to continue it.

Why do that? Why introduce an apparent new Doctor which a new production partner might not even want? It seems very strange. Unless of course the new Piper Doctor has a role in the forthcoming The War Between Land and Sea series? Or all this internet gossip is just that and there is a new season or Christmas Special in the offing and something will resolve there.

However on this occasion I doubt it. There are too many loose ends and elements introduced which are then skipped over for me to be wholly convinced that there is any game plan at work here. As I said at the start, for a series arc to work, it has to be an arc, it has to make sense in the end, and the season needs to come to a conclusion which is worked for and which doesn't feel like 'stuff happens because'. Sadly for the Gatwa years, this seems to be the main takeaway.

Looking back over the individual episodes though, for the most part I have enjoyed them all. There's lots to like, some great performances, good and interesting ideas, and some absolute standout drama. Possibly my least favourite was 'Rogue' as I just can't get on with the Doctor falling in love with someone he just met. Yes he can care about others, he can try and make things better for them. He obviously loves and cares for the people who travel with him as he develops a bond with them as a result - it would be hard not to care for someone you have so much shared experience with. But the Doctor going all googly eyed over someone he (or she) just met just didn't sit with me. I felt the same about 'The Girl in the Fireplace' where the Doctor falls for Madame de Pompadour.

I loved Gatwa as the Doctor. Bags of charisma and energy, and he seemed to put his all into playing the role with gusto. I enjoyed Ruby and Belinda, again great performances and the actresses were believable in their respective roles. Even if Ruby's story last season was a little too 'normal' as well. She found her mother ... nothing unusual ... the whole season-long mystery of who she was and why she was abandoned as a baby wasn't a mystery at all. It had nothing to do with anything.

And so we come to the end of another era in Doctor Who's long history. Another Doctor has come and gone ... maybe to come back as a surprise guest in a future story ... maybe not. I have no crystal ball to tell me what the next few years will bring. Maybe Doctor Who will be back with another streaming company (I've seen Amazon mentioned) with a new Doctor (maybe Billie Piper, maybe not). Maybe there will be another 'hiatus' and we won't have any more Doctor Who on television for the next few years (except maybe a made-for-preschoolers cartoon version, and I have no idea what the BBC is thinking on that score. I fear it will be dreadful with only the name and perhaps some characters in common with the show I love. It certainly won't get pre-schoolers wanting to watch the live action version, and if they do then they will be in for a shock!)

There will continue to be the fans of course, endlessly creating new audio dramas and books (for as long as the BBC wants to license them for). And even if the official licenses drop away, there will be fan produced adventures and books and audios and dramas. Technology is such that it's much easier to do all these things now than the last time the show went off air.

So it's probably going to be an interesting and exciting time ahead. I hope I manage to stay around to enjoy it!

***

And if you enjoy my ramblings, please check out a new book I have coming from Bedford Square Publishing on October 9. Called WHO ME! it's my Doctor Who Memoirs ... my life in Doctor Who!

Signed copies are available from me direct: https://samantha-lee-howe-ltd.sumupstore.com/product/who-me-david-j-howe-signed-hardback

And it's also on Amazon UK :)

Review: New Doctor Who Books

There's four new Doctor Who titles on the pile to review, so here goes!

First up are two new novels in the BBC's hardbacked fiction range. At this time these focus on whoever the current Doctor is, and so these two have Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor as the lead, and while Spectral Scream features Belinda Chandra as the companion, the other, Fear Death By Water has no companion.

Spectral Scream first and I really enjoyed this tale by Hannah Fergesen set mid-way through Gatwa's second season, and sort of slotted in as another adventure following 'Lux'.

The Doctor and Belinda arrive on a planet, Sooz, where an eternal dance party is taking place. The Doctor gets his Vindicator reading, and Belinda notes someone looking remarkably like Mrs Flood, her next door neighbour, watching him. However things start to go awry when a psychic 'scream' echoes around, sending the time travellers off to investigate.

They arrive on planet Stenlar One Zero Six Five lower-case f, which is supposed to be uninhabited but which hosts a multitude of vegetation and fungi ... and some humanoids who have become symbiotic with the fungus. It's all very imaginative, and the plot continues to twist and turn as to what is going on, what the 'scream' is, and how the Doctor needs to untangle it all.

I could believe in the Doctor and Belinda, and the other characters are also well drawn. The plot has a lot of event crammed in, and I liked the movement of the characters throughout the story. A good, engaging read!

Onto Fear Death By Water by Emily Cook, and sadly it's not a patch on Spectral Scream. It reads more like one of the other series of books that Penguin are publishing, Icons, where the Doctor meets various 'famous' characters from history. Here it's Grace Darling, whose work rescuing ships and sailors initiated the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The Doctor is inexplicably visiting a museum devoted to the RNLI in 2000 and meets a young Emily. He then realises that a barometer belonging to Grace Darling is emitting Artron energy and so goes back in time to explore.

It transpires that some creature is inhabiting the seas and that it has an affinity with Grace, and so the Doctor is able to help some aliens as well as the creature and Grace, and all ends happily ever after. Except that Grace still dies in 1842 from TB aged only 26. It's a tale of ships and windswept seas, and I'm not sure what relevance the title has as no-one seems to actually fear death by water, although Grace alludes to it on one occasion.

I found it all rather simplistic, with a straightforward plot, and a 'the Doctor meets ...' premise which rather weighs down the Icons series as well. Lovely cover though!

Both of these books are also available on Audio. Spectral Scream is read by Michelle Asante while Susan Twist tackles Fear Death By Water.

The third fiction title is Doctor Who: Frankenstein and the Patchwork Man by Jack Heath, and this is in a third series of titles that Puffin are publishing, and these riff on older, well known works of literature, and include the Doctor in the action somewhere along the way. They are not copies of the source material, but new stories which take characters and leads from them, but go off in their own direction.

The source here is Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, and I think everyone probably knows the basic plot if not from the book, but from the myriad adaptations and expansions that there have been over the years.

Here we have the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) in an adventure on Earth involving a strange stitched together creation powered by something called Voltigrades. There's Vincent Frankenstein who is trying to bring life back to deceased matter, and a plot that just whisks you along at a madcap pace. 

I think of the three fiction titles reviewed here, this was my favourite. Heath manages to cram a lot into the book, and it's scary and horrifying as well as surprising and action packed. Everyone gets something to do, and the solutions don't come easily. In many ways the novel, despite being published by Puffin (a children's imprint), is more grown up than the novels published under the BBC imprint.

A good tale which recreates well the exhausting helter-skelter of the ninth Doctor's TV season.

The final book is another tome of puzzles, The Official Doctor Who Puzzle Book by Dr Simon Fox. It's basically a book of code-type puzzles, but there are several different types. Finding the connection between four words; putting names and phrases back together again; putting clues together to find the final entry; mathematical calculations using clues to the numbers ... a lot of mind-bending fun basically.

Review: Doctor Who: Wish World

As I start this review of the Doctor Who episode 'Wish World' I note that this is the 500th post on this blog!  So yay to me!!!  I hope you, constant reader, have been enjoying the ride!

Anyway, back to the plot, and we're here to look at the 'Wish World' episode of Doctor Who ahead of the finale to the season (which is available tomorrow, 31 May 2025!).

I have learned over the years to be very wary of these two parters, as inevitably the ball is dropped and the second part never/rarely fulfils the promise of the first. I think the writers tend to set themselves too high a bar, working towards an amazing cliffhanger which then doesn't pay off. And in a way this is what we have here. The previous episode ending with the Doctor and Belinda in the TARDIS and the TARDIS doors explode inwards ... and this episode, in classic Steven Moffat style, starts with something totally different, ignoring all that has gone before.

I'm not going to relay the 'plot' as the whole episode is just a concept and trailer for the Rani's plan, which she reveals in some detail towards the end. And it's a plan worthy of the Cybermen in it's complete complexity for something which you would think should be quite simple.

So.

The Rani apparently survived the Time Wars and the destruction of Gallifrey and all the Time Lords along with it. As did the Doctor, of course. Oh, and the Master too. Oh, and probably some other Time Lords somewhere also ... it's the thing you see with time travel, you can never be quite sure of what 'reality' actually is. And this is what this episode is all about.

The Rani is a Time Lord, and presumably she has a working TARDIS and this is how she, in her Mrs Flood guise, popped up all over the place in each of the episodes this season. So if she has a working TARDIS, and she wanted to go find the progenitor of the Time Lords, Omega, isn't the obvious course of action to go back to a time when Omega was alive and stop him from detonating the star which created the Time Lords' power and banished Omega to an anti-matter universe in the first place ... or let him do all that or she would never have been in the first place, but then rescue him at some point before he was banished?

Instead, the Rani has this crazed plan to kidnap a baby, who happens to be the God of Wishes (and who creepily chuckles the 'Giggle' cadence) and who can literally make anything happen. All you do is kiss the baby and your wishes come true, whatever they are. She grabs the child back in 1865 and so could have changed the world then if she so wanted.

Enter Conrad from the earlier episode. Now he is a conspiracy theorist, believing all the irrational theories and ideas which populate the internet. 'Reality' is not good enough for him, there must be some higher reason for everything to happen - coincidence and 'just because' is not a reason, there is always someone pulling strings, some fiendish plot to remove all the currency, to create a pandemic, to want people to be vaccinated, to kill Kings and Presidents and popular actresses, and to start wars. The simple answers are not enough, and you're obviously not 'doing the research' to find out the truth if you're happy to accept what millions of scientists have researched for decades over what some chap in his basement on YouTube says.

With this as our character, I have a problem believing that his 'wish world' would be a perfect one where everyone works 9-5, is happy, lives in cookie cutter houses, is married with a child (well, not everyone as obviously Mel, Ibrahim and Kate are not married) and who listens to Conrad on the TV telling 24x7 'fairy stories' about 'Doctor Who'. In this world there are no conspiracies, everything is as you see it, and you're not permitted to doubt anything - actually the opposite of how Conrad was set up in the first place. He was nothing but doubt - he even refused to believe when a Shreek was about to kill him. I have a problem rationalising his character here, and also the world he created.

But doubt is the key to the Rani's plan. She has got Conrad to create this world precisely so that the Doctor will doubt it, as the doubt of a Time Lord has more power than the billions of humans. Even so she has some very cool looking beings called Seekers who seem to be monitoring and measuring the levels of doubt in the world. With the Doctor's doubt, she can crack through Conrad's 'reality' and open the gates to somewhere called the Underverse, which is where Omega is trapped.

But if this is the case, and the Rani wants there to be doubt - as much doubt as can be generated - to ensure that the Underverse is accessed, then why have everyone shutting doubt down at every turn. People report their friends and family for having doubt, and the police come and take them away. Having doubt is forbidden. You are not allowed to question. Again, completely the opposite of Conrad's whole worldview, and completely against what the Rani's plan is.

Anyway.

The Rani gets the Doctor back to her bone palace towering above London and, as in Conrad's world he cannot remember anything, she has to explain everything to him. And so he starts to remember.

But there's another trap. As the Doctor remembers (and is remembering who you are and that all this is fake actual 'doubt'? Not really. If you KNOW the truth, you do not doubt at all. So again this getting the Doctor to remember is actually working against the Rani's plan.) she gets him onto an outside balcony which she has rigged to explode off the main building, and so the episode ends with him shouting that Poppy, his daughter, is real as he plummets to the ground, which is itself collapsing and disintegrating as the Underverse is breached.

So ... killing the Doctor. That would 100% stop him doubting I would think. And thus the Rani's power source would be abruptly cut off. Not really something she wants if she wants to rescue Omega.

And 'Poppy is real'. Is the Doctor saying that Poppy is a real baby as he met her on the spaceship in 'Space Babies', or that she is his real daughter? So Susan's mother? And a Time Lord herself? At this point I've no idea what this meant. Maybe we'll find out next week.

It's always hard to review the first part of a two part story as you don't know what is significant and what is not. You don't know where the story is going or, of course, how it's going to play out, so all you can do is discuss and ruminate on what you have seen.

There are some cracking visuals here. I love the idea of incorporeal giant bone dinosaur things roaming London, although quite why Conrad wants them there I have no idea. Surely they don't fit in his vision of a perfect world? The bone palace is neat and as mentioned I loved the design and look of the 'seeker' creatures. Very much shades of the 1980 Flash Gordon film I felt. All the 'perfect world' stuff sadly left me a little cold and just wanting it to get on with things, but I understand why it's all there: to establish what's going on before we get all the backstory explanations.

One element which did work was the idea that anyone who didn't fit Conrad's idea of being 'right' is basically invisible, and thus unaffected by his worldview. So all the disabled and the dispossessed are living around those with jobs and happy families, but they are ignored and invisible to them. It's the sort of thing Conrad would probably like to see happen.

I felt the brief appearance from Rogue (from 'Rogue') was silly. Sending a message from a Hell Dimension ... how did he do that? And how did the Doctor receive it if he's in a world of Conrad's creation? Was it a fake from the Rani to get the Doctor to doubt more? In which case how did she know about Rogue in the first place? Susan is also seen on the screen, with the same questions.

A final comment harking back to my last review. Are there any non-ardent fan viewers who would have a clue who Omega was? He first appeared in the 1973 story 'The Three Doctors', and then again in 1983's 'Arc of Infinity'. Some great powerful Time Lord is perhaps the essence/assumption of what we were told ... I hope they're not forgetting that Omega was NOT a Time Lord, and was NEVER a Time Lord. Before he detonated the star, Time Lords did not exist ... and this became the basis for his anger and seething rage at the Time Lords. That he missed out and his brothers abandoned him. He actually has no power himself, just the power of his mind to create worlds and imaginary servants ... Sounds familiar.

The two faces of Omega ...

Anyway. We'll all find out tomorrow! I'm off to watch some yellow mugs fall through the table. Great fun!