I can still remember the sock full of wet mud to the back of the head that was seeing the new title sequence for Tom Baker's last year - what the hell was this? Where was the Time Tunnel? What have they done? Reading up on the stories of that final series, I find I don't actually recall any of them; maybe I've blanked them for some reason, in which case it'll be even more interesting to finally revisit them. As for subsequent Doctors, I have next to no memories of any of them.
And yet for some of us, that change of music and title sequence really heralded our era, our Doctors (no matter how good any of the others were, Peter Davison was MY Doctor )...classic stories such as the Black Guardian Trilogy, the oft-forgotten (and tremendously under-rated) State of Decay, Kinda (but watch it on DVD with the new effects...one of the few times it really works...and then some), Attack of the Cybermen, and so on and so on...and some moments that have always haunted me (Castrovalva was an average story, but one sequence still chills my bones...)...
My local Public Broadcast Station changed their Dr Who schedule from M-F at 6pm to Saturdays only at 11:30 pm, so I lost touch when Peter Davison took the role. For me, Tom Baker will always be the one and only Doctor.
As for the "Star Field" intro, S18's "Meglos" is among my all-time favorite stories.
"Meglos" is a cracker, but a cracker that for some reason that I don't own as yet...it's the only story from that season I don't own and is one of the next batch to order...along with the first Revisitations box.
The only thing that keeps Meglos from total perfection is something unrelated to the story proper. The commentary track with Lalla Ward--in fact, ANY commentary featuring that bitter shrew is to be avoided. Clearly Tom Baker did a number on her noggin and she cannot hold back her hostility for the man. It makes for some seriously awkward moments on the commentaries. I guess Richard Dawkins' love isn't enough to soothe her wounded heart. lol
The other features on the Meglos DVD, however, are superb.
The only thing that keeps Meglos from total perfection is something unrelated to the story proper. The commentary track with Lalla Ward--in fact, ANY commentary featuring that bitter shrew is to be avoided. Clearly Tom Baker did a number on her noggin and she cannot hold back her hostility for the man. It makes for some seriously awkward moments on the commentaries. I guess Richard Dawkins' love isn't enough to soothe her wounded heart. lol
The other features on the Meglos DVD, however, are superb.
Jim, Have you seen State of Decay? There are scenes in that story where Baker and Ward have scenes together but they clearly have no eye contact.
Jim, Have you seen State of Decay? There are scenes in that story where Baker and Ward have scenes together but they clearly have no eye contact.
I have yet to get the E-Space box but I have seen a bit where they are in a forest(?) and are delivering their lines without looking at one another. Is that the one where she wears the low cut dress that reveals her incredibly bony sternum? lol
Lalla Ward is okay as Romana as long as she's not screaming and shouting. Every time I hear her annoying scream (heard to best effect in "Destiny of the Daleks" and "The Leisure Hive") I want to scream, too. Just irritating and overwrought crap. Bring back Mary Tamm! (so to speak)
As we've reported, there are Amazon pre-orders for several Doctor Who titles which don't have any dates formally announced by the BBC for them yet. The most wanted of these titles right now are the DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions of Doctor Who - The Complete 7th Series (the most recently aired season, already available as half-season sets). But there are also 5 items from the classic original program, including the highly anticipated release of Doctor Who - Story #080: Terror of the Zygons. We're still waiting on the official word on that 2-DVD set, along with all the other items mentioned here. However, Amazon has updated their entry for Zygons with a first look at the cover art for this 4th Doctor story!
Big Finish are to produce a couple of Doctor Who stories in association with former producer Philip Hinchcliffe, the man who led Doctor Who through one of its most successful and best remembered eras.
Starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela, the two audio plays will evoke the spirit and feel of the period when Hinchcliffe was in charge of production. Philip Hinchcliffe produced Doctor Who from 1975’s The Ark in Space through to the 1977 story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. He was responsible for a series of stories which regularly top fan polls of favourite titles and which include some of the episodes with the highest ratings in Doctor Who’s history.
The idea for revisiting the era came after Hinchcliffe visited the Big Finish studios to watch the recording of series three of The Fourth Doctor Adventures. Big Finish Producer David Richardson said I know that Tom Baker and Louise Jameson were thrilled to have him there, and they both enthused to him about what a great time they were having working for Big Finish. After the recording ended, Philip took me and executive producer Nicholas Briggs aside, and pitched the idea of doing a set of stories of the kind he would have hoped to have done, had he stayed on to produce the series for longer. We just said ‘yes’ instantly!
The first story in the set will be an epic six-parter set in Victorian London, adapted by Marc Platt, who wrote the TV story Ghost Light, which will be paired with a four-parter.
Hinchcliffe said he wanted to create stories that felt as if they could belong to his second or third season They are not designed to follow on from my era, more to re-evoke it for fans who enjoyed the originals: and so the Doctor and Leela in these new stories are the same as they were then, in the glorious seventies! That's the beauty of radio - they look and sound the same.
Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents will be released in August 2014, and is available for pre-order.
The idea for revisiting the era came after Hinchcliffe visited the Big Finish studios to watch the recording of series three of The Fourth Doctor Adventures. Big Finish Producer David Richardson said I know that Tom Baker and Louise Jameson were thrilled to have him there, and they both enthused to him about what a great time they were having working for Big Finish. After the recording ended, Philip took me and executive producer Nicholas Briggs aside, and pitched the idea of doing a set of stories of the kind he would have hoped to have done, had he stayed on to produce the series for longer. We just said ‘yes’ instantly!
Oh, this does sound interesting! Thanks for posting this.
Last week, the Doctor Who Youtube channel released a mysterious 4th Doctor teaser video, leaving many fans speculating on what it all meant.
Now the mystery has now been somewhat solved with a follow up video, and as Doctor Who TV expected, it is merchandising related. The merchandise in question being the previously announced Terror of the Zygons DVD due for release later in the year.
This may not be the end of the matter though as the DVD case and cover in the latest video looks like it is actually part of a boxset rather than the standalone release.
Still, it’s hard not to sympathise with fans hoping the whole thing would have led to something much bigger than yet more merchandise…
Limited edition deluxe Tom Baker themed box set. Exclusive content and memorabilia beautifully packaged in individually numbered bespoke Time Capsule. Includes exclusive contributions from Tom Baker himself and an exclusive action figure.
• Exclusive interview with Tom Baker • Letter from Tom Baker introducing the set • Exclusive Tom Baker action figure • Advance DVD release of restored story ‘Terror of the Zygons’ with exclusive artwork • Audiobook and Novel with exclusive artwork
BBC Worldwide has announced the release of a limited run (5000 units) Fourth Doctor Time Capsule set. The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule will be released 29 July 2013.
Watching The Seeds of Doom and love the miscue when Scourby stumbles as he comes in the door to talk to Harrison Chase at the start of the fourth episode. I guess the notoriously tight BBC budget and insidious unions of the day wouldn't allow for a retake. lol
Watching The Seeds of Doom and love the miscue when Scourby stumbles as he comes in the door to talk to Harrison Chase at the start of the fourth episode. I guess the notoriously tight BBC budget and insidious unions of the day wouldn't allow for a retake. lol
No Dudley Simpson for that story, not when Douglas Camfield was the director.
Writer Gareth Roberts has confirmed on Twitter that he is currently writing a novelisation of the 1979 serial City of Death:
Most Doctor Who serials from the series' original run (1963–1989) were novelised between 1964 and 1993, except for two Dalek serials by Eric Saward and three serials written or cowritten by Douglas Adams. In 2012, BBC Books published a novelisation of the uncompleted serial Shada by Roberts. The televised version of City of Death was credited to the pseudonymous "David Agnew", because Adams (who was then serving as Doctor Who's script editor) heavily rewrote the original script by David Fisher. Adams later used elements of both City of Death and Shada in his 1987 novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
As indicated above, Roberts' novelisation of City of Death is expected to be published in 2014.
)...classic stories such as the Black Guardian Trilogy, the oft-forgotten (and tremendously under-rated) State of Decay, Kinda (but watch it on DVD with the new effects...one of the few times it really works...and then some), Attack of the Cybermen, and so on and so on...and some moments that have always haunted me (Castrovalva was an average story, but one sequence still chills my bones...)... 
