William Russell

Doctor Who continued … Marco Polo is one of the many early Doctor Who adventures that no longer exists in the BBC archives.  This telesnap version was presented on a BBC release. It’s difficult to understand why Marco Polo was a 7-part story as, in this abridged version, Marco Polo’s […]

14-19. Marco Polo

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Doctor Who continued … As someone who likes well done “bottle shows” (I’m thinking the likes of “Sapphire & Steel” here), this one comes across as a bit confusing.  In production terms and mystery, it works very well.  In providing explanations and solving that mystery, it somewhat fails.  So the […]

12 & 13. The Edge of Destruction / The Brink ...

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Doctor Who continued … I watched The Forest of Fear and The Firemaker whilst I was working on something else at the same time but, even so, it’s pretty clear that there is a deeper story hidden beneath the surface.  The political wranglings between Za and Kal seeking power over […]

The Tribe of Gum (overview)

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Doctor Who continued … Recaptured and returned to the tribe’s encampment, the Doctor seeks to drive out Kal by deducing the real killer of the Old Woman.  Za recovers just in time, but his desire for the secret of fire outweighs any sense of gratitude for his life being saved, […]

4. The Firemaker

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Doctor Who continued … You can’t say that this episode doesn’t do what it says on the tin.  Our heroes spend most of their time in a forest.  Za defeats a beast that we don’t see and, despite apparently being at death’s door, it doesn’t take him long to recover. […]

3. The Forest of Fear

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Doctor Who continued … This episode starts the caveman adventure and, as such, it’s the “first” episode of three.  At first, we don’t get to see what’s going on inside the TARDIS since the dramatic “take off” prior to the cliffhanger.  Instead, some time is spent setting up the heirarchy […]

2. The Cave of Skulls

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This third version of the pilot episode of Doctor Who, at just 25 minutes long, is pretty much the same as the “raw” version except that it has some scenes reshot (to avoid the banging doors), and some that may have been edited (Barbara getting her coat trapped in the […]

An Unearthly Child

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Continuing my Doctor Who marathon, I watched the shorter (23 minute) “official” broadcast version of An Unearthly Child last night.  In comparison to the previous version, it felt like it zipped along a bit quicker but I couldn’t honestly tell you where the missing 12 minutes were (although a good […]

1. An Unearthly Child

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It’s probably no great surprise that my writing of time travel related stories was inspired by other time travel related stories, including TV shows such as Doctor Who.  I’m not (quite) old enough to have watched Doctor Who from the very beginning but thanks first to VHS, and then to […]

An Unearthly Child

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I received the physical set of The Light at the End yesterday. This is the “deluxe CD” presentation.  It consists of two parts – a solid outer sleeve and an inner hardback book.  Together they’re a little larger than a DVD case but would fit on your shelf of trade […]

The Light at The End, Deluxe CD

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In an act that almost brought down their servers and crippled their website, Big Finish released The Light at the End one month early (yesterday, 23rd October). Needless to say, everyone wanted to download it at the same time.  I was able to download it and I listened to it […]

The Light at The End

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