Fear of the Dark

I'd forgotten how good this book was. It was a great, very traditional Doctor Who story. The characterisation of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan was spot on; to the point where I could hear Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton's voice in my head as I read it. If this had been a TV story I could have picture Graeme Harper directing it.

It was a worthy addition to the 50th anniversary collection and the best of the bunch so far.

Frontios

Wow! That wasn't what I was expecting.

The only scene I can remember from Frontios' original transmission was the cliffhanger to part 1 when the TARDIS is destroyed. So I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this DVD to discover how good it was.

First things that struck me was the production values. Some scenes looked like something out of the current series. The only thing that really lets it down is the music (not one of Paddy Kingsland's better scores) and the realisation of the Tractators (basing them on wood lice was a good idea, but the costume lets it down badly). All the cast are good, but Peter Davison is really good in this story. It seems like there were maybe only three writers who really got a handle on the fifth Doctor's character and Christopher H. Bidmead was one of them (the other two were Robert Holmes and possibly Christopher Bailey).

I think I'd vote this as being second only to The Caves of Androzani and being one of the best stories of the fifth Doctor's era.



Mara Tales

Things to like about Kinda and Snakedance:

• Christopher Bailey's scripts which contains some cracking dialogue.
• The direction by Peter Grimwade and Fiona Cumming (possibly one of the most underrated directors in Doctor Who's history).
• Janet Fielding giving her best performance as Tegan (in Snakedance she's a freaky as hell).
• Peter Davison. I don't think he gives a better performance as the Doctor until The Caves of Androzani.
• Simon Rouse's Hindle. Probably one of the most convincing mad men ever portrayed (next to John Simm's Master).
• Richard Todd's Sanders.
• Martin Clunes in what I believe was his first television appearance.
• The rest of the guest cast for both stories.
• The design work, especially in Snakedance. And I don't think the jungle in Kinda is that bad (but it probably should have been filmed at Ealing like Planet of Evil and The Creature from the Pit. But there's no way you could film it on location. Where in the Home Counties would you find a jungle anyway?)
• Peter Howell's music. I'm familiar with a lot of it from my mum's scratchy old Music of Doctor Who LP (yes, vinyl!), but I'd never heard the music from the last few minutes of episode four of Kinda and it's simply wonderfull!
• For once, in Snakedance, we see the Doctor as a normal person would see him; a raving madman with no justification for his wild prophesies of doom (of course until it's too late).
• Okay the giant snake isn't that great. But I still think it's better than the CGI alternative!

Two very different stories which proves how flexible Doctor Who's format is.

Earth Story

Now this was different. One was a Doctor Who story I'd never seen before; the other was one I have no memory of watching before.

First story, The Gunfighters. This is a story with a mixed reputation within fan circles. For many years the popular myth that it was one of lowest rated stories of all times and an absolute clanger. Having seen it for the first time, I thought it was pretty good. Donald Cotton's script  is pretty witty with some great one liners (sort of City of Death fifteen years early. And it's a great shame that his first contribution to the series - The Mythmakers - no longer exists in the BBC's archives because the novelisation is hysterical. But I digress). You can certainly see William Hartnell's enjoying himself. The reproduction of Tombstone within the confines of Doctor Who's budget is excellent, even to the extent of using horses within the studio to add to realism. Director Rex Tucker uses the sets to his advantage, employing some high-angle shots to cover the action. The rest of the cast are in good form even if the quality of some of the American accents are all over the place. The one thing I wasn't too sure of was the musical score. Instead of traditional incidental music we get The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon (sung by no less than Lynda Baron - yes, Nurse Gladys from Open All Hours) which virtually narrates the whole show. It's different but it get a bit annoying after a while. Other than that, I think The Gunfighters is one of the better stories of the Hartnell era and terribly underrated.

Then on to The Awakening. I'm sure I must have seen this story at some point, but I have no memories of it. Which is a shame because, like The Gunfighters, I've come to the conclusion it's an undiscovered gem of the Peter Davison era. Again, Eric Pringle's script is excellent and you can sense Peter Davison and the cast enjoying themselves with this story. The story's monster, the Malus, is very convincingly realised being a massive face leering menacingly through a church wall. My only complaint is that the ending is rushed but otherwise it was a great two episodes of Doctor Who.