Episode 23 now available!

Episode 23 now available!

Well, I'd got most of the editing done on Episode 23 by tea-time, but there comes a point when you have to admit defeat and have a bath, so that became my next priority last night.

However, we were so close to finishing that we thought it worth knocking off the last few bits and pieces before the traditional  9 p.m. cup of tea (see several of our earlier videos for further details) and it wasn't long before I pressed the dreaded 'Export' button.

What this does is render an .mp3 file of the complete podcast that (all being well) is what you upload to Soundcloud, so you'd better be pretty sure that you've got everything right at this point.

This process takes about 20 minutes to complete, depending on the length of the finished Episode, so although it was then technically ready to release into the wider world by about 9.30 p.m. I didn't want to push my luck.

Besides, everyone in the UK would have been thinking about going to bed at this point and I can't exactly blame them. If I saw there was the best part of 100 minutes of new material available, I think I would have happily opted for 40 Winks instead.

I was awake by 6 a.m. on Sunday, thanks to Martha Cat not being able to decide whether she preferred to be on the bed or off it, so I wandered downstairs to completed the dreaded Upload process and come up with the witty blurb that you have to invent to accompany your latest creation.
Then all you have to do is sit back and hope that everyone likes it...

So Episode 23 is now officially Old News and it's time to look ahead to Episodes 24 and 25.

Unusually, both of these have sort of been started as we've already got some stuff on the hard-drive thanks to the sterling efforts of Martin, Warren and Lisa.

The good thing about this being a team effort is that sometimes you can plan ahead and this time at least, the best-laid plans of mice and Archive TV fans seem to be actually working.

We will definitely be looking at 'Juliet Bravo' next time around and have even started a poll on Twitter to see if people have any preference when it comes to The Changing Face Of Juliet Bravo...
As always, stay tuned!

Episode 23 of 'Round The Archives' may be found here.

Our video about Episode 23 can be found here.

And the text for Martin's piece on 'Kinvig' may be found here.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Episode 23 Update

Episode 23 Update

We're pleased to report that editing on Episode 23 of 'Round The Archives' is well under way. All of the main articles are recorded and on the timeline and we just need to record a few more links to finish the whole thing off.

But what have you got to look forward to?

Well, Episode 22 started with a piece about computers, so obviously Episode 23 had to start with a look at robots. But this is to imply that everything we do is carefully planned months ahead, which is very far from the truth.

Now, we'd certainly been planning to cover 'The Computer Programme' for ages, but the new article on 'Roberts Robots'  was one of those last-minute choices we're often prone to, based on the fact that it surfaced from our Miscellaneous DVD Piles (which are always painful in this hot weather) at just the right moment.

But it was about time that we covered a bit of Bob Block after having barely even mentioned 'Rentaghost' in nearly two years of archive TV podcasting.

Martin Holmes has done another of his fascinating looks at an Episode One, this time concentrating on Nigel Kneale's rather overlooked series 'Kinvig'. It even encouraged me to look at all the variations of the end title sequence, where Producer / Director Les Chatfield's name explodes in a different way each week, which can't have helped with the budget one little bit!

We have a quick discussion about 'Doctor Who' on Twitch, which will give you a good idea as to when we actually recorded the article to accompany our ongoing series on YouTube videos on the subject. As I type this, we're looking forward to the second half of Season 13 starting up on Monday night.

Finally, Warren joined us on the proverbial sofa to look at the first episode of 'The Gentle Touch' which is shortly to get an airing on Talking Pictures TV. And we must remember to give them a plug when we record the final links...

So it's all going pretty well. Of course, we cannot completely guarantee that we'll have it all finished by the end of tomorrow, but you never know...

What might impress you, though, is the news that we've already recorded a decent amount of material for Episode 25.

Now that really is planning ahead...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Would you like a jelly baby?

Would you like a jelly baby?

Tom Baker's era of 'Doctor Who' started on Twitch last night. watched at one point by some 20,000 viewers. Though the figures dropped as the episodes went on, it was still an impressive sight.

Anyone watching Tom for the first time is in for a real treat as the Fourth Doctor is (rightly} very  highly regarded. Tom is superb as The Doctor, a force to be reckoned with and a hero to be admired.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Tom Baker on two occasions; on the second we had a somewhat bizarre discussion about jelly babies, like you do. And then when Tom offered me one, I had the dilemma of whither to eat or keep it in a scrapbook for posterity...

 I ate it in the end.

Tom is a true eccentric and much of this comes through in his performance. I believe that he was once described as the best monster to feature in 'Doctor Who'...

Although a lot of his stories allow him to play the fool and be a little silly, there are many occasions where is able to show cold fury and immense passion. His anger with the Captain in 'The Pirate Planet' is chilling and frightening to watch. And when he is on top form there is no one else in the series that can touch him.

His first story 'Robot' is in many ways a carry-over from Jon Pertwee's era, featuring UNIT, the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. But the Fourth Doctor interacts with them in a completely different manner to the Third.

However, the Fourth Doctor doesn't really emerge properly until 'The Ark In Space'. Here you get the first proper glimpse of the remote alien that Tom Baker's Doctor will become.

There's a lovely line in 'The Ark in Space' about The Doctor talking to himself because he is the only one that understands what he's talking about. Now that doesn't sound like Jon Pertwee's Doctor, who likes to explain fully to people what is going on. It almost implies to me that there has been another adventure in between 'Robot' and 'The Ark In Space' and that Sarah has come to understand how different the Fourth Doctor is to his earlier self. Though, of course, this is not what happens on screen, with Harry's surprise at the TARDIS still being fresh at the start of 'Ark'...

This could be a result of Season 12 being made out of order, with 'The Sontaran Experiment' being made before 'The Ark In Space', I suppose...

Tom Baker is the Doctor that the general public recognise most on sight - "the one with the scarf"...
It is telling that he is the only classic era Doctor to feature in the 50th Anniversary special playing a version of himself really rather than an older Fourth (or possible future?) Doctor.

So enjoy Tom Baker's era of Doctor; you've got Zygons to look forward to, along with the Loch Ness Monster, an Anti-Matter Monster, Sutekh The Destroyer, Mummies, The Invisible Enemy and many more.

Not to mention Leela, K9 and fine pair of Romanas.

He's not a human being... he walks in eternity...

(By Lisa Parker)

Hal & Bellal

Hal & Bellal

"And coming up later on BBC One, more cosmic capers with 'Hal & Bellal'. This week Bellal thinks Hal has bought him a smart new sacking coat for his birthday, but really he's hiding it for Edward of Wessex as a surprise for Lady Eleanor! Tune in for more spaced-out laughs at 8.30!"

Sometimes the strangest things come into our heads when doing our videos, but we have a silly sense of humour at the best of times and this scenario made us grin like the proverbial idiots.

But we've reached the end of Jon Pertwee on Twitch and our joke about 'Invasion [Of The Dinosaurs]' Part One possibly being skipped turned out to be closer to the mark than we were expecting or even hoping.

We didn't have Warren to hand this time, but having just about got the hang of this commentary lark, we were able to knock off a quick 25 minutes with a little bit of help from Martha Cat who was determined to get her two minutes in the limelight.

Season 11 is, as far as I can remember, when I started watching 'Doctor Who' so this transition period between Jon and Tom will have us watching the reactions with interest.

'Death To The Daleks' gets taken to task for its silly mazes and Deadly Patterned Floor cliffhanger, but this sort of stuff engaged my imagination aged five, even if I did point out the wire holding up the Root Thing in the lake. Clearly, I was potential fan material even then...

Maybe if I was born a few years earlier, I would have found the change from Pertwee to Baker more difficult to take, but I honestly cannot remember having a problem with it at the time. Though I still recall being a little perplexed by Tom doing his impression of Donald Duck on 'Disney Time' the week before 'Terror Of The Zygons'.

 'Planet Of The Spiders' may not be a perfect story, but that final scene proved its power again with the chatroom overflowing with sad faces.

So farewell, Jon. You were the one that introduced me to this daft old series. I've got a lot to thank you for!

You can see our commentary for 'Invasion Of The Dinosaurs' Part One here...

And our review of the final stories of Season 11 may be seen here.
(By Andrew Trowbridge)

"A real jolly Jack The Ripper!"

"A real jolly Jack The Ripper!"

Jack The Ripper lives long in the memory. Even though no one actually knows who he was.

This August marks 130 years since the first killing and we have decided to look at some of the various dramas based around the subject for 'Round The Archives'.

We have recently finished watching the 1973 series, where Barlow and Watt from 'Z Cars' and 'Softly Softly : Taskforce' re-investigate, made to mark the 75th anniversary. The series is a documentary-drama, featuring reconstructions of some of the key events.

Over six episodes they look into the victims, suspects and events surrounding the murders and also the police methods used.

Although not shown in great detail, one person involved in the case who stands out for us, is Inspector Frederick George Abbeline, played in this drama by Gordon Christie.

He has also been portrayed on screen by Michael Caine and Johnny Depp, mostly with a cockney accent. Which may have been unlikely as he was born in Blandford, Dorset on 8th January 1843. So therefore would either have had a Dorset burr or perhaps a more neutral accent.

The series is directed by three directors each handling two episodes and features a wonderfully shot and very tense sequence in Episode Two ('Double Event') where we follow the doomed Catherine Eddowes (played by Hilary Sesta) down a gaslit street.

The series is full of familiar faces such as Mark Eden, Alan Ford, Morris Perry, Bernard Kay, Cyril Shaps and Frank Gatliff.

Also featuring in a couple of episodes is Christopher Benjamin who is playing a Victorian gentleman slightly less ebullient than Henry Gordon Jago. There is even an earlier appearance by his co-star from 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang' Chris 'Casey' Gannon.

There is some fury from Barlow in the last episode as there are many missing documents and possible cover ups.

The series is not commercially available, but if anyone from Acorn, Network or Simply Media is reading this, then please consider releasing both this and the follow up series 'Second Verdict'.

I believe that you would definitely find an appreciative audience for this material.

(By Lisa Parker)

Where Are You 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode Three?

Where Are You 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode Three?

Just when you think you've sussed the way the 'Doctor Who' schedule on Twitch works, they throw you a googly by jumping from 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode Two to 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode Four, which begs a question or three...

Now once upon a time, it was standard practice for PBS stations in America to do this, as Episode Three had the audacity to only exist in black-and-white.

But those days are long behind us and we've got a very good colour copy sitting on our shelves. There's even a DVD extra that details all the clever technical jiggery-pokery by people such as the Colour Recovery Working Group that have led us to this happy situation.

So you can imagine the confusion in the chatroom last night when Episode Four made an unexpectedly early appearance. The idea that Episode Three could still cause a problem was so far off our radar that we didn't even think about it beforehand.

But with Warren coming round to record some material for a future edition of 'Round The Archives' (more on that in a later blog post), we thought we might as well do something to cover the gap.

We briefly considered acting out the script using soft toys and our trusty Palitoy talking Dalek, but it wouldn't have been easy to do in one take, which is still currently the limit of our ability, at least when it comes to stuff on video.

We've done a couple of reaction videos, which involve watching the production notes, consulting BBC Genome and glancing at the odd reference work beforehand, but this time we threw caution to the wind and had a bash at doing a live commentary. Bung the episode on, switch on the subtitles, turn down the volume and hope we can come up with something vaguely entertaining to say...

We have recorded a DVD commentary before (for Nick Goodman's 'Tide Of Freedom') so it was not completely new territory, but there's definitely a knack to keeping it going without everyone talking over each other.

But at least it's given us a bit more experience and maybe amused a few people along the way. And at least it's in full colour!

Unless, of course, we chuck the colour copy away and have to get some clever sorts in to help out...

And we'll find out whether ther're going to skip or show 'Invasion [Of The Dinosaurs]' Part One in a few hours, so that will be exciting, too...

Our 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode Three commentary video can be seen here.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Two Fousand And Firteen!

Two Fousand And Firteen!

'Planet Of The Daleks' is on t'internet tonight, which has brought back a few memories of it being shown on BBC 1 in 1993 complete with Episode Three in all its black-and-white glory.

Although 'Doctor Who' was caught in limbo between 'Survival' Part Three and the McGann TV Movie, there was enough to get excited about even if everything didn't always pan out as expected.

Although 'The Dark Dimension' came and went in the flash of an eye, the seemingly less likely 'Dimensions In Time' somehow assembled a cast of dozens on the 'Eastenders' set and managed to film them in 3-D. Even if you had to nab some special glasses thanks to 'Radio Times'.

Jon Pertwee was happy to do all sorts of publicity work, even appearing with a certain Noel Edmonds, with 'The Paradise Of Death' doing good business on the radio.

The broadcast of 'Planet Of The Daleks' even saw a series of 5-minute mini-documentaries being scheduled to bump it up to a 30-minute slot which led to all sorts of odd things.

Shaw Taylor appealing to viewers to report any sighting of the Master sticks in the mind, but so do does 'The Antique Doctor Who Show' which highlighted the increasing value of some forms of merchandise and memorabilia.

On a personal level, I remember attending the 'Blue Box' convention in Bournemouth, which was a bit closer to where I lived than previous trips to such far-flung and exotic locations like Swindon and Exeter.

I got to do a bit of acting in Nick and Paul's film 'Sutton Park - Prison In The Sun' and it was on this one that I first met Lisa, who had to pretend to drive my car in the early scenes. We were to do more of these projects and ten years later, we moved in together!

Kevin Davies provided a concentrated burst of 'Doctor Who' appreciation with his documentary '30 Years In The TARDIS' which now also stands as a tribute to so many important figures who are no longer with us.

The line about 'two fousand and firteen' in 'Dimension In Time' made this year seem such a long way in the future - there was no way we could predict what would happen along the way. We just had to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

But in the end, we didn't do too badly, did we?

(By Andrew Trowbridge)