Episode 24 now available

Episode 24 now available

We are pleased to announce that Episode 24 of 'Round The Archives' has been finished and is available for the usual cost of no pounds and zero pence from Soundcloud, iTunes and PlayerFM.

And possibly some platforms that we're not aware of, but that's the exciting world of podcasting for you...

Episode 24 sees us assigned to Hartley police station as Warren joins us to investigate the changing face of 'Juliet Bravo'. We begin by looking in detail at 'Shot Gun', the very first episode starring Stephanie Turner as Inspector Jean Darblay.

We welcome Michael Dennis, who gives us some bonus thoughts on 'Shot Gun', then we take a trip to the Moon as Martin Holmes casts his eye over the opening 'Space : 1999' episode 'Breakaway'.
Then, to round off, Warren returns as we jump to Series 4 of 'Juliet Bravo', with 'Teamwork' starring Anna Carteret as Inspector Kate Longton.

Running at over 2 hours, this is another biggie, but we try and keep the pace up, especially as we were all bunched up on the sofa for the 'Juliet Bravo' stuff...

If you want to listen on Soundcloud, the link for Episode 24 is here.

For PlayerFM, it can be heard here.

And for iTunes, the link is here.

As always, please let the world know if you enjoy it and happy listening!

And now we must turn our attention to Episode 25...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Editing Episodes

Editing Episodes

We're pleased to report that editing on Episode 24 of 'Round The Archives' is now well under way, so the plan is for it to be available in the next few days. There's nothing major to do, but as it'll run over 2 hours, once it's finished, it'll still need a check to make sure we've not left anything out!

Regular readers of the blog will probably already know that we're taking a close look at the world of 'Juliet Bravo', concentrating on the episodes 'Shot Gun' and 'Teamwork'.

Given the grim nature of 'Shot Gun' in particular, we made sure we had Warren with us to give us some wry comments on Sergeant Beck's driving 'ability' and where Noel Collins got his hat from.
There is also the line "Are you comparing Stephanie Turner to Old Man Steptoe?!" which out of context does sound a trifle odd, but made perfect sense at the time.

There was so much to say about this episode that we've ended up with our biggest article ever, and with the addition of a small bonus piece (and you'll have to listen to find out what that is), means that Episode 24 spends its first hour in sunny (?) Hartley before taking a trip to the Moon.

Martin has been very busy behind the scenes and had kindly provided us with a pool of material that we can pick from to ensure we have some variety of subject matter. This has proved even more useful as we've been working on Episode 24 and 25 in parallel, with the main subject of 25 having been decided upon months ago.

We haven't quite got a JN-T style planning board with things like 'The Doctor's Wife' written on it, but if anyone wants to write a book entitled 'A Day With Round The Archives', we are available for a photoshoot for a reasonable fee!

I won't spoil any more of the contents in this blog entry, as I'd better get on with the actual editing, but expect more of the usual silliness to be available very shortly...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Who have been watching...

Who have been watching...

As a huge fan of 'Hi-de-Hi!' it is not a huge surprise that I am also very fond of 'Delta And The Bannermen'. In fact I would go so far to say that it is my favourite story of Season 24.

It has such a sunny happy feel to it and it looks as though the everyone involved had fun making it.
It features a stellar cast, amongst others Stubby Kaye, Ken Dodd, Don Henderson, Richard Davies and the lovely Hugh Lloyd.

Ken Dodd is perhaps the reason that lots of people dislike 'Delta', dimissing him as an example of JN-T stunt casting at its worst.

But I would disagree with that, as I think that Ken Dodd gives a very strong performance, one that he has definitely thought long and hard about. The story he turned up for the first day of filming bringing all his props with him says a lot about his dedication.

If nothing else his death scene is very well done and he certainly enjoys his final moments.
I'm not sure about the lilac costume, but as Andrew says in our video it is perhaps designed by whoever owns the tollgate to showcase the Tollmaster. He is the public face of the tollgate and the uniform makes him stand out. And at least it's not boring old space silver.

Stubby Kaye is charming as Agent Weismuller and I really love his burbling in Part Three when he is tying up the Bannermen. All his chattering about being an Eagle Scout and being good at tying knots.
I do wonder how much of this is scripted and how much improvisation is going on. Morgan Deare as Agent Hawk also has fun acting against him.

Don Henderson is the villianous Gavrok, a part he plays with ease and one that he seems to be enjoying.

The cast also features Brian Hibbard as the bounty hunter Keillor, giving an interesting perfomance with a South African accent, sone of the time. Apparently intended as a protest against Apartheid., according to some sources.

And a mention also for Richard Davies, who is superb as the Shangri-La Camp Host Burton.
Filmed in Barry Island in a down-at-heel Holiday Camp, the show really benefits from being on location and in a real camp, with pretty good weather.

And it's here that the 'Hi-de-Hi!' connection comes along. I wish that Chris Clough had cast someone from that show, as I can just see Felix Bowness in his Jockey gear fighting against Gavrok and the rest of the Bannermen. Possibly wagging his riding crop and mouthing off.

And of course we shouldn't forget the mysterious Goronwy, the strange bee keeper and possible Time Lord?

I love that in Part Three when everyone else is rushing around ready to fight off the Bannermen, he is just sat around reading his book. Which feels like a very Doctorish thing.

There's also Ray and Billy. Billy goes off with Delta and the Chimeron Princess at the end to help repopulate the Chimeron people... He and Delta are going to be very busy.

Ray is conceived  as a possible replacement for the soon to be departing Mel and I wonder how strong the Welsh accent would have stayed had she joined the TARDIS.

And I must just mention Sylvester McCoy's little piece of business with the apple in Part One when he holds it up to his ear and listens to it.

All in all 'Delta' is a fun and interesting 'Doctor Who' story, showing the different styles that the show can adapt.

(By Lisa Parker)
(With grateful  thanks to Pip Madeley for the 'You Have Been Watching' screencaps)

Other worlds, other Doctors...

Other worlds, other Doctors...

Strange as it may seem 'The Christmas Invasion' may possibly owe a debt to the unusual combination of Colin Baker, 'Time And The Rani' and 'Breakfast Time'...

Interviewed on location, Sylvester's extremities are somewhat lost inside Colin Baker's coat and it appears that the Doctor has regenerated without a hand.

I've no idea whether Russell T Davies saw this report, but I'd like to think it planted a seed of an idea that would run from 'The Christmas Invasion', the first series of 'Torchwood' and ultimately provide the handy get-out for the unexpected David Tennant regeneration at the end of 'The Stolen Earth'.

It's extremely unlikely, I know, but if there's any truth in this at all, it's a result of two particular actors being cast in a certain order, and if one of the other candidates for the role of the Seventh Doctor had been cast instead, maybe Colin's coat wouldn't have fitted them quite so badly, and the whole hand idea would never have had legs. (I do like a mixed metamorph!)

The DVD of 'Time And The Rani' gives a glimpse at some of the material recorded for the audition process and we get a look at two alternative Doctors in the form of David Fielder and Dermot Crowley. What also interests me is that we see some fascinating possibilities for their costumes, as well as Sylvester wearing something that I honestly prefer to his Season 24 getup. The huge kipper tie may be a little unexpected, but the overall effect is somewhere between his Season 26 and TV Movie apparel and looks very natural on him.

David Fielder, plus worrying moustache, has quite a down-at-heel air about him, as though his Doctor might have been exiled to a park bench with a bottle of White Lightning for a companion, whereas Dermot Crowley carries off a simple look of dark jacket, garish shirt and check trousers.

It does make one wonder how much thought they'd put into how they may have played the Doctor, but 'The Last Chance Saloon' documentary does suggest that they were there simply to make up the numbers, when John Nathan-Turner's choice of Sylvester was questioned by the BBC Sixth Floor.

But this whole thing of alternative Doctors is one that fires my imagination. Barry Letts was certainly casting his net wide for the Fourth Doctor and Fulton Mackay in 'Terror Of The Zygons'  is still an image that I can't shake from my head. I loved 'The Curse Of Fatal Death' for giving us so many new faces, even if they did have to keep the same costume for reasons of both running time and budget.

Gary Russell's book 'Regeneration' (which looks at production of the TV Movie) features screenshots of 1994 footage of such names as Liam Cunningham, Tony Slattery, Mark McGann, Chris Bowen, John Sessions, Rob Heyland and Paul Bown. The full list of names considered for the project is huge and includes such unlikely candidates as Chris Eccleston and Peter Capaldi... As if they ever stood a chance!

Big Finish have explored this area with their 'Unbound' series and the two 'Almost Doctors' videos by Babelcolour also cover this subject with some very clever and inventive editing. Part 1 - The 60s can be seen here and Part 2 - The 70s can be seen here.

With the new series now close on the horizon, it'll exciting to see a new take on how the Doctor can be played and I look forward to the innovations that are to come.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

Three years in three videos...

Three years in three videos...

It's only just struck us that for our 'Doctor Who' On Twitch videos, we've managed to burn through the Colin Baker era (minus 'Revelation Of The Daleks, of course) in three segments, with a running time of less than 90 minutes.

Now, we think we try and do each story some justice and get as many vaguely interesting asides in there, but that's two-and-a-half years covered in less time than it takes to watch 'The Twin Dilemma'.
And the Sylvester McCoy years will be over and done with in a similarly brief span, which means we'll be turning our attention back to other matters by this point next week.

We've certainly missed our visits to Grace Brothers, so will carry on with Season Three of 'Are You Being Served?' as soon as possible.

But for today, we'll just bring all our Colin Baker stuff together in one place, for those who may have missed them.

We touch on Nonsense Physics, 'Minder' and Space Economics in our look at 'The Twin Dilemma', 'Attack Of The Cybermen' and 'Vengeance On Varos' which can be seen here.

What was interesting was that after 'Attack Of The Cybermen' was shown Twitch switched to the 25-minute episode versions of these stories, which led to some headscratching in the chatroom at the decidedly undramatic nature of the odd-numbered cliffhangers.

Season 22 continues with 'The Mark Of The Rani', 'The Two Doctors' and 'Timelash' and we natter about these stories here. You can even hear about our rather tenuous link with 'The Madness Of King George' if that sort of thing floats your boat...

We never quite know where some of these discussions are headed, but I surprised even myself when we ended up riffing on whether the Master's scarecrow disguise in 'The Mark Of The Rani' is a consequence of him attempting to be The King Of Evil Hobbies whilst drinking his Weak Lemon Drink. Heh, heh and most definitely heh.

Finally, we tackled the whole of 'The Trial Of A Time Lord' in a piece which lasts longer than Part Fourteen and this minor epic may be seen here. Inevitably we wandered onto the subject of 'Crown Court : An Upward Fall' where you can see more strange legal business from the lovely Michael Jayston…

If you like numbers, here's the latest league table of viewers and all that, with Finland still hanging onto its position in third place.

As always, if you enjoy our videos, we'd be eternally grateful for any publicity or new subscribers.  Hopefully, we are providing somethere you won't find anywhere else, even if some of our weirder digressions rival the rambling nature of Ronnie Corbett in his infamous Monologue Chair...

But when it comes to our seating arrangements, there's plenty of life left in our sofa, despite the best efforts of the cats, so expect more of the same from us in the future...

(Now that's how you do a frightening cliffhanger!)

(By Andrew Trowbridge)

'Doctor Who - The Television Companion'

'Doctor Who - The Television Companion'

You can always tell how much we like a book by how bad a condition the spine is in. Obviously, the tattier it is, the more times we've returned to it and it would be fair to say that our copy of 'Doctor Who : The Television Companion' is in a bit of a state. In fact, only 'The Complete Yes Minister' / 'Prime Minister' ones come to mind as being much worse...

Written by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker and published by BBC Worldwide in 1998, it runs to over 550 pages and covers a lot of ground. Although no book can ever really be a one-stop shop for Everything You Need To Look Up About 'Doctor Who', this makes one of the best attempts at documenting the post-'TV Movie' / pre 'Rose' landscape of facts and figures.

Transmission dates and times, Hartnell episode titles, whether the lead actor is playing 'Dr Who' or 'Doctor Who' (the Pertwee era can be a little tricksy in that department), cast & crew, whether the story is made up of Parts or Episodes, all the nitty-gritty is here.

And the Analysis section draws together opinions from BBC Audience Research Reports as well as fanzines, giving you an idea of how stories were received at the time as well as later fan opinion.
There's also a section called 'Episode endings' which, as the name implies, gives you a description of each cliffhanger. Many of the most dramatic ones are, of course, burned into my brain ('The Masque Of Mandragora' Part Three, 'City Of Death' Part One, ' Earthshock' Part One...) but 'The Television Companion' certainly comes in handy when one needs to look up if it's 'The Monster Of Peladon' Part Three or Part Four which ends with the sonic lance exploding.

One criticism of 'The Trial Of A Time Lord' is that virtually every cliffhanger consists of a zoom into Colin's face and no matter how much end-of-episode acting he does, they're a little difficult to tell apart in a hurry. Faced with this task I have to applaud the authors of 'The Television Companion' who manage to come up with sufficient adjectives so that we need never be confused.

If I may, I'd like to quote their descriptions and compare them to the final shots, so that we can lay this matter to rest once and for all.

OK, here we go...

Part One: The Doctor looks shocked.

Part Two: The Doctor looks concerned.

Part Three: N/A  - "He [Merdeen] raises a crossbow weapon and fires."

Part Four : The Doctor looks defiant.

OK, so far? Then let us continue...

Part Five: The Doctor convulses in agony.

Part Six: The Doctor looks horrified.

Part Seven: The Doctor looks perturbed.

Part Eight: The Doctor looks resolute.

Still with us? Good!

Part Nine: N/A - "Mel screams as electric sparks fly around the pods, causing one of them to break open and a strange growth to protrude."

Part Ten: The Doctor looks grim.

Part Eleven: The Doctor looks accusingly at the Commodore.

Part Twelve : The Doctor looks shocked.
[Note from Andrew : But not the same sort of shocked as Part One though!]

Nearly done, everyone. Stay strong!

Part Thirteen: The Doctor shouts 'No!'

Part Fourteen: (Status debatable) - "The Keeper replies 'Yes, my lady.' When he turns, however, his face is that of the Valeyard."

Phew!

So there you have it. 'Doctor Who' fans have always liked their lists, whether they detail Missing Episodes or Stories Featuring Cyril Shaps. Now you won't need a list of episode endings for 'The Trial Of A Time Lord', I know, but aren't you glad that such a thing exists?

'The Television Companion' is available in a new edition from Telos Publishing.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)
(With sincere thanks to David J Howe and Stephen James Walker for such a wonderful book)

Harry Worth's coat

Harry Worth's coat

I had a bit of a revelation (even though that one's not being shown, as it's got non-Nation Daleks in it) when rewatching 'The Twin Dilemma' on Twitch.

That green jacket with the gold braid at the back of the TARDIS wardrobe room has always bugged me. Not because it's any more tasteless than much of the other clobber on display, but because I always got the feeling that I'd seen it somewhere before, but just could put my finger on it.

Now we're familiar with the odd prop or bit of set from 'Doctor Who' popping up in other shows, just take a look at 'Adam Adamant Lives! : D For Destruction', for example, which has a whole host of bits and pieces from 60s stories.

And 'Here Come The Double Deckers! : Happy Haunting' (by Harry Booth and Glyn Jones - yes, that one!) seems to have a guest appearance from the Iron Maiden used in 'The King's Demons' (and 'The Black Adder'), which puts in a more serious performance than either Clive Dunn or dear old Pat Coombs.

And there are simple and obvious reasons for all this - it's cheaper to hire stuff from companies that have a central store of sets and props. And the same applies to costumes, with 'Blue Peter' giving us a look behind the scenes at Bermans & Nathans, with a clip from 'Black Orchid' into the bargain.
But the BBC also had an inhouse store and 'Doctor Who' and 'Blake's 7' inevitably end up sharing bits of set and old costumes, even down to the Sea Devil who turns up in 'Rescue' looking a bit chilly minus his string vest.

Now when it comes to 'The Twin Dilemma', it's perfectly normal for fans to play Spot The Costume and the Tardis Wikia page notes a number of costumes from 'The Five Doctors', even if a reference to the Second Doctor's 'suspenders' might cause UK fans to think their copies of the story are missing some potentially interesting scenes.

But at 'Round The Archives'  we've always been interested in more than just 'Doctor Who' and I always like to join up fictional universes wherever possible. So it was with no little joy that I finally clocked that this elusive green jacket seems to originate from the forgotten 1980 sitcom 'Oh Happy Band'. created by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft.

Harry Worth stars as the leader of the band and the band members are bulked out by the Aldershot Brass Ensemble, who can also be seen in 'The Two Ronnies'. Dee Robson ('Moonbase 3' , 'Blake's 7', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy') is credited for Costumes and has to kit them out in something distinctive  - she clearly succeeds as the penny dropped for me that the Doctor must have had an unseen adventure with the band, being given a uniform as a souvenir at the end of Part Four...

I leave it to Big Finish to fill in the blanks, but I do like the idea of Harry Worth doing his arm & leg thing in the doorway of the TARDIS, much to the Doctor's annoyance.

Possibly, even Tony Sympson and his magnificent beard could have been revealed as a renegade Time Lord, intent on conquering the Earth with the aid of some Evil Hypnotic Cymbals or something...

On second thoughts, maybe that's why this imaginary story never made it to script stage, but if you want to enjoy the end titles from 'Oh Happy Band!' and think of what might have been, they can be seen here.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)