Doctor Who: Modern Era Davros (2008-15)

Doctor Who: Modern Era Davros (2008-15)

NOTE: there are SPOILERS for a number of Modern Era Dr Who stories below this paragraph. It would be advisable not to read any further if you're not okay with that.

Following on from the Classic Era Davros (1975-88) post, some words on his appearances in the Modern era. He was mentioned a couple of times during Series 01 and 03, but he didn't actually appear until later, in a noteworthy Series 04 adventure.

I won't mention the title of the episode in this introductory paragraph, for anyone that would prefer to enjoy the surprise reveal during a first watch-through. Personally, I feel that's the best way to experience the story, but I'll need to name it if I'm to write about it, so, as already mentioned, SPOLERS below the cut!

Class (2016)

Class (2016)

Dirs: various | 1 Season (cancelled) | 8 episodes, approx 44 mins each.

A Doctor Who offshoot targeted at the Y/A demographic. Previously, we'd had a series for children and one for 'mature' viewers, which is The Sarah Jane Adventures (2008-12) and Torchwood (2006-11), respectively, so it probably made sense to then aim for that valuable middle gap.

I'm not of that age group, so may not be able to connect directly with contemporary concerns of folks that are, but it doesn't matter to me if a story is conceptually for children, teens, or adults - if the work is well-written and/or the characters are engaging, then I can watch and enjoy it.

Class tries hard, with both its relationships and its themes, but I don't feel it's strong enough to appeal to many people outside of the 16-18 y/o audience.

But maybe it was never meant to. Maybe its goals were modest, and it was simply meant to reflect the times in which it was made, without challenging expectations too much. I don't know.

Torchwood: TV Series (2006-11)

Torchwood (2006-11)

Dirs: various | 4 Seasons | 41 episodes, approx 44-57 mins each.

A Doctor Who offshoot that was targeted at a more mature audience than its parent series. In theory that's an interesting prospect, but in reality the definition of 'mature' seems to have been derived from a yobbish, vulgar, and sex-obsessed teenager's personal diary.

Season 01 is particularly bad in that regard, as if the show's writers believed that profanity and multiple references to casual sex were compensation for a well-written script. [1]

Consequently, most of its episodes are a dismal and joyless slog through predominantly bland storytelling, populated with unlikable characters whose traits are more often than not reprehensible and shameful.

I suspect it's more due to blind luck than any kind of skilful plan that it managed not to turn the group's leader, Doctor Who's Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), into the same. [2]

Doctor Who: Classic Era Davros (1975-88)

Doctor Who: Classic Era Davros (1975-88)

NOTE: there are SPOILERS for a number of Classic Era Dr Who stories below this paragraph. It would be advisable not to read any further if you're not okay with that.

The Doctor had encountered the Daleks more than once before, as far back as his first onscreen incarnation (William Hartnell), during the second multipart story of the first series (1963-64), but he didn't come face-to-face with their tyrannical creator Davros until the fourth serial of the twelfth series (1975).

The duo met four more times over the next thirteen years, and you'll find thoughts on each of those meetings in the text below the cut. Once again, SPOILERS are present.

Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord (1986)

Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord (1986)

Dirs. Various (see below) | 14 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

'The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, known collectively as The Trial of a Time Lord, aired in weekly episodes from 6th September to 6th December 1986.

It contained four adventures: The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids, and The Ultimate Foe; the season also marked the final regular appearance of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor.'

The paragraph above is copied from Wikipedia, with just a few minor grammar changes on my part. The passage had much of the info that I was seeking, so it seemed pointless to write anything new. I'll add only that it marked the end of an eighteen month 'hiatus' for the show, so expectation levels among fans at the time was understandably high. Thoughts on the actual production are below the cut.

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (1985)

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (1985)

Dir. Peter Moffatt | 3 episodes, approx 45 mins each

Given that the five previous Doctors had each met at least one former or subsequent version of themselves, it was a pretty safe bet that the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) would get a similar opportunity to do the same. In his case, he crossed paths with the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton).

The Sixth Doctor has a larger part to play, which is natural seeing as how he was the lead in that particular era, but fans of the Second will be happy to see him included, although perhaps not entirely thrilled with how he's portrayed (see below).

On paper it sounds exciting: the current Doctor must rescue his past self from imminent death lest it causes his existence in the present to cease. It falls apart under analysis, but most time travel stories involving that kind of drama tend to do the same.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983)

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983)

Dir. Peter Moffatt | 90 minutes (Original Broadcast) / 101 minutes (Special Edition)

A decade after The Three Doctors (1972-73) serial the sci-fi franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary with a feature-length five Doctors TV Movie.

There are technically 'five' versions of the Doctor in the story, but only four play an active role. Actor Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) refused to take part and so footage from a previously unfinished serial (Shada) was used to pretend that he was there - the ruse fails, it's blatantly obvious that he wasn't. [1]

And in case there's anyone who's experiencing Doctor Who for the first time, the rubbish FX and amateur dramatics acting is the norm. In the correct frame of mind, it's actually part of the charm. But the rescue of Sarah Jane on the grassy knoll is a definite low point. If you listen carefully, you might even hear the scraping of a barrel in the distance.

Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars (1975)

Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars (1975)

Dir. Paddy Russell | 4 episodes, approx 25 mins each

I mentioned that Pyramids of Mars was included as an extra on Series 04 of The Sarah Jane Adventures DVD + Blu-ray, which is a good enough reason for me to want to give a little more information on it.

Stargate is my favourite onscreen merger of sci-fi and Egyptian mythology, but it isn't the only Movie or TV Series to have connected the two things. Doctor Who did it almost two decades before. [1]

It's a Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) adventure in which Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) has a fairly significant role. It's a good example of how much she brought to the series, both as a fully-rounded character in her own right and as a foil for the Doctor.

She isn't his gofer, written in just to do the boring stuff, but is very much there because she wants to be. They joke with each other on equal terms, and she's not afraid to let him know if he's being insensitive or callous when dealing with humans; he's an alien and has an alien perspective.

Doctor Who: The Three Doctors (1972-73)

Doctor Who: The Three Doctors (1972-73)

Dir. Lennie Mayne | 4 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

I don't plan to do all of the Classic Era Doctor Who serials — partly because I don't own them all, and partly because there's too damn many, even if I was lucky enough to have the full set — but I'll do some of the more notable ones, which should mean I can feature each of the seven actors at least once.

The Three Doctors, as the name implies, gets me three of them in one post. It's technically a Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) serial celebrating DW's tenth anniversary, but it has the First (William Hartnell) and Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), too.

First Broadcast in weekly intervals from 30th December 1972 to 20th January 1973, it was the first story in Pertwee's fourth season and is a significant serial for a number of reasons.

In addition to being the first televised adventure to feature multiple versions of the titular Time Lord, it was, sadly, Hartnell's last time playing the role - he died two years later, aged 67.

Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston (2005)

Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston (2005)

The Ninth Doctor | 13 episodes, approx 45 mins each.

After a nine year hiatus the time-travelling Doctor Who returned to TV screens in what was the beginning of a new extended run for the show. It got a new lead actor, too, in the form of Christopher Eccleston, whose tenure as the Ninth Doctor lasted just one series.

Without meaning to detract from the creative team behind the scenes that got the show moving again, many of whom surely deserve equal credit and praise, on the surface (i.e., onscreen) Eccleston revitalised the character.

His short cropped hair, well-worn leather coat and carefree walk made him recognisable, but it was the personality that made him stand out. The buoyant devil-may-care attitude projected an outward confidence, but every now and again there'd be a crack in the armour and we'd glimpse a deep sadness, underpinned by a feeling of loss and culpability. In the TARDIS time-machine he could go anywhere and see anything, but in the long term he was a lone traveller who was very, very far from home.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Fifth Season (2012)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The Complete Fifth Season (2012)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: 6 episodes, approx 27 mins each.

NOTE: THIS SECTION CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR SEASON FOUR.

The fifth season of TSJA is both the shortest and the last of them - not because it was losing its appeal, but because the actress that played the title character, Elisabeth Sladen, sadly passed away. Of the planned twelve episodes, six were finished.

Luke (Tommy Knight) is still away at university, but Sky (Sinead Michael), the young girl that Sarah Jane and her team rescued at the end of Season Four, is still around, bringing the number of human helpers the reporter has back up to a comfortable three.

Well, four, if we count the times when Luke is back on Bannerman Road. He gets paired with Sky in the season's best two-parter (Eps 5+6); they're both Sarah Jane's 'adopted children', so it seems logical.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Fourth Season (2011)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The Complete Fourth Season (2011)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: 12 episodes, approx 27 mins each.

Sarah Jane's whiz-kid son Luke (Tommy Knight) features prominently on the cover, but the character is only in the fourth Season occasionally, and mostly it's from the other side of a webcam chat window.

His absence is used to highlight the kind of feelings that a parent experiences when a child leaves the nest, and the sense of abandonment and fear of further separation that a close-knit group can feel when one of their members is no longer present.

In one of the two-part stories, within a dream scenario (the subject's first, incidentally) lurks an Elm Street / Pennywise-esque creature that preys upon self-doubts and anxiety, which is something that the school-age youths have much of at that time. It has a creepy nursery rhyme jingle, too, which is often a plus in that kind of scenario.

Additionally, looking at the same situation from a different angle, it shows also how we can draw courage and strength from trusted friends.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season (2010)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The Complete Third Season (2010)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: 12 episodes, approx 27 mins each.

Bannerman Road's most famous resident continues the good fight. With the aid of an extraterrestrial super-computer housed in the attic, Sarah Jane Smith and her three young companions hold the line against all kinds of alien nasties that want to inhabit earth for various nefarious or profitable reasons.

The term 'alien' has negative connotations, so while it can be prudent to keep in mind Virgil's 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,' saying, it's unwise to judge on appearances, and the idiom 'don't tar all with the same brush,' is an equally relevant one.

Events in season three go back as far as 1665 and forward to 2059, with the immediate present playing a crucial role in one of the more notable two-parters, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (Dir. Joss Agnew), which has a very special guest star.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Second Season (2009)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:
The Complete Second Season (2009)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: 12 episodes, approx 27 mins each.

I was surprised to see one of the regular cast members leave in the first two-parter of the second season. I won't say who, because of spoilers, but it's not Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen), so the series survives the upheaval. But the relationships that were built up in season one had a lot more potential depth to them. I'd even begun to try and predict where things would go after the season finale.

Happily, the replacement character is a similar shaped peg that fits into the existing format well.

There's nothing herein that I'd call filler, but most of the stories are weaker than what came before. The exception, which was both the highlight and the one that quickly became my favourite episode of all so far, was The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (Dir. Graeme Harper). It's a powerful story making use of a plot device that likely won't be new to fans of science fiction, but that doesn't lessen it. It packs a potent emotional punch that actually benefits from being simplified for a younger audience.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season (2008)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The Complete First Season (2008)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: a one-hour pilot + 10 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

A Doctor Who spin-off aimed primarily at teenagers might not sound overly exciting, but The Sarah Jane Adventures is something very special. It addresses questions that many long-time Doctor Who fans have probably asked themselves at least once: what happens to the travelling companions after they leave? When they go back to a 'normal' life, how do they readjust after the wonders they've seen?

Created by Russell T Davies, the man credited with making the parent show such a renewed success, it offers the same kind of action packed flights of fantasy, grounded regularly by relatable emotions and characters guided by concern for each other.

It exists within, and expands upon, the same fictional universe, populated by the same kind of threats, and through it all remains faithful to the existing continuity, while creating some of its own. You can think of it as Doctor Who diluted, if you want to, but it's arguably just as exciting as the real thing, no matter what age you are.

K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981)

K-9 and Company:
A Girl's Best Friend (1981)

Dir. John Black | 50 mins approx.

The fourth Doctor's (Tom Baker) robotic pooch K9 (Mark III) got itself a pilot episode for an offshoot TV series that didn't get green-lit. It's similar to the parent show, but there are no aliens or reckless jaunts through time. That doesn't mean all is rosy and safe, however. Instead, it has a coven of Hecate worshippers that are planning something nefarious in the pastoral English countryside.

Despite not having her name in the title, the real star of the show is Elisabeth Sladen as the forthright, journalistic-minded Sarah Jane Smith.

The title implies that K-9 would've been constant, but would the 'company' have been changeable? Were more cameos planed for future episodes?

I don't know, but I know that it wasn't the final TV offshoot for either of the two main protagonists.

Doctor Who: Paul McGann (1996)

Doctor Who: Paul McGann (1996)

The Eighth Doctor | TV Movie, approx 89 mins.

Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) was a joint production between Britain and America that was intended to kick-start a US approved version of the long-running UK TV show.

It's set in San Francisco (but filmed in Canada) and stars Paul McGann in the lead role, dressed like he's just stepped off the set of a Victorian era George Pal movie. But besides the famous title music and iconic TARDIS exterior, he's the only aspect of the production that feels like it belongs.

The shift in style to a more 'serious drama' and a misguided pandering to the perceived target audience meant the show was stripped of almost everything that made the original TV venture interesting in the first place.

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

The Seventh Doctor | 42 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

Given the name of the blog that you're presently reading it seems fitting that I should give Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy's incarnation of Doctor Who a post of his own, seeing as how he was the Seventh Doctor and, as it was believed at the time, the last.

But you can't keep a good Time Lord down, and it turned out that he was merely the last incarnation in what's since become known as the 'Classic Era' of the show, which began in 1963 with English actor William Hartnell.

McCoy's introduction was atypical in the series history because he was introduced at the beginning of a new season (Season 24), rather than at the end of a previous one.

But that's the only noteworthy aspect of his arrival. The actual regeneration scene, in which he transforms from a fatally injured Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is damned awful.

Doctor Who: Peter Cushing (1965-66)

Doctor Who: Peter Cushing (1965-66)

Non-canon Doctor | 2 films, approx 83 mins each.

01. Director Gordon Flemyng's Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965) is the first feature-length outing for the time-hopping Time Lord, Doctor Who. Except, he's not a Time Lord yet because his Gallifreyan origins had yet to be invented or explored in 1965.

Peter Cushing stars as the titular traveller, his version of which is a dithering grandpa-type that I suspect may have been a high-school physics teacher at one point in his life, because how else could he build an actual working time machine in his spare room?

The script is based on a seven-part TV serial by Terry Nation and starring First Doctor William Hartnell, simply titled The Daleks in home media releases. [1]