Happy Birthday To Billie Piper & Frazer Hines!

Today marks the birthdays of both Billie Piper, who played Rose Tyler and Frazer Hines, who played Jamie McCrimmon!

Billie Piper played Rose, a companion of both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors from Rose (2005) to Doomsday (2006) and has made quite a few more appearances in the show since then.

Frazer Hines played Jamie, a companion of the Second Doctor from The Highlanders (1966) to The War Games (1969), making him one of Doctor Who's longest serving companions. He later appeared in The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985).

To wish the both of them a happy birthday, please use the Twitter hashtags #HappyBirthdayBilliePiper and #HappyBirthdayFrazerHines!

Doctor Who - The Ice Warriors - DVD Review

For years, two episodes of the six-part Troughton story The Ice Warriors have been missing from the BBC's archives, and so the story has never been officially released on DVD (actually, it was released on VHS but the two missing episodes were audio-only.) Well, thanks to Qurios and their team, these two episodes have been animated for a DVD release and they really do look good! In fact, I'd say it's the best Doctor Who animation so far!

So, what do I think of the story?
I wasn't expecting too much from The Ice Warriors thanks to all the reviews that say it's disappointing and slow, but I was very pleased with it!

I think it's a good, solid six-parter that introduces the Ice Warriors and has some great scenes (the bit where the TARDIS lands upside down and the end of part 1 / start of part 2 are brilliant!) and of course, fantastic acting from Troughton, Hines, Watling and quite a few other members of the cast.

The Ice Warriors are great monsters here - they want to get back to Mars and don't really care about Earth, but that doesn't mean they won't kill people who get in their way. I love the setting of another Earth ice age, it feels really well done.

Now, unfortunately, The Ice Warriors suffers from the same fate as quite a few other early Who stories - it's too damn long and didn't need to be six episodes long, and could have easily been four. Luckily that's the only problem I have with it so it's not bad at all to be honest. All in all? Brilliant story with some brilliant scenes but it's a little bit too long, and that's all I can say, really.

The animation?
WOW! Even if you're not a huge fan of the story, this is a great reason to go out and buy this DVD! Qurios, Chris Chapman and everyone else involved did an AMAZINGLY AWESOMELY BRILLIANT job! I just can't fault the animation at all! Honestly, as people have said, it's so good you kind of forget it's animation!

It's obviously not the best animation ever made, but, excluding the upcoming Scream of the Shalka, it's certainly the best animated Doctor Who DVD release so far. As good as The Invasion and The Reign of Terror were, this is just fantastic. A HUGE reason to buy it! A must-have for any Doctor Who fan, old or new!

Alien Design?
I love the Ice Warrior design - as you can see, Marsians are not little green men from outer space! Brilliant aliens which were great in their Series 7 appearance Cold War. I really hope Capaldi gets to meet them!

Special features?
These are another major reason to buy this DVD. There are three different sets of commentaries:

1. Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Sonny Caldinez, Jeremy Davies and Pat Heigham commentate episodes 1, 4, 5 & 6). 2. original archive recordings or readings of text written by Brian Hayles, Derek Martinus, Martin Baugh, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Barkworth, Wendy Gifford and Sylvia James on episode 2. 3. Patrick Troughton's son (Michael) commentates episode 3.

Very interesting way to do the commentary, they're all pretty good too!

It has programme subtitles and subtitle production notes, don't really have anything to say about those.

On disc 2, there is a 25-minute documentary called Cold Fusion where the cast and crew look back on the making of the story, featuring Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Sonny Caldinez, Jeremy Davies and James Bresslaw. Quite interesting, worth a watch.

There is a short behind the scenes video called Beneath the Ice which features the producers and directors of the animated episodes. It tells you a bit about how they were made. Again, quite interesting and definitely worth a watch.

It has the original VHS links featuring Hines and Watling linking the missing episodes, which is a pretty nice addition.

It features a Blue Peter design a monster competition which ran during the transmission of this story. Fairly interesting, and again, a very nice addition. An entertaining 10 or so minutes.

It also features the second part of Doctor Who Stories: Frazer Hines which looks back at Jamie's later Doctor Who appearances. Very interesting, especially if you're a fan of Jamie.

Of course, there's the standard photo gallery, Radio Times listings in PDF format, programme subtitles and a coming soon trailer for Scream of the Shalka which will be released next month. It's a very good trailer and honestly makes me want to watch the little animated story starring Richard E. Grant!

Overall, a great buy for just about any Doctor Who fan. The animation doesn't take anything away from the story, and I'd take this animation over a pictures and audio reconstruction any day, as much as I respect the people who make those.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Amazing story, amazing animation but minus one point for being a bit too long.

Buy The Ice Warriors on DVD here for £14.00!

The Ice Warriors Is Out Now On DVD!

Don't forget, the partly-missing The Ice Warriors is out now on DVD with two animated episodes! It's great to see another Troughton story get a DVD release! You can buy it here for £14.00!

Review coming soon...

Classic Doctor Who TV Hour-ish: The Mind Robber, or The Second Doctor Gets Trippy Right Out Of Reality

      At the end of the preceding serial, The Dominators, a volcanic eruption is set off on the planet of Dulkis. The Mind Robber picks up with the Second Doctor & companions Jamie McCrimmon & Zoe Heriot in the TARDIS as it is being surrounding & slowly swallowed by a river of molten lava, blowing a fluid link (an essential component that provides power to the ship) in the process. Reluctant but out of options, the Doctor employs an emergency unit that is designed to move the TARDIS out of normal time & space, out of reality itself, transporting the TARDIS & crew to the White Void (or just "the Void"). While the Doctor works to repair the fluid link, Jamie & Zoe are lured outside by images seen on the scanner, each seeing their home, where they come in contact with strange White Robots. The Doctor manages to get his companions back on board & they attempt to return to reality. Instead, the TARDIS explodes & scatters the travelers into nothingness.

The Doctor never forgets a face. Except when he does.

     The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe wake up, separated, in a mysterious forest. After facing a series of riddles, the Doctor finds Jamie, who has been turned into a cardboard cutout version of himself, only without a face. Given a mix-and-match selection of eyes, noses & mouths, the Doctor tries to reassemble Jamie's face but ends up changing it instead. (The story behind this was pure genius in my book. Frazer Hines, who played Jamie, had contracted chicken pox & had to quickly be replaced for the second episode. The writers came up with this interesting explanation as to why another actor, Hamish Wilson, had to temporarily step in.) Jamie & The Doctor soon find Zoe, apparently trapped behind a brick wall painted to look like a door. The Doctor solves this riddle as well - "When is a door not a door? When it's ajar (a jar)!" - causing the brick wall/door to dissipate & revealing Zoe trapped in a giant jar.
     The trio soon encounter various fictional characters (such as Lemuel Gulliver, Rapunzel, the Minotaur, Medusa & a unicorn) & discover that they are in  a "Land of Fiction" being run by one that is called "the Master" (not The Master, who would make his first appearance two years after this aired). They are able to escape from the unicorn (Jamie had mentioned in the first episode a dream of being charged & killed by a unicorn), as well as the Minotaur & Medusa, by declaring that the creatures didn't actually exist, which turned the figments of fiction into statues. They eventually find themselves face-to-face with the Master, a kidnapped writer from Earth who faced the same riddles & fictional creatures when he first arrived. He explains that he is getting old & wants to Doctor to replace him as the source of creativity for the Land of Fiction.

The Doctor hooked up to the Master Brain.

The Doctor refuses & tries to escape, while Jamie & Zoe (who had snuck out of the room & into a nearby library while the Doctor & the Master talked) encounter the White Robots again & become trapped in a giant book. The Master hypnotizes the companions into trapping the Doctor, whom he then hooks up to the Master Brain. The Doctor & the Master proceed to battle each other by summoning various fictional characters to fight. The Doctor manages to prevail. He then releases Jamie & Zoe, who overload the Master Brain, leaving the White Robots with only the command to "Destroy". The Doctor unplugs the Master from the Brain & all four of them hide in another room while the White Robots destroy the Master Brain. Then, the TARDIS comes back together & normality is restored.
     The Mind Robber, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts between September 14th & October 12 1968, is the very first Second Doctor serial that I've watched & perhaps the oddest, trippiest Doctor Who episode I've watched yet. I adored the utterly weird first episode, which ended with the TARDIS exploding & was apparently cobbled together rather quickly due to the previous serial being shortened an episode, thus causing this serial to have to be extended by one episode This also resulted in the last episode being the shortest Doctor Who episode to date, clocking at just over 18 minutes, as well as episode 1 being the only episode in the series' history to have no writer's credit. The Land of Fiction was pretty groovy as well; I liked the idea of various riddles & especially the face-changing of Jamie, which didn't feel as if it was a last minute cover for Hines' inability to film. It was interesting, and befitting, that Lemuel Gulliver could only speak in lines written by Jonathan Swift, which seemed to lay down the basic rules of the Land of Fiction. Being a writer myself, the concept of this place intrigued me & I am going to track down the novels & audio dramas where the Land of Fiction is re-visited.
     It's interesting to note that it has been debated whether or not the events in The Mind Robber ever actually occur. When the serial ends, the Master is with the TARDIS crew, yet his absence (along with any of the events of this story) are not remarked upon at the start of the next serial, The Invasion. Its possible the entire escapade was a figment of imagination brought on by the White Void, although that possibility has never been explored.
     Peter Davison, Colin Baker & Matt Smith (or Doctors Five, Six & Eleven) have each stated that the Second Doctor is their favorite, and its terribly easy to see why. Patrick Throughton is a perfect "cosmic bum", equal parts comedy & seriousness, confirming my suspicions that there really is no one "better Doctor" & that each actor has been utterly brilliant in the role. From here on out, anytime someone asks me "Who's your favorite Doctor", my response will forever be "The Doctor".

The Doctor, Zoe & Jamie (here played by stand-in Hamish Wilson) square off against...a unicorn?