The deal

For those of you who haven't got round to reading 'World Game', here's the key bits of background for you on what happens after the second doctor's TV adventures end at the conclusion of the 'War Games'...

World Game
Terrance Dicks

Prologue

The following is an excerot from the genuine and original summary record of the trial of the Doctor. The account with which we were, until now, familiar was substantially re-edited for the public record.

In the High Court of the Time Lords a trial was coming to its end. The accused, a renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor, had already been found guilty. Now it was time for the sentence...

A hush fell as the President of the Court rose and began to speak. 'Doctor, you have been found guilty of two serious offences against our laws. First, you stole a TARDIS and used it to roam through Time and Space as you pleased.'

'Nonsense,' said the Doctor idingnatly. 'I didn't steal it. Just borrowed it for a while.'

The President ignored the interruption. 'More imporantly, you have repeatedly broken our most important law; interference in the affairs of other planets is a serious crime.'

Again the Doctor interrupted. 'I not only admit my interference, I am proud of it! You just observe the evil in the galaxies. I fight against it.'

'We have considered your plea, Doctor, that there is evil in the Universe which must be fought, and that you still have a part to play in that great struggle. It is a plea not without merit.' The President paused. Then he said heavily, 'Regrettably, the Court's hands are tied. The abstraction of an obsolete TARDIS is a relatively trivial matter, and might be pardoned. Temporal interference, however, prolonged and repeated temporal interference, is a far more serious matter. It strikes at the root of out Time Lord policy of non-interference in the affais of the cosmos. It draws attention to our very existence, and for many years our safety has lain in silence and secrecy. In short, aggravated temporal interference of this nature is a capital crime, and the sentence is mandatory.

'It is my painful duty, Doctor, to sentence you to death.'

---

Chapter One

...

It was a difficult meeting, held in a security-sealed conference room just ff Temporal Scanning HQ, The three Time Lords present were members of a special sub-committee of the High Council.

Their usual duties were to oversee the work of the Temporal Scanning Service. Normally this was a bureacratic formality, which consisted of rubber-stamping the latest reports. Now, however, they had a real problem to deal with. And a problem which, horror of horrors, might actually require positive action.

They weren't happy about it.

Ragnar, the most senior, summed up their dilemma... 'The evidence is clear. There has been temporal interference - prolonged and repeated temporal interference. So far it is relativelt trivial. Potentially, however, it is highly dangerous. It risks endangering the very fabric of time. It can no longer be tolerated. Those responsible must be tracked down and identified. Once that has been done they must be neutralised.'

Milvo, the second member of the sub-committee, nodded thoughtfully... 'That may be so. However we ourselves cannot be seen to interfere. Such action runs contrary to all our most cherished principles... Our reputation for detatchment, for non-interference, cannot be comprimised.' He paused thoughtfully. 'Particularly at a time when we are about to put a renegade Time Lord to death for precisely that same reason! It would be most embarrassing to e found committing exactly the same offence ourselves!'

Ragnar frowned... 'Nevertheless, something must be done,' he said irratably. 'Action must be taken. We are all agreed on that, I believe. And we achieve nothing by idly spinning phrases!'

The third member of the sub-committee was - nondescript... His name was Sardon.

'I might, perhaps, be able to offer a solution,' he said mildly.

The other two looked warily at him... He was the representative if the powerful Celestial Intervention Agency, that vast and shadowy organisation that underpinned the formal respectability of Time Lord rule.

The Agency wasn't afraid of getting its hands dirty. Some said they were never clean...

'In my humble opinion, you are right,' he said smoothingly.

'Which of us?' snapped Ragnar.

'Both of you.'

'Since we seem to hold dianetrically opposed opinions,' murmered Milvo, 'it is difficult to see...'

'Not at all,' saod Sardon. He nodded towards Ragnar. 'You are right - the situation is urgent and action must be taken.' He turned to Milvo. 'However, you are also right - the Time Lords cannot be seen to take it.'

'You speak in paradoxes,' protested Milvo. 'How can we act and not act?'

'I did not say we could not act. I said we must not be seen to act.'

'Then how -?'

'We must use an agent. Someone we can control, and if necessary, disown.'

Ragnar looked dubious. 'The task is both delicate and dangerous. It will require a person of great intelligence, courage and ability. It will require many kinds of skills, diplomatic and scientific, not to mention a considerable amount of low cunning. All in all, it calls for a person of truly exceptional quality. Do you have such an agent at your command?'

'I have one in mind.'

'Can he be trusted?' asked Milvo.

'I think so,' said Sardon. 'His life is in my hands.'

'How so?' snapped Ragnar.

'He has just been condemned to death.'

---

...

For all the luxuries of his surroundings, the Doctor knew he was in an oubliette, a superior Time Lord cell for important prisonsers. He knew too that he might be left there to rot for endless days - left indeed until he either regenerated or died of natural causes. On the other hand he might be taken out for execution at any moment.

...

As the Doctor pondered the paradoxes of time travel, the door opened and someone came in. An insignificant-looking someone, a grey man in a grey robe.

The Doctor swung his feet from the couch and rose. 'Execution time? Surely not, I'd hoped for a bit more ceremony. A detatchment of those nice ornamental soliers from the Capitol Guard, solemn drum-beats, that sort of thing.'

The grey man smiled thinly. 'No, it's not execution time yet, Doctor. Perhaps it will never be execution time at all - it's up to you. My name is Sardon. I've come to offer you a deal.'

Chapter Two

...

Chapter Three

'A deal,' aid the Doctor. 'Good old Gallifrey. There's always a deal, isn't there?'

'Fortunately, for you, Doctor, in this case there is. It is up to you to decided whether or not you wish to take advantage of it. If you're too noble to comprimise, you can always choose to stand by your princiles and die.'

...

'I'm willing to listen at least,' he said carelessly. 'After all, I've very little else to do. What do I get out of this proposition of yours?'

'Your life for a start. The death sentence commuted into a period of exile. Eventually, when the fuss has died down and all the scandal you've caused has been forgotteb, there's the possibility of restoration to full Time Lord status.'

'Quite an attractive employment package undr the circumstances,' said the Doctor.

'I should have though so,' agreed his visitor. 'Especially when you consider the current alternative.'

'And what do I have to do to earn all these highly desirable fringe benefits? Something you don't care to dirty your hands with, I suppose?'

'You will be asked to carry out a mission, possibly several missions, for the people I represent.'

'The Celestial Intervention Agency, I take it?'

'If you care to think so, Doctor.'

'What else can I possibly think? Who else but the Agency would be unsruplous enough to employ a condemned criminal like me to do their dirty work?'

...

Death of a War Lord

The Welsh actor, Philip Madoc, died on 5th March 2012. Madoc is most well known among Who fans for his role as the War Lord in final Troughton story, The War Games. He also appeared alongside Tom Baker in the classic Brain Of Morbius as Solon. Less well known are his appearances in the Krotons (Eelek) and the Power of Kroll (Fenner). He also appeared in the film 'Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.', making him (along with Bernard Cribbins) one of the few actors to appear in both the TV series and the film spin-offs. He also appeared in the Big Finish audio dramas Master and Return of the Krotons. Read more about Philip's life in his obituary in The Independent. There's a great series of pages on his roles in Who here. The Whoniverse just got smaller.

Zoe Heriot And Her Very Strange Adventure

A great compilation of clips of our lovely Zoe.

Troughton Interview

Wendy Padbury promo pics

Here's a group of promo pics of Wendy Padbury, I'm guessing from around the time of her announcement as Who girl. You can guess why I like them.

Space Adventure cards

We've looked at the Troughton Dalek cards, produced by Walls, here and here. Here's a blog where, hopefully, they will post all the cards in this series - they're up to Number 13 already. Check it out here.

Power behind the scenes

I'm having a good rummage through the Beeb's classic series site, linking stuff which I often forget is actually there myself. Although I'm sure the Beeb don't have the money to do anything with this site at the moment, my worry is that it may get redeveloped at some point, and we may loose elements of the site which are unique at the moment. So lets keep hitting those pages and letting them know we want them! I'm on a mission to download all the images relating to missing stories - for my own personal use of course. The Beeb site states image downloads are for use as desktops only... but I hope they don't mind me posting the odd image here as a taster to get you to visit the main site.

Anyway, there's a really cool set of colour behind the scenes photo's from Troughton's first story, Power of the Daleks. Visit the Beeb's classic series website here to view gallery one, and here for gallery two, which includes most of the colour images.


Note the sieve arm attachment.

I linked to the gallery for Evil of the Daleks in my previous post on Victoria, and we also did the Ice Warrior gallery a while back (and don't forget also the mini 'Invasion' gallery, which strangely isn't linked through the menus).

For the main gallery index page click here.

Troughton Screensavers

Hidden amongst the photonovel recons for the missing episode stories on the Beeb's classic series website, there are downloadable screensavers for several Troughton stories - apparently the whole tale told in around forty telesnaps.


Visit the main photonovel menu here, and click through to the story you want. Scroll down to the bottom and you should see the link through to the screensaver.

The Power of the Daleks
The Moonbase (Cybermen)
The Macra Terror
Abominable Snowman
Fury from the Deep

The screensaver is only available for PCs, running Windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME and NT.

Who's that girl?

A few posts back we had a lovely shot of Deborah Watling, who played Victoria, having a cup of tea during the filming of the Abominable Snowman. Now whilst I can't promise that it was nice cup of tea, it was definately a nice photo, so time for some more.


Deborah Watling portrayed Victoria Waterfield from the beginning of The Evil of the Daleks (1967) through the end of Fury From the Deep (1968), and until the Tomb of the Cybermen was rediscovered, there was not one full story of hers surviving, such was the extent of the BBC's 'you will be deleted' policy.

Time also to credit an excellent Who photo archive, ShillPages, here.


This last picture is robbed from the Evil of the Daleks photogallery on the Beebs classic series website, here.

Before she landed her Who role, she starred in Alice, Dennis Potter's version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for the BBC's The Wednesday Play in 1965, which earned her a Radio Times cover.

Deborah's official website is here.

The Invasion!

Having just mentioned the Invasion reconstructions, an excuse to show the covers and talk through this classic second doctor story in more detail...

Even though 'The Invasion' is an incomplete story, with episodes 1 and 4 missing. It is, to date, the only incomplete story to be released in audio CD, video and DVD format (I think!). The story was sold abroad, so the optimistic Who fan can hope that perhaps one day these missing episodes will be recovered from a foriegn TV station clearing out their archives... perhaps.

The Who Script project introduces this story as follows:

The Invasion was to have been a sequel to a story in the previous season, The Web of Fear, and it was also intended to feature the return of two characters from that story, Professor Travers and his daughter Anne. As these actors were unavailable this lead to the substitution of two similar characters, Professor Watkins and his niece, Isobel. Further changes resulted in replacing the Yeti used in "Web" with the Cybermen, and expanding the story to eight episodes. Invasion was the fourth occasion Patrick Troughton's Doctor encountered the Cybermen, more than any other adversary. (Get the story scripts here.)

According to the Who wiki site, the story had a working title of "Return of the Cybermen" and was originally conceived as a four part story - it got expanded to eight when the next story, "The Dreamspinner", fell through (see here).


The audio CD of the original soundtrack was released with linking narration by Frazer Hines.


The video release used linking narration by Nicholas Courtney (again text of which is available on the script project link above). Cover artwork was by Alistair Pearson.


The DVD uses animated versions of the missing episodes 1 and 4 that were made by Cosgrove Hall, which had previously made The Scream of the Shalka. It also contains the linking narration of Nicholas Courtney from the video release.


This last image has been robbed from the Invasion gallery on the Beebs classic series website, here. Strangely, the only way I could get to this page was through google, as I can't find it linked through the site menus.

The Beeb's classic series website doesn't have a 'photonovel' version of this story, which is a shame. But they do have the usual episode guide page with short video clips and the odd 'original paperwork' section which I think is the shooting script (here).

You can read about the reconstruction here.

On Location - Yeti!

More photo's raided from the Beeb's website for the Classic series, this time behind the scenes location photos from the making of the Abominable Snowman...






You can download higher resolution images on the website here.

More Ice Warriors!

Can't resist the excuse to post some more photos from this story, this time from behind the scenes, showing Bernard Bresslaw getting dressed up for his Ice Warrior role. Images from the Beeb classic who website (here).

Bernard Bresslaw (Varga) found fame in the Carry On movies, where he often played the nice but dim friend of Sid James. Prior to his Ice Warrior role he had starred alongside William Hartnell in the television series The Army Game (1957-1958).

Ice Warriors!

Just an excuse to show some of the artwork from published versions of The Ice Warriors. And why not.

The photomontage artwork for the audio CD release:


And the video special edition boxset:


And an offical Beeb colourised photo, from their website:


Which was obviously the same photo Achilleos used, together with Victoris screaming (used in the photomontae cover for the audio CD above) for the original Target cover, by Chris Achilleos:

Colourised Who

And here it is, the site where I grabbed the pics of Zoe in my last post. I really like these images, so here's a few more to make doubly sure you click the link and visit their site!

The images are all colourised by Michael Blumenthal.

The Daleks, from their first story.


An amazingly coloured image from Marco Polo


A funky cyberman from Moonbase.


From one of my favourite stories, the Ice Warriors.


And here's a couple of Ice Warriors creeping up on the Doctor (from Seeds of Death)...


And a couple of cybermen creeping up on Zoe from the Wheel in Space...


And look... there's me!

Zoe's finest moment

Thought it was about time we added Zoe Herriot to our list of lovely companions, played by Wendy Padbury. And here's her finest moment, at the end of episode one of the Mind Robber, left clinging to the TARDIS console as it spins into space.



Wendy Padbury portrayed Zoe Herriot from the beginning of The Wheel in Space (1968) through the end of The War Games (1969).

You'll note that these images are colourised from black and white originals. There's a whole load of dedicated artists working to colourise old Who images. I've robbed these from somewhere, so I guess now I have to try and find out where so I can credit them!

Cosmic Hobo

Here's some 'rare' (I don't understand how photographs can be rare, especially didgital ones, but anyway, it sounds good!) Troughton promo pics... from Axonite's Sci-Fi Ramblings (there's two pics and you can download them both from his site).

Notice how the image above was obviously used by the artist for the second Doctor comic strip 'header' image (used in my post on the second Doctor comics here).

Second Doctor Comics - TV Comic

OK, so following the first Doctor comic strips (here), we have the second Doctor comic strips, again from TV Comic (all nice and easy so far hey?). I've linked the ones you can find online...

2.01 The Extortioner 784 – 787 24 December 1966 - 14 January 1967
2.02 The Trodos Ambush 788 – 791 21 January 1967 - 11 February 1967
2.03 The Doctor Strikes Back 792 – 795 18 February 1967 - 11 March 1967
2.04 The Zombies 796 – 798 18 March 1967 - 1 April 1967
2.05 Master of Spiders 799 – 802 8 April 1967 - 29 April 1967
2.06 The Exterminators 803 – 806 6 May 1967 - 27 May 1967
2.07 The Monsters from the Past 807 – 811 3 June 1967 - 1 July 1967
2.08 The Tardis Worshippers 812 – 815 8 July 1967 - 29 July 1967
2.09 Space War II 816 – 819 5 August 1967 - 26 August 1967
2.10 Egyptian Escapade 820 – 823 2 September 1967 - 23 September 1967
2.11 The Coming of the Cybermen 824 – 827 30 September 1967 - 21 October 1967
2.12 The Faithful Rocket Pack 828 – 831 28 October 1967 - 18 November 1967
2.13 Flower Power 832 – 836 25 November 1967 - 23 December 1967
2.14 The Witches 837 – 841 30 December 1967 - 27 January 1968
2.15 Cyber-Mole 842 – 845 3 February 1968 - 24 February 1968
2.16 The Sabre-Toothed Gorillas 846 – 849 2 March 1968 - 23 March 1968
2.17 The Cyber Empire 850 – 853 30 March 1968 - 20 April 1968
2.18 The Dyrons 854 – 858 27 April 1968 - 25 May 1968
2.19 Dr Who and the Space Pirates 859 – 863 1 June 1968 - 29 June 1968
2.20 Car of the Century 864 – 867 6 July 1968 - 27 July 1968
2.21 The Jokers 868 – 871 3 August 1968 - 24 August 1968
2.22 Invasion of the Quarks 872 – 876 30 August 1968 - 28 September 1968
2.23 The Killer Wasps 877 – 880 5 October 1968 - 26 October 1968
2.24 Ice Cap Terror 881 – 884 2 November 1968 - 23 November 1968
2.25 Jungle of Doom 885 – 889 30 November 1968 - 28 December 1968
2.26 Father Time 890 – 893 4 January 1969 - 25 January 1969
2.27 Martha the Mechanical Housemaid 894 – 898 1 February 1969 - 1 March 1969
2.28 The Duellists 899 – 902 8 March 1969 - 29 March 1969
2.29 Eskimo Joe 903 – 906 5 April 1969 - 26 April 1969
2.30 Peril at 60 Fathoms 907 – 910 3 May 1969 - 24 May 1969
2.31 Operation Wurlitzer 911 – 915 31 May 1969 - 28 June 1969
2.32 Action in Exile 916 - 920 5 July 1969 - 2 August 1969
2.33 The Mark of Terror 921 – 924 9 August 1969 - 30 August 1969
2.34 The Brotherhood 925 – 928 6 September 1969 - 27 September 1969
2.35 U.F.O. 929 – 933 4 October 1969 - 1 November 1969
2.36 The Night Walkers 934 – 936 8 November 1969 - 22 November 1969

Strips 2.11 to 2.13 are available to download here.

Strips 2.14 to 2.16 are available to download here.

Strips 2.17 to 2.18 are available to download here.

Strips 2.22 to 2.23 are available to download here.

Strips 2.24 to 2.27 are available to download here.

Strips 2.28 to 2.31 are available to download here.

Strips 2.32 to 2.36 are available to download here.

[That just leaves strips 2.08-2.10, which I know are out there somewhere, as I found them the other day, but I just can't find the links at the moment! I'll update as soon as I remember, or please, if you find them first post as a link in the comments. Thanks!]

I'll do all the extra first and second Doctor stories from the TV Comic Annuals and Holiday Specials, soon...

With thanks to the original scanners of these comics, and their uploaders...

Links

Altered Vistas

And thanks again to Doctor Who Comic Fun.

Fury of the Daleks

I don't normally post links to download audios and things which still have a ongoing commercial value, as I don't like to promote the illegal copying of copywrited material - for example the Big Finish audios. Now don't get me wrong - I hate this commercial consumeristic society as much as the next manic mad man, and obviously a meglomanic like myself delights in breaking the law. But I don't want to help you undermine the business of Big Finish and perhaps risk them going belly up, and so bringing to an end their productions.

So you won't find me linking to Big Finish audios, or the Target novelisation audios, or the BBC narrated soundtracks, all of which are highly recommended, but ongoing commercial concerns. It's all out there, somewhere, if you know where to look. Alternatively get a job and buy them!

However with older BBC stuff it's a bit different - firstly, I paid my license fee, so I sort of think I've paid for Who already! Then, after you have bought loads of stuff, you sort of think well, hey, I deserve some freebies. Well, these audio stories have long been deleted, and as such represent a little piece of history which should be preserved for the future, before the plastic tape they were released on crumbles into dust.


In the early 1990's, as part of the Who 30th anniversary, the Beeb released several Troughton adventures in a new test format under the title of 'The Missing Stories'. The original television soundtrack of 'lost' stories (with episodes missing from the BBC archive) were released with linking narration provided by living Doctors (number 3, 4 and 6). These were only released on cassette (vynal was dead and CD's unborn), and as such could easily go the way of the original episodes and be lost to the world forever.

The stories are:

Power of the Daleks (narrated by Tom Baker)
Macra Terror (narrated by Colin Baker)
Evil of the Daleks (narrated by Tom Baker)
Tomb of the Cybermen (narrated by Jon Pertwee)
Fury from the Deep (narrated by Tom Baker)

It's interesting to note that about the same time, Tomb of the Cybermen was rediscovered, and quickly released on video. Good old Tom gives a typically bonkers performance, reading the stories in the first person, which does take a bit to get used to.


Later the format would be developed into the BBC audio stories, released on CD, and with cleaner and better quality audio. All of the above stories were re-done and re-released, except, strangely, the Macra Terror, which was released with Colin Baker's narration.

Anyway, as the format is largely defunct, and the titles long deleted, here's a link to a page where some wonderfully techy type person has transferred them from audio to MP3 and posted for us all to enjoy. (Here's where we say thank you wonderful techy type person!) There's only two stories up there ready at the moment, Power of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep, but as both are total classics, it's well worth trying these out. The others will hopefully appear on the same link in due course.

Alternatively you can pick the stories up second hand on ebay and the like. The used to be mega rare and highly collectable, with a price tag to match, but since the CD releases, their value has dropped to a couple of quid per story. All you need then is a cassette player...

If you've not listened to the audio recordings of the missing stories, then give these a go. They get better with the second wave of releases, which are availbale on CD and cover many first and second doctor stories.

Dr Who Space Adventure Advert

Here's an advert for the 1967 Walls 'Space Adventure' promotion, featured in an earlier post (here).


Thanks to 'Doctor Who Comic Fun' blog for the pic. He also shows another advert:


And he has page by page scans of the accompanying book - click here.

You can download the album here. Somewhere I've got scans of all the cards... which I will post when I get organised!