Glasgow Who | Doctor Who Blog

Hello, hello, hello, my fluffy little fellow fans.

I trust you’re all feeling better than I am today. (Bit of a stomach bug. Quite nasty. I’ll spare you the details.)

The more observant of you may have noticed the start of our new Randomiser section last week on our forums. I suspect possibly I’m feeling a little timesick, having travelled all the way back from Tooth and Claw to Ambassadors of Death in under a week.

“What’s the Randomiser?” I hear you all cry in unison. Or whichever trade union of which you are currently a member. Ho ho.

Well, it’s quite simply a random journey through the entire history of Doctor Who, discussing each story in turn, spotting connections to other stories and letting everyone know our favourite bits. (Who said, “you’ve knicked Enlightenment from Doctor Who Forums?” Get out! We haven’t knicked anything… it’s an homage…)

The difference between Doctor Who Forum’s Enlightenment section (and, for that matter, the new Timelash section at the equally lovey Gallifrey Base) is just as simple as the idea itself - The Randomiser is a chance for Glasgow Who to throw its own opinion together and hurl it into the face of fandom’s “received wisdom” (with which we as a group seldom seem to agree…) or what Charlie Brooker slightly less charmingly describes as “another belch in the swirling online guffstorm.”

Well, we can belch away with the best of them here at Glasgow Who and we’re aiming to prove it.

All we need is for YOU to join in the posting over at our fabby forums, where the sky is made of diamonds… Oh, hang on a sec, that’s Utopia.

Never mind, I’m sure our sky is made of something equally lovely. Like Anthea Turner.

Now, I’m not saying for one second that we’ve kidnapped, killed and skinned Anthea Turner just to make a roof for our forums. That would be mental.

That’s what felt’s for.

(And I’m not talking about Vanessa Feltz, although I’m pretty sure there’d be a little more material available from that particular source, if you know what I’m saying.)

Anyway, I’m drifting.

What I’m trying to say is get yourself over to the Glasgow Who forums and illuminate us with your own thoughts on Doctor Who.

We’re on Ambassadors of Death this week, with Destiny of the Daleks coming next week. If you have any thoughts at all on either of them, we’d like to hear them.

So I’ll see you over there. Just watch out for the radioactive blokes and mind you don’t fall in the weir…

War Games edit

Well, I finally finished my re-edit of The War Games and it came in at three 45-minute episodes. That`s the equivalent of a six-part story, which means I managed to lose around 4 episodes worth of padding! It`s been an interesting exercise as it highlights the difference between how much time you really need to tell a story and having to tell a story over a pre-determined length.

Any other budding re-editors out there? Why not knock up your own version of the Troughton to Pertwee regeneration for us to enjoy at one of our upcoming screenings!

And am I the only one who thinks that The War Chief is really The Master? And speaking of Edward Brayshaw…

Poirot & The Professionals

Last Friday I was channel-hopping [as you do] and caught an episode of Poirot on ITV3. The episode was “Problem At Sea” and featured real-life husband-and-wife Caroline John & Geoffrey Beevers as Mr & Mrs Tolliver, along with Ben Aris from Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He was Leiutenant Shearer in episode one, the officious army bloke who convicts the Dr & Sarah as looters.

Meanwhile over on ITV4 David “Poirot” Suchet was in an episode of The Professionals called “Where The Jungle Ends”. He was the leader of a gang of mercenaries, one of whom was Del Henney from Resurrection of the Daleks. He was poor Colonel Archer, who got cloned by The Daleks.

As I think I`ve mentioned before, the funny thing about what DWM called The Pip Torrens Factor is how this recognition thing only works one way. I spot actors who`ve been in Who in other things but I never spot actors that I`ve seen in other things in Who. I never say “oh look, it`s that bloke from Casualty!”

It took me ages to realise that Edward Brayshaw was Mr Meaker from Rentaghost but if I`d caught a re-run of it, I`m sure I would have said “oh look, there`s that bloke from The War Games!”

In honour of dear departed Ed I hereby christen these actorly observations as Mr Meaker Moments.

Stand by for the Forum Thread!