A Saturday Night to Remember

I’ve been without internet connections for a few days whilst I switch internet company. Sky had just taken over my existing provider so I wanted to be as far away from the clutches of the Murdoch empire as possible. Anyway, without the distraction of the internet to bother me it has, at least given me chance to catch up with my TV viewing. LoveFilm had sent through a couple of Doctor Who DVDs and there was the brand new thing on Saturday night as well.

The Doctor Who DVDs featured stories from 2 consecutive series. The Krotons was from Patrick Troughton’s last year in the lead role. Of all the old series I’ve watched, these Troughton stories have been an absolute delight. Partly this is because I didn’t see these the first time around although I did see The Krotons when it was repeated in the 1980s. I wasn’t that impressed with it at the time but it was actually far better than I remembered it. The basic story has a good premise and the action sequences were well realised with good cliff-hangers at the end of each episode. The only downside were the Krotons themselves which looked like they were constructed from old domestic appliances – they possibly were. Also, somewhat strangely, they have South African accents. Why this seem odder than received pronunciation, I don’t know – it just does. I’ve had a scan through the old 60’s series and the only complete surviving Troughton story I haven’t seen is The Dominators which gets rather patchy reviews. I also have to watch The Seeds Of Death and The War Games with the kids but it is rather depressing at how many of these stories are now missing.

The second disk was the first 4 episodes of Doctor Who and the Silurians. This was from Jon Pertwee’s first year as the Time Lord and also the first series recorded in colour – although judging from the quality of the picture this has been restored from an imperfect source. I don’t recall seeing this one at all but it does show the more adult themes that the show was using in the 1970s. Oddly enough, I don’t think the colour does the production any favours. Black and white hides some of the cheaper sets and effects and also allows for the effective use of shadows – just think of all those German Expressionist films. I think any fault in the production values are largely made up for in the strong script and cast – including guest appearances by the likes of Fulton MacKay, Peter Miles and Paul Darrow (years before his starring role in Blake’s 7).

The final part of this Doctor Who trilogy was Neil Gaiman’s Cyberman story, Nightmare In Silver. I was really looking forward to this one and I have to say I did enjoy it. However, Nina was rather less impressed and thought it was all special effects and not enough story. I suppose she had a point and it is markedly different from the old 1960s and 70s episodes which had to rely on strong scripting and story concepts to accommodate both the limited special effects and the significantly longer running time of each story. The odd thing is that Gaiman’s trump card is story telling and there have been great film adaptations of his work such as Stardust and Coraline. The interesting thing there is that, although these were Gaiman’s stories, they were adapted for screen by separate scriptwriters – in the case of Stardust, Jane Goldman and for Coraline, Henry Selick. I am wondering if this might be a better way forward for Doctor Who: have authors write the story and let script writers adapt them for the screen?

Anyway, next Saturday sees the Season finale in the form of The Name Of The Doctor (which I am certain we won’t find out) followed straight after by the wondrous campfest that is The Eurovision Song Contest. I’m looking forward to this and we are planning a Doctor Who themed Eurovision party to celebrate. At least it should make a Saturday Night to remember.