SPLENDID FELLOWS. ALL OF THEM!

It was the ultimate dream come true for series fans with the Twentieth Anniversary, as The Five Doctors feature-length special was officially announced to the press during the Spring of 1983. And what a nostalgic thrill it was to see all the surviving Doctors together (sadly, bar Tom Baker), as well as Richard Hurndall commendably inhabiting the persona of William Hartnell's original incarnation, at that first lively outdoor publicity call, though it's a shame that a moody and magnificent group shot of the Doctors, like the posed Radio Times image done for 1973's The Three Doctors, couldn't also have been done here. A missed opportunity...

As news of all the returning monsters and companions also slowly tricked in over time, the programme's November 1983 transmission couldn't come quick enough for this young viewing fanatic!

THE PIRATE'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY!

The fate of another world hangs in the balance, as the menacing half-man, half-android ego The Captain, and evil, hidden-in-plain-sight Queen Xanxia plot to make The Pirate Planet ever more powerful in energy and mineral wealth via it's space-hopping abilities. A great onset photograph of the villains from a truly ingenious story, one of the best from the Tom Baker era produced by Graham Williams. written with humour and imagination by Douglas Adams, and director Pennant Roberts finest work on the series.

NOT SO ITSY-BITSY SPIDER!

The Doctor must face his fear once and for all, testing his courage and position of self-sacrifice to challenge the memorable and vindictive Great Queen Spider of Metebelis Three, in this striking image composition from the action-packed finale to the Third Doctor's era: Planet of the Spiders.

A FISHY TALE!

An early adventure for the developing Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton (still in his stovepipe hat-wearing, disguises-fuelled mode), and one not particularly liked by the main cast and production team of the day, backed up by a bad rap from fans from the original time when there was only one existing episode (its third), The Underwater Menace has become more popular with fans since the return of the long-lost episode two a few years back, re-evaluated alongside its surviving audio as an enjoyable slice of hokum in the best 'madman wants to destroy the world' tradition.

Art by Andy Lambert.

The Fish People workers of Atlantis 'doing their thing' underwater, via plainly visible Kirby wires at Ealing Studios, may not have proved a success in 1967 but they're visually interesting enough to make the story's representative cover to the latest WHO audio release on limited edition LP from Demon Records, available May 29th, 2020.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Underwater-Volcanic-Eruption/dp/B0873PCTJK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dr+who+the+underwater+menace+lp&qid=1587052025&sr=8-1

GALACTIC TOURISTS!

By public demand, the return of the Skaro meanies, the Daleks, after their ratings-winning debut was inevitable, and we all couldn't wait to see The Doctor and his companions back in conflict against them. Even better, the new and even more ambitious Terry Nation-written adventure saw the Daleks now invading Earth at a time not too far into the future, of which things seemed even more suspenseful and believable- seeing the deadly pepperpots gliding around well known London landmarks was surely a thrill back in 1964.

BBC trailers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ0ZK21w6jM

A CRISIS OF FAITH AND MONSTERS!

Normally, church priests like to see packed attendances from the local parishioners but certainly not of the Haemovore persuasion, in his memorable image from the World War II era set horror spectacular The Curse of Fenric, which gave us an excellent performance from Nicholas Parsons, always an actor before becoming stereotyped later on as a gameshow host, as the faithless and vulnerable vicar Reverend Wainright out of his depth against an ancient enemy.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHulrGTAIls

The Curse of Fenric has never looked better on Blu-ray as part of the BBC's recently released Season Twenty-Six collection set. I hope you all managed to snap it up before it disappeared!

IN A SPOT OF BOTHER...

It's not looking good for the Second Doctor, captured by the war-like Sontarans after his failure at being a Time Lord ambassador of sorts in the troubled realms of the Third Zoners, and now seemingly about to be tortured by the potato-headed aliens, in this terrific image from the Robert Holmes gem, The Two Doctors.

HE'S NO KERMIT!

Still recognisable under tons of make-up whilst playing an interstellar alien frog thug, Stratford Johns, one of the household names of the BBC's police series Z Cars, gave an excellent performance as the egotist self-proclaimed 'Demi- God' known as 'Monarch' in the first filmed adventure for Peter Davison's Doctor, of which he certainly proved a memorable and worthy premiere foe for our recently regenerated hero to on-screen spar against.

Despite a relatively superficial plot full of technobabble worthy of a later episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I genuinely like Terence Dudley's Four to Doomsday, directed with style by John Black (fresh from his then recent success with The Keeper of Traken), the interesting idea of the multi-cultural characters/robots on a multi-generational travelling ship (with great production design by Tony Burrough), and featuring, most importantly, a finding-his-feet performance from Davison that is nonetheless great, putting in deliberate tribute echoes of the Hartnell/Troughton WHO performances whom the actor admired watching from childhood.

DVD trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnbkTNxIC3I

Continuities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zziUtJCPv94

IT'S BEHIND YOU!

It's no time to feel sleepy, Doctor, especially when you've got one of those sinister Cybermen behind you! Tom Baker looks ready to take a doze from publicity photography, during a BBC TV centre filming break for his fourth-made story, and the first adventure ever released on the commercial home entertainment VHS tape format: Revenge of the Cybermen.

DVD release trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHu2VTLQ5uY

Cybermen co-creator Gerry Davis's original story for Revenge, later expanded by then script editor Robert Holmes to incorporate the Vogans and their planet of gold, is being adapted for audio drama by Big Finish:

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/radio/2020-03-19/doctor-who-return-cybermen-big-finish/