Locked In A Room, Fantastic Beasts, and Arrival

Hi, guys. Just a quick update on what's been going on in my life in the last few weeks.


14/11/16 - Met up with some of my friends from my Improv group - Marie, Alex, Harvey, Joe, and Dave - to do a 'Locked In A Room' challenge in Bristol town. It was a lot of fun. We were so close to solving all the puzzles! It was a joy to meet up with my friends again! We had an hour to solve puzzles to unlock the door to leave the room. I actually got the answer to one of the final clues, but we didn't enter the code in in time sadly. Still, was great to see everyone.


19/11/16 - Met up with my mum and my friend/former tutor Saba to see Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them at the cinema. A prequel/spin-off set in the Harry Potter universe, it focusses on Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) who arrives in 1920's New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Seemingly channelling Matt Smith's Doctor, Redmayne is fun to watch, as is Dan Fogler as the 'no-mage' who is unwillingly drawn into the world, and Katherine Waterston (very classic Hollywood-looking) as the ex-Auror who is teamed up with Newt. Colin Farrell, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, and Samantha Morton all give good supporting performances too.

A great return to Rowling's magical world. 8/10


22/11/16 - Met up with Saba again, and this time went to see Arrival, the latest film from Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario). Amy Adams plays a language specialist who finds herself called upon by the army after 12 identical alien spaceships appear around the globe and they need someone to translate what the creatures are saying. I don't really want to give away anything else about the film, as I want people to discover it for themselves, but what I will say is this:

I have never really liked 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I know that there loads of people who consider it a masterpiece, but I just found it slow and boring (I may re-watch it in the new year and see if I can reappraise my opinion). So, for ages I have been waiting for a sci-fi film to come that would give me the feeling that the people who love Kubrick's film must have felt when they first saw it.

I've finally found that film, and it's called Arrival.

Fantastic film, amazing central performance from Adams (with fine support from Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker), great design for the creatures, and ends with a message that, in the current political climate, is needed.

I have no hesitation giving this a score of 9/10, and I'm looking forward to Villeneuve's Blade Runner sequel with high expectations.

Thoughts on Trump getting elected as President of the United States

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick update on my life in general

Hi guys (if anyone is actually reading my posts)

Sorry I haven't posted anything in ages. It's taking longer to complete the Doctor Who Season 20 ranking list then I thought it would.

I think I should let you in on some recent things that have happened in my life. Firstly, I have recently been doing an improv course on Tuesday's at the Bristol Improv Theatre. It was really enjoyable, and I have met loads of new friends.

Secondly, I turned twenty-eight on the 15th October, and, aside from getting a lot of Doctor Who stuff as presents, went with my mum and my sister Anna to the Bristol Old Vic to see The Grinning Man, a new musical based on Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs. It is a fantastic show, with wonderful performances, great music, and really-well designed puppets. Also, in a fantastic coincidence, which I only learnt when I got to the theatre and read the programme, it stars Julian Bleach, who plays Davros in Doctor Who!!! I'm delighted to have finally got to see him on stage, as I was unable to see his fantastic performance as the master of ceremonies in Shockheaded Peter, so I'm glad to say he is as physical and surreal in this play.

I've also been through a lot of problems lately, but with help from my support, my parents, and my friend Saba, I am finally getting through it.

Well, that is my life at the moment. I hope to post the Season 20 article soon.

See ya!

Farewell, Gene

It has been three days since the sad news of Gene Wilder's passing, and I know a lot of people are still reeling from it.

Gene was a very important person in my life, as Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory was one of the first movies that showed me how magical the world of making films could actually be. And at the centre of that was Gene's performance as Wonka - magic, subtle, physical, and in some parts scary. It was one of the earliest examples of me witnessing a truly perfect acting performance on screen. It's also the greatest Doctor Who performance not in Doctor Who itself!

Later in life, as a teenager, I would watch more of his films - his collaborations with Mel Brooks in The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, and with Richard Pryor in Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Each time, Wilder's performances always stood out, his manic energy like a firework shooting across the screen.

Gene Wilder was a true legend and one of my comedy heroes. He will be missed.

'There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination/
Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be'


Gene Wilder
1933-2016

My forthcoming plans.

Hi guys.

So, sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Just thought I'd get you up to speed on my forthcoming blog plans.

I am currently watching Doctor Who Season 20 (Davison's second year), and will be doing a 'Worst to Best' list for it. I also will be doing reviews of the various films and TV shows I hope to see soon.

I recently watched Joy, David O. Russell's biopic of 'Miracle Mop' inventor Joy Mangano, starring Jennifer Lawrence in her 4th Oscar-nominated performance. She gives a good performance but the rest of the film is very flawed. 7/10.

I also bought Hopelessness, the new album from Anohni, the transgender artist formally known as Antony Hergarty (from Antony & The Johnsons). More electronic then her previous work, with her unmistakable voice as incredible as ever, it is an amazing piece of work.

That's all for now. Will be back sooner then usual hopefully. See you soon. 

Wacky Races remake cast idea

Hi everyone. So, recently I've been imagining what a live action remake of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon Wacky Races would be like, and it got me thinking about who would be the perfect cast for it. So, here are my ideas for who should be cast as the iconic characters.

NOTE: all the animal characters would obviously be computer generated.

Dick Dastardly - Julian Bleach
Peter Perfect - Tom Hiddleston
Penelope Pitstop - Jessica Simpson
Clyde (Ant Hill Mob leader) - Peter Dinklage
Other Ant Hill Mob Members - Warwick Davies, and five other dwarf actors (except Vern Troyer - see later)
Sgt. Blast - Tommy Lee Jones
Private Meekly - Bill Milner
Professor Pat Pending - Bill Hader
Little Gruesome - Verne Troyer
Big Gruesome - Neil Fingleton
The Red Max - Christoph Waltz

And that is all the casting ideas I have come up with so far. If you have any for the Slag Brothers, Lazy Luke, and Rufus Ruffcut, please leave in the comments box.

Ta ta!

Female Doctor Suggestions

Hi. This is an article I wrote a couple of years ago, but I felt the need to share it with you. Hope you like.

 

 

6 Actresses who would be perfect as the first female Doctor Who

An article by Rowan Crump

With a lead protagonist who travelled through time and space in a Police Telephone Box that is bigger inside than out, Doctor Who was already one of the most unique shows on television. But it was the events of 1966 that saw the show bring in one of the ideas that made it like no other, and the reason the show is still going today.

William Hartnell, who had originated the role of the Doctor in 1963, as a sometimes tetchy, but often eccentric and whimsical grandfather figure, had started to become old and tired. He often had a habit of fluffing his lines, and because the show back then was recorded as if it were live, it was impossible to do anything about it. Eventually, the production team realised that there was only one way forward – they had to replace the actor playing the Doctor. Back then, if an actor was replaced in the same role by someone else, they never mentioned onscreen the fact that they were a different actor (see roles like James Bond or Miss Marple). But when the Doctor Who team came to change the lead actor, they actually bothered to come up with an explanation for the viewers. Not only that, they also chose not to replace Hartnell with someone similar looking, playing the role as he did. They completely changed the character of the Doctor, and allowed new lead Patrick Troughton to put his own spin on the role. It is this idea (which later became known as regeneration) which allowed the show to continue on BBC One until its original cancellation in 1989, and for the new series to be running into its ninth year.

Since Troughton replaced Hartnell, there have been eleven more actors playing the Doctor, all of them male. It has been a long running discussion amongst fans, sometimes embarrassingly mumbled quietly, as to whether or not there will ever be a female Doctor. A recent survey in the official Doctor Who Magazine revealed that most fans say they are not ready for the Doctor to be played by a woman. Some even say that they will stop watching if the Doctor becomes a woman. When Helen Mirren announced her interest in possibly playing the Doctor, current showrunner Steven Moffat commented back that he would one day like to see the Queen of England played by a man. As part of the 33^1/3 percent who like the idea of there one day being a lady behind the TARDIS controls, I get really sick of people’s sexist attitude towards this, and am especially shocked that a lot of it comes from women. So much for sisterhood. The casting of the Doctor should be based around how good the acting is, not around whether you fancy them or not. If the Doctor became a woman it opens up a load of fantastic story possibilities. How would the character ease into being female, after nearly a thousand years of being male? How would she cope if the TARDIS landed in a time period when women were not as listened to as men? How would the Doctor’s companions and old friends or foes get used to the man they knew now being a woman? A whole universe of ideas awaits whoever makes the decision.

Here is a list of qualities essential for whoever plays the Doctor:

1)       Needs to be an eccentric character.

2)       Needs to have a playful, childish side to them.

3)       Needs to have a unique sense of fashion (but not too unique, eg. Colin Baker).

4)       Needs to be able to flit between loveable eccentric moments and moments of darkness and anger.

5)       Needs to have a good use of language.

6)       Needs to be a British actor.

7)       Regardless of age and appearence, they need to be believable as an over-900-year-old humanoid alien.

8)       Needs to be a heroic portrayal, but has to go into moments of mystery (like we don’t know what the Doctor is planning).

9)       Most importantly, needs to be a good actor.

So, with that in mind, here is my list of six actresses who I think will be perfect to add a bit of oestrogen to the iconic time travelling hero:

1)       Janet McTeer

As I previously mentioned, Helen Mirren said she would be interested in playing the Doctor, but if I were to choose a similar actress for the role, I would go for Janet McTeer. First making her name on stage and in film/TV, she first became really popular in the Lynda La Plante prison drama series The Governor (1995-96), and won both an Olivier and a Tony award for the 1996-97 stage production of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. She was then cast in the film Tumbleweeds (1999) as a single mother who roams from town to town with her young daughter. It was this role that earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress (alongside Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and eventual winner Hilary Swank), and led to Janet getting a lot more noticeable roles. I really enjoyed her performances as a dreadlocked crazy woman in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland (2007), and as a well-spoken yet sadistic assassin in Cat Run (2011). She earned a second Oscar nomination for the 2011 film Albert Nobbs, which saw her and Glenn Close play women who had to pass as men to work and survive in 19^th century Ireland. It was her androgynous look in this that made me first think how great she could be as the Doctor. She could be an older, maternal incarnation (very like Mary Poppins, or her performances as strong mother characters in Parade’s End and The White Queen), and her height of 6’1 means she’d be as tall as David Tennant’s incarnation, two inches shorter than Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. I also love her big blue expressive eyes, one of her best features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JchtZouKYJA

2)       Helena Bonham Carter

 

If there is any actress who could deliver a kooky, eccentric, but dark performance as the Doctor, it is Helena Bonham Carter. As we have seen in the Harry Potter films and her collaborations with partner Tim Burton, we know she has a knack at playing strange, dark, eccentric characters. Add in the fact she won a BAFTA for The King’s Speech, and her kooky fashion sense seen at premieres and awards ceremonies, and you know you have someone the role of the Doctor is built for. I think she could give a very similar performance to the way Tom Baker did it. She could switch from the sweetness and odd way that the Doctor observes the world, the sensitive way that ‘he’ helps those in need, and the sometimes scary way the Doctor can turn on his enemies in a fight. If not the Doctor, she would be perfect as a female member of the Doctor’s people – perhaps Romana or The Rani.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0POHntCMlv8

3)       Ellie Kendrick

A personal favourite choice for me, Ellie Kendrick is a young actress I have admired ever since I saw her in the title role in the 2009 BBC adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, one of the best debuts from an actress I’ve seen in years. Since then, she has made appearances in shows such as Being Human, Misfits, and Chickens, and she currently stars as Meera Reed in Game of Thrones. It is her performance in Being Human that I think gives us a good clue to how she could play the Doctor. She plays Allison, a young woman who is very geeky, likes fossils, and is a school debating champion. Oh, and a werewolf. The scene where she is down by the docks trying to reason with a vampire who she thinks is trying to reveal the existence of werewolves to the world shows that she would be able to stand up to the Daleks or Cybermen. Later on, she shows great skill at retort against a vampire who is obsessed with 80’s action movie-style puns. These and other adorable quirks of hers - her glasses, her fashion style, the odd way she runs, and the fact she says things like ‘paxis’ (Latin for ‘peace’) and ‘takk’ (‘thanks’ in Norwegian) also give her an eccentric quality, something that the Doctor needs to have. Her youth and her height may hider her chances though. At the very least, her appearances in other sci-fi/fantasy shows mean it’s only a matter of time before the ‘Whoniverse’ comes a ’calling. If she were to play any other role, I think she’d be great as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI_8-5uZw70

4)       Sue Perkins

 

Returning to the androgynous Doctor idea I discussed with Janet McTeer, Sue Perkins is another who fits well in that category. Mostly know as a comedienne and co-host of The Great British Bake Off, Sue has always had a unique appearance (I believe it’s known as lesbian chic) with her short quiffed hair, specs, and designer suits, and I think that would work to make you believe she is an eccentric alien. She’s quite thin, so you just see her behind the controls of the TARDIS, like a female Tennant-esque incarnation. She is also very quirky, and hopefully can also bring a serious edge to the role as well. I think she could play it as a mix of Tennant and Matt Smith’s incarnations, as well as adding a few quirks of her own. The Doctor could also develop a love of carrot cake as an in-joke. Perkins herself has said she is delighted that several fans set up petitions for her to become the first female Doctor. Maybe one day, she will fulfil the fan’s wishes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBUP_w168pk

5)       Adelayo Adedayo

Along with the debate on whether the Doctor should become female or not, there is also the discussion as to why the Doctor has not yet been played by a black actor. So, to kill two birds with one stone as it were, I present to you Ms. Adelayo Adedayo. Viewers of BBC Three will recognise her from her role as Viva, the sensible one in teen sitcom Some Girls. In that role, she portrays someone wise beyond their years, and that is another thing essential for whoever gets cast as the Doctor. The fact that the Doctor would be black and a woman means that she would have to adjust to both thingsbe stories where the character could face prejudice in time periods such as 1950’s America, or the Deep South. As a young actress still at the start of her career, I can’t predict how Adelayo would play the role. I think she should make the character her own and see how it fits her, but put in some of the wit she uses as Viva.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZclK5GycMCE

6)       Katherine Kastin

 

Another personal choice, and not just because she happens to be a friend of mine, Katherine Kastin is a born performer. Born in the States, she moved to London as a baby with her mother, who would later marry Dan Crawford, founder of the King’s Head pub/theatre in Islington. Katey grew up around the stage, going on to appear in several of the theatre’s productions, as well as achieving minor fame when she was cast as the scheming head prefect Rose Carter in the 1995-96 BBC adaptation of Gillian Cross’ Demon Headmaster books. It was a re-run of this series on the CBBC channel in 2008 that reminded me of how fantastic she was as Rose, and inspired me to write a letter to her, saying how much I admired her, and asking for advice on acting. She wrote back to me the most beautifully written letter saying thanks, passing on advice, and inviting me to see her in a play at the King’s Head that summer. So, I went to see her in her mother’s adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s The Shadowmaster (in which she played Mabel Purdey, a young married woman who discovers that her husband is having an affair with her best friend Joanna), and she was amazing. After the show, we met properly for the first time, and we have been friends ever since. She now lives in New Zealand with her husband Fraser Wyeth, their daughter Arielle, and their hound Pan. Still acting in independent productions, I think Katherine would make a perfect Doctor because her maturity yet childish playfulness suits the character, and she can also flip from kookiness to darkness and anger, which is essential for the role. Also, her unique features would make her believable as a humanoid alien older than her years. If I was ever in charge of the series, she would be my first choice.

https://vimeo.com/17495893

Murdoch and Hall artwork

Here is some artwork I did. Very funny and satirical!

Doctor Who Season 19 ranked Worst to Best.

So, I've been working my way through the whole classic era of Doctor Who (from 1963 to 1989), excluding of course the missing episodes from the 60's, and most recently finished watching Peter Davison's first season as the Fifth Doctor from 1982.
After seven years of Tom Baker in the role, Davison gave a more human, more fallible, younger-looking incarnation then any Doctor we had seen previously. However, the producer, John Nathan-Turner, decided to team his Doctor with THREE younger companions, which ended up with an ironically-crowded TARDIS, and difficult ways to give each of the three different things to do in the stories.
Davison's first season is a mixed-bag - some are fantastically realised stories, and some are cheap-looking productions that just didn't have the budget to incorporate what the script demanded. So, without further ado, here are the seven stories of Doctor Who Season 19 ranked worst to best. *WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*


7) Time-Flight

Was it ever going to be anything else? The final story of the season, penned by Peter Grimwade (who was a better director then a writer, as we shall explore later), is often voted the worst story of Davison's tenure...and having watched it, it's hard to argue with that. I'd actually say it's the worst Who story ever!
The main problem with Time-Flight is that the budget simply wasn't enough to bring to life what Grimwade's script demanded. But the BBC were always going to struggle with a story that sees a Concorde landing on Prehistoric Earth! Add in terrible-looking bubble monsters, and the Master (Anthony Ainley) in a pointless genie disguise, and you get one of the worst examples of cheap-looking Doctor Who. They also quickly gloss over the events of the previous story in the first five minutes, before getting straight into another romp. The post-Earthshock events should have been a darker story with the Doctor, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding) realising that the journey they are on is truly dangerous, but instead we get two minutes of grief, then back to the Doctor moaning about the state of English cricket, and into a incredibly below-par story clearly designed so producer John Nathan-Turner could get free Concorde tickets!


6) Black Orchid

Ah, two-part Doctor Who stories. Nowadays, we are used to them, what with each episode being 45 minutes long (sometimes an hour), but in the classic era, Doctor Who episodes were 24 minutes long, meaning they had less time to develop the story. There were three Davison stories which were two-parters (not counting Resurrection of the Daleks, which was a four-parter broadcast as a 45 minute two-parter due to the Winter Olympics), and the first was Terence Dudley's Black Orchid.
A rare example of a story with a purely-historical setting and no sci-fi elements at all (the first the show had had since 1967), Black Orchid sticks out like a sore thumb amongst Davison's first season of stories. Set in 1925, it sees the TARDIS crew get up to costume ball shenanigans at an English country house, and get accused of murder. Davison does get to play cricket however, which is a highlight of the story, but apart from that, this is average Who. There's also the ridiculous scene where the Doctor proves he is innocent of murder by showing the police inside the TARDIS. Also, one of the characters is a doppelganger of the Doctor's companion Nyssa, but that doesn't really add anything to the plot.


5) Four to Doomsday

Also penned by Terence Dudley, Davison's second story was actually the first one he recorded as the Fifth Doctor. Set aboard a vast spaceship, it guest stars Stratford Johns (most famous for Z-Cars) as a humanoid alien frog called Monarch, with Paul Shelly and Annie Lambert as his two Ministers, Persuasion and Enlightenment (who take on human forms based on a drawing Tegan does). There is also a crew of humans from different stages of Earth's history who have been converted into androids, including Greek philosopher Bigon (Philip Locke) and Chinese Mandarin leader Lin Futu (played by Burt Kwouk of Pink Panther and Tenko fame).
Like most of Dudley's scripts, this one is quite dull, but it has some good performances, and the effects for the floating black sphere cameras (the Monopticans) are impressive.


4) Castrovalva

Davison's debut story, penned by the legend that was the show's departing script editor Christopher Hamilton Bidmead, this follows directly from the ending of Logopolis, with Tom Baker regenerating into his younger-looking successor. Davison spends half of this four-parter in a confused post-regeneration weakened state, which gives him time to establish the kind of Doctor he intends to play.
With the Doctor useless, and Adric captured by the Master, Nyssa and Tegan pilot the TARDIS to Castrovalva, a place where the Doctor can recover.
The guest cast of the story are impressive, especially Derek Waring as Shadovan, and the great Michael Sheard (in his fifth Who appearance) as Mergrave. Also, Anthony Ainley's Master adopts the most convincing of his disguises as the elderly Portreeve (credited in Episode 3 as 'Neil Toynay').
By the end of this story, Davison had totally won over the audience who had watched seven years of Tom Baker in the role. The future of the Doctor was in safe hands.


3) Kinda

Following on from the end of Four to Doomsday, this story solves the problem of the overcrowded TARDIS by having Nyssa faint and sit out the whole story, giving more for the remaining three regulars to do. This is a major story for Janet Fielding, as the first two episodes see Tegan in a dark dream realm, before getting taken over by the snake-like Mara. There are impressive guest performances in this story from the legendary Richard Todd (and no, I am not going to go into the anecdote about him and Matthew Waterhouse, as it's probably not true), Nerys Hughes (of The Liver Birds) and Mary Morris. But the best performance of the story has to be Simon Rouse as Hindle, giving single-handedly the finest portrayal of madness in Doctor Who history. The scene with the cardboard people is a particular highlight. However, Kinda does have one major flaw: namely the 'bouncy castle' snake effect at the end (which thankfully you have the option of replacing with a better-looking CGI version on the DVD)! Apart from that, it's a fine story from Christopher Bailey, who would return the following season with the sequel Snakedance.

Oh, and look out for a young Jonny Lee Miller as one of the Kinda children!


2) The Visitation

I will start this entry with a personal anecdote: this story was actually the first Davison story I ever watched on video. So I have a real soft spot for it.
Set in 1666, and penned by Eric Saward (who also became the show's new script editor), it begins in a really interesting way. A group of four characters are introduced, who we are led to believe will be major players in the story, only for them all to be slaughtered before the TARDIS even arrives! This is quite shocking, especially as one of them is played by John Savident (Fred Elliott from Corrie - 'I say, I say...').
Anyway, the TARDIS arrives at Heathrow, but 300-something years before the airport is built. Tegan storms out in a huff, the Doctor goes after her to apologise, and before you know it, they are being chased by angry peasants who are scared that the new arrivals have the Plague! They are rescued by highwayman and proclaimed thespian Richard Mace (a fantastically fruity performance from Michael Robbins, most known for playing Arthur, Olive's husband in On The Buses), who offers them shelter. After finding artifacts that should not exist in 17th Century England, the Doctor suspects alien involvement. Soon, the TARDIS crew and Mace are facing against a group of escaped Terileptil prisoners (bipedal reptiles, the leader of which is played by future Queen Vic landlord Michael Melia, under a very impressive animatronic mask), and their bejewelled android, which disguises itself as the Grim Reaper! Adding in a plot to kill the whole human race using an extreme form of plague, and a final battle in London which ends in a very famous conflagration, and you get a standout story of Davison's first year.


1) Earthshock

Of course this was gonna be #1! Written again by Eric Saward, directed brilliantly by Peter Grimwade, and featuring the shock return of one of the Doctor's greatest foes after a seven year absence, Earthshock is, without question, one of the true classics of 80's Who.
Landing inside some caves on 26th Century Earth, the TARDIS crew find themselves accused of the murder of a group of geologists who have gone missing. The truth is soon revealed: the real killers are a pair of androids, who are guarding a metal hatch in the cave. However, the real power behind them is shown in the shocking surprise reveal at the end of Episode 1: the Cybermen were back!
Having not been in the series since Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975, it was the perfect time for the emotionless metal-men from Telos to return to our TV screens. The Cybermen costumes seven years previously had not been very effective, so they were redesigned for Earthshock in true early '80's style, with silver-sprayed fighter pilot suits, moon boots, and see-thru mouthpieces, allowing us to see some of the humanoid element of these classic enemies.
Anyway, after disarming the Cyber bomb hidden behind the aforementioned hatch, the Doctor follows the bomb's signal to a freighter not far from Earth, of which the Captain is Beryl Reid, in black leather gloves, and a red beehive haircut - a classic example of 'stunt casting', which is the term used for when John Nathan-Turner cast someone in a role more because they were a famous face rather than them actually being right for the part. Far better cast is James Warwick as the tough moustachioed  Lieutenant Scott. But the true stand-out of the guest cast is David Banks, making the first of four appearances he would make playing the Cyber Leader. Using his height, his electronically-altered voice, and his crushing hand gestures to great effect, Banks creates a Cyber Leader for the ages.
If I had to pick out a problem, it's that this is another example of a story suffering from the 'crowded TARDIS' problem, as Nyssa spends two episodes stuck in the TARDIS with another character who then gets killed for no apparent reason in Episode 4. But it was the other thing that Earthshock is most remembered for that solved the problem of this overcrowding, as, for the first time since 1966, one of the Doctor's companions was killed off.
Adric's death at the story's conclusion, blown up aboard the freighter when it crashes into Prehistoric Earth, is a powerful moment for the series. Despite Adric being a character that several fans have hated, and Matthew Waterhouse's acting skills being slated, this is actually a very poignant moment, and Waterhouse gives a good performance - his final moments in particular standing out. The closing credits being played out in silence however is perhaps not the best idea, as it comes off a bit cheesy really.
However, I need to single out one true star without which this story would not be the same, and that person is director Peter Grimwade. From the shadowy androids walking through the dark caverns, to the mirrored three-shot of the Cybermen marching down the freighter's corridors, to the one Cyberman getting frozen in the control room door, Grimwade created some memorable Who moments in this story. Sadly, this would be the final story he directed for the show.
It is all these things that make Earthshock a true classic, and far and away the best story of Season 19.

Well, that's my review of Season 19. Hope you liked reading my thoughts. I will be reviewing Season 20 in the near future.

New Blog - Restart!!!

Hi.

So, the last time I was on Blogger, I had just turned 23! Now I'm 27, a graduate of Bath Spa University, and a whole different person from 4 years ago.

Henceforth, I've decided to restart my blog, which I intend to be a review page for films, TV shows (especially Doctor Who), and occasionally video games. I will also keep you updated on my own life.

I hope you find this blog interesting, and gives you more insight into the mind of Rowan Alexander Crump.