That Was the Day That Was — Doctor Who in Review, 01/11/10

That was the day that was, November 1st, and it's no longer Combom's short straw. I won't be back up to full posting schedule until Wednesday, but until then . . .

• We reminded you that today was The Empty Planet day, before we counted down the final hour.
• The Doctor Who Experience has been previewed right here!
• We looked back to 1985 with a Doctor Who comic book ad.
• Unfortunately, Whoniverse alumnus Marvyn Haisman has passed. May he rest in peace.
• We referenced real-world news with a bit of Doctor Who nonsense. We're clever that way.
• More action figure variants will be released from Series 5.
• And finally, we found the trailer for Part Two of The Empty Planet.

Briefly, Today's Top Story was, of course, Sarah Jane's The Empty Planet. Combom made sure to watch, and he gave us all of his most cogent thoughts in this report on Part One. We should have the episode on streaming soon enough.

In our regular posting series:

• We learned about the Duke of Manhattan in Doctor Who of the Day.
• The Raggedy Doctor is the subject of our latest jigsaw. We've decided to move this posting series up to midday every day. Good idea?
• The Faceless Ones played alongside all of these listings in a Classic Doctor Who in a Classic Radio Times.
• We wondered how similar Mel and the Rani were in another Amazing Fact About Doctor Who.
• And we brought you five brand new podcasts.

And looking back exactly One Year Ago, we found a Doctor Who documentary about the making of The Rescue.

Five New Doctor Who Podcasts Today

Five Doctor Who Podcasts today;

Radio Free Skaro 222 Golden Slumbers
The Series 5 Commentary series rears its head once again as the Three Who Rule tackle fan favourite Amy’s Choice with much glee and delectation. More fan enjoyment came this past week in the form of Death of the Doctor, featuring Matt Smith’s return as the Doctor in the latest installment of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Fans awaiting the Christmas special got not one but two pieces of good news this week as it was announced that the BFI will be holding an advance screening for the episode while the rest of us have to suffer with a Children In Need clip next month. Join the fandom fun with the whole gang in this episode of Radio Free Skaro before it’s gone gone gone!
Play is here.

The Cultdom Collective 70 - A History of Horror
The Past, Present and Future of Cult Media.
Play is here.

The Unearthly Child Podcast 023 RegenerGate and Sarah Jane
In the covering of recent Sarah Jane Adventures stories The Vault of Secrets and Death of the Doctor, there are such interesting tangents such as spoilers in trailers and the infamous RegenerGate itself.
Play is here.

Doctor Who Professor How 15
A Podcast focusing on Classic Sci-fi, that's Sci-Fi 25 Years or older. And remakes of Classic Sci-fi, whether it be Book,Film,TV or Radio.Hosted by Graeme"The2ndDr."Sheridan
Play is here.

Doctor Who Adventures in Time, Space and Music Episode 3 – Jonathan Gibbs and the Rani
In this episode we will look at Jonathan Gibbs’ work on Serial 6X – Story 140 – The Mark of the Rani. The Mark of the Rani originally aired between the 2nd of February to the 9th of February 1985.
Play is here.

As always, thanx to the Doctor Who Podcast Alliance.

Amazing Facts About Doctor Who That May Not Be True - Sylvester McCoy

During the filming of Time and The Rani, Sylvester McCoy became so confused by the simality between Mel and the Rani, he called Kate "Nice Mel" and Bonnie "Nasty Mel".

Based on an anonymous contribution.

Sarah Jane Adventures 408 The Empty Planet Part 2 Trailer

Sarah Jane Adventures 407 The Empty Planet Part 1 Report

That was The Sarah Jane Adventures 4:07 The Empty Planet Part 1. Don't read on if you haven't watched it yet, its on BBC1 in 2 days BTW :)

Featuring; Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), Mr Smith (voiced by Alexander Armstrong), Clyde Langer (Daniel Anthony), Rani Chandra (Anjli Mohindra), it was written Gareth Roberts and Directed by Ashley Way.

One minute late again...

Mr Smith sees a strange energy trace, Clyde and Rani joke, everyone goes home to bed, sleep.

The energy seems to come back, in the morning Rani and Clyde wake up in their beds, nothing on the radio, no parents about. Outside is the same, no one about, Mr Smith doesn't work, phones don't work, dogs are about though, TV dead. Rani finds Clyde.

Rani says if everyone has suddenly gone, they may suddenly return. They head into town, there is nobody about, they notice there are no car crashes though. They get some breakfast from a cafe, helping themselves, but leaving money. They can't work out why everyone has gone.

In the market some fruit topples, then crates, there seems to be someone, they chase, its another child. They catch him in his home, called Gavin, he asks where everyone has gone. Rani has Sarahs sonic lipstick, she shows it off, the three discuss aliens, Gavin doesn't believe, and runs off.

There is a loud noise outside, they bike back into town, they think Gavin is weird, and sit in another cafe. The TV in there starts showing weird stuff, they look outside, all TVs are showing this strange language, they see a red and yellow robot, the robots are about to shoot them...

If you like action packed episodes, you won't like this :)

One thing The Sarah Jane Adventures has over Doctor Who is the cliffhanger, with classic Doctor Who we used to get 3 or so a story, now with new Who we get 2 or 3 a series, with The Sarah Jane Adventures we get 6 in 6 weeks!

If you are in the UK, you can see it on iplayer here, anyone can read about it further here, and we hope to have an international version later, plus all the usuals

The next one is on tomorrow, Tuesday 2nd November, on CBBC at 5.15, The Empty Planet Part 2.

Doctor Who Wave 1G Action Figures

Due for a December 2010 release, here are 4 more Doctor Who Action figures, now how many variants can you count (clue - the stone ones for starters!).

Source 1, 2, 3, 4.

One Hour (Or Less) to go Until Sarah Jane Adventures 407 The Empty Planet Part 1

It all happens on CBBC at 5.15pm, are you sitting comfortably?

Spoiler Warning: There doesn't seem to be a massive plot for this one, Clyde and Rani wake to find themselves the only people left on Earth, a kind of Adam and Eve (sound familiar?), and no Sarah Jane to help them. The Trickster is meant to be involved somewhere, the red and yellow robots aren't meant to land on Earth until tomorrow, theres a lot about the relationship between Clyde and Rani too!

And remember theres Sarah Janes Alien Files at 5.45!

And of course, all the usuals on here afterwards :)

Yetis Halt London Underground, err... No Its a Hat

Tube passengers had to walk through tunnels in the early hours of Sunday morning after an object was found on the lines, but it wasn't problems from the Yeti, it was a witches hat, which contained metal.

A passenger is thought to have thrown the hat which cut out the power at Chalk Farm, in North London, halting four trains.

source.

I still think the Yeti are involved though :)

Mervyn Haisman RIP Doctor Who

We heard this weekend about the sad death of Doctor Who writer Mervyn Haisman.

Mervyn Haisman formed a partnership with Henry Lincoln, together they penned three Doctor Who stories for the of the Patrick Troughton era. The Abominable Snowmen saw the first appearance from the slopes of the Himalayas of the Yeti. The strength of this first story subsequently led to the sequel The Web of Fear, which also saw creation of one of the most enduring guest characters in the series, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart, who is still active in the Whoniverse today. Their third outing The Dominators introduced the Quarks, but artistic disagreements with the production team ended further contributions to Doctor Who.

Their association with the show was to be marked once again with a credit on The Sarah Jane Adventures story Enemy of the Bane for Sir Alistair.

source.

Classic Doctor Who In A Classic Radio Times (22-04-1967)

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Here is the Doctor Who page from Saturday 22nd of April 1967, of the Radio Times. You can see what was on before and after and around Doctor Who.

BBC1 starts at 10.00 with In Your Own Words, a series about spoken English, 10.30 has Personal Management, a series for Managers, and 11.00-12.20 seems to be an intermission.

12.20 sees Gardeners Club with Percy Thrower, 12.40 its the Weatherman and announcements, followed at 12.45 by an afternoons sport with Grandstand. 5.15 is Juke Box Jury followed by News and weatherman at 5.40.

At 5.50 its Dr Who with part 3 of The Faceless ones, more about it here.

At 6.15 is The Dick Van Dyke Show, followed by the Monkees at 6.40.

A huge thanx to Mark Breen for supplying this page (his blog is here). If YOU can help with classic Doctor Who in the Radio Times, like this one, any classic who year, please let me know!

If you repost this, please remember to include Marks name and my URL, although I'd rather you linked me instead. Thanx.

Just had a look, I still have about 20 more pages in the collection to use (so getting low on them now), and there are a lot more of the same here.

Doctor Who Jigsaw - The Raggedy Doctor

We have moved the jigsaw post from 9am to 12.00 noon, allowing us to post urgent overnight news (if there is any) earler. - Let me know what you think.

168

Click on image to start.
And there are a lot more of the same here.

Doctor Who Summer Special Ad 1985

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The Doctor Who Experience

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Doctor Who star Matt Smith is surrounded by images of his predecessors in a new permanent exhibition charting the shows 47-year history.

The Doctor Who Experience opens in London's Olympia on February 20 before moving to Cardiff in 2012.

Matt, 28, will film special scenes for its interactive show. Who fans will be able to enter the Tardis and guide it through time. It includes the history of the programme, from its first series in 1963 to the latest episodes. Original costumes, a Tom Baker-era Tardis and Cybermen, Silurians and a Zygon will also be on display.

source

Its Sarah Jane Adventures 407 The Empty Planet Day

Todays Sarah Jane Adventures is 407 The Empty Planet Part 1.

Clyde and Rani discover they are the only humans left on Earth, and even Sarah Jane has vanished. As London stands empty, mysterious visitors approach.

It all happens on CBBC at 5.15 tonight, and don't forget the Sarah Jane Adventures Alien Files at 5.45 also. Be there or be somewhere else, and catch all the usuals on here afterwards :)

Doctor Who of the Day - The Duke of Manhattan

In New Earth the Duke of Manhattan was suffering from Petrifold Regression, it turns the victims body to stone.