DOCTOR WHO Review : The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

DOCTOR WHO REVIEW: THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY

Written By: Steven Wyatt

Directed By: Alan Wareing 

Roll Up, Roll Up. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is in town, and for a limited time only! with flying acrobats, tremendous ventriloquists and hilarious clowns this is a show you wouldn't want to miss. It's non stop entertainment for the whole family! 

Yes, it has come to that time where in my reviews of 'best doctor' stories I review my favourite seventh doctor story. Some of you may be a little surprised to know that it is "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and you're probably thinking "Why aren't you reviewing Remembrance of the Daleks?" well the reason being is that Remembrance is such a popular story with fans and it is a story that I do really enjoy, however, having said that. There is something very samey about Remembrance in terms of its popularity that kind of puts me off it being my favourite seventh doctor story. It's a story which everyone likes. In all honesty I do like "Greatest Show" more than any other of Sylvester McCoy's other stories. 

The McCoy era is a bit of a marmite era with fans. You got Season 24 which isn't to many people's tastes when you got stories such as: Paradise Towers, Delta and the Bannerman and Dragonfire, all of which are stories that I really like. 

Season 25, the 25th anniversary season of Doctor Who. Remembrance of the Daleks is a fantastic opener to the show, truly awesome and brilliant story. After that is The Happiness Patrol, that's a good story, Silver Nemesis - bit crap, Greatest Show - Amazing! In my top 10 best doctor who stories ever!

Season 26, arguably in terms of performance Sylvester McCoy's best season, because his character got a lot more darker and mysterious then which provided and excellent twist on things. Battlefield - great story, really like it. Ghost Light is very good, if not a bit confusing, Curse of Fenric - brilliant. It's on par with Remembrance and Survival for me is good for two episodes and the last episode lets it down a bit, but that last scene of the story makes up for all the stuff I didn't like leading up to it. 

So those are my feelings towards the McCoy era. I'm a huge fan of the seventh doctor, Sylvester McCoy for me is my number 2 favourite doctor, after Jon Pertwee who is number 1. I've always enjoyed and loved watching his stories and his performance, however wacky or straight he played it McCoy for me, always felt more like the doctor I wanted. Without Pertwee's dazzling velvet jackets and cravats and kick ass action moves. I guess my main fault with McCoy that restricts him from being number 1 for me is the fact that he is not Jon Pertwee. 

But that being said, there are only two stories from McCoy's era that I can think of, that I don't like. They are "Time and the Rani" which is pretty naff and "Silver Nemesis" which lets be honest, is terrible. Apart from those two stories, I like every other story of that era. That's pretty good going for a taste of different verity of story telling. It's very chalk and cheese in terms of taste. 

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was the last story in the 25th anniversary season of Doctor Who. It was written by Steven Wyatt who wrote "Paradise Towers" for season 24, Sylvester's second story. Due to the success that Paradise Towers got and how well it came together quite smoothly and quite enjoyably, John Nathan Turner, the producer was in favour of using Steven again to write another story which turned out to be this story. JNT came up with the title "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" which Wyatt and script editor Andrew Cartmel hated. But seeing as they had pretty much the free will to basically do what they wanted, they used the title that John gave them and took it from there.

The story goes that there is this circus which is called the physic circus where weird and supernatural things happen. People from all around the galaxies come to audition for the circus and are put to the test and thats how the circus puts on a show. If they don't meet the satisfaction of the audience then they die. It's a very dark story, but at the same time really beautiful, efficiently exuberant and just interesting.

You start watching it and you think "what the hell is this?" and then once you're in the mood of the story, it really carries you along. I like how the writer has woven in all this mysteriousness and back drop which gives the viewer a lot more to invest in.  I think the soundtrack and music added a lot to that. 

I really liked the locations that were used on this story, such as the desert which has the atmosphere of an alien planet and adds to the unusualness of the story and the circus was very well achieved, considering that the production team couldn't film in the studio, because the BBC had a problem with asbestos, so they had to film it all on location.  

However looking at it, I think the story actually looks better for it. All the scenes in the tent just look and feel more real and obviously in the studio, things to tend to be a bit limited in terms of what you can have so authentically. 

Sylvester McCoy himself, is brilliant in this. This story allows him to be serious and a bit a clown, for instance there is the scene where he swings from the rope into the audience area, but there's also moments where he is very cold and stern and get the essence of the character that he later becomes in season 26. McCoy drops you nice little hints in his characteristics that help the audience get an idea in the way that the story is going. 

I really like Sophie Aldred as Ace. Ace of course, has a fear of clowns so this story provides a test for her to over come. She gets here fair share of blowing stuff up and has plenty of opportunity to show what her character can do. 

Ian Reddington as the chief clown, very creepy and fantastical. His facial expressions and his hand gestures say a lot in what he does. The smile as well is what does it for me. 

I also was very impressed with the character of Captain Cook, who in the story is a very nasty character. A true semi villain if you like to call it that in supporting Reddington's Chief Clown as the main villain of the piece. 

I also liked all the stuff with the eye and deadbeat and the connections that were made there. It's not too difficult a story to follow really, nothing is so complicated that you can't understand what's going on. If you properly sit down and actually watch the story, everything is pretty clear and everything runs quite smoothly and you enjoy it. That doesn't mean to say that you have to be in the right mood to watch it. At least not in my view. For four episodes it really carries you along and you become invested in all the things that happen after the other until eventually it leads to the conclusion which rounds the whole story up rather nicely. 

All in all, Greatest Show is a nice mix of different things for different people and is a rather unusual mood for a Doctor Who story, however it is in a really fantastic story, one I enjoy again, and again and again. 

NEXT WEEK: The TV Movie.

Oliver!

Oliver! The majority of you reading this will already know the story, based off the novel by Charles Dickens and turned into a musical by Lionel Bart in 1960.

The process for this show started way back in mid March 2016. It all came about when I happened to be out in the town, I walking back to where my bike was and I saw a huge poster outside the Alban Arena which read Oliver auditions happening on Sunday 13th March and Tuesday 15th March etc, with times for each group of people 6 - 12 year olds were in the morning, 13 - 21 year olds were in the afternoon.

I looked at this poster for a good few seconds, thinking about it. I asked myself "Should I do it?" and in the moment I felt a mixed emotions of excitement and self doubt. I do doubt my own abilities sometimes and you also just think "Oh no. That will never happen" or "They won't pick me, what's the point".  And what happened was I went back to where my bike was, unlocked it, got on my bike and started to make my way home and as I was not too far off from the town, I thought to myself... "You know what, fuck it! I'm just going to do it, if I don't get it, I don't get it and that's fine and no one else has to know about it except me and I'll be fine with that" so I turned around, went back to the alban arena where I took a photo of the poster to remind me when the dates and time were for auditions.

The day of the audition, I can remember was on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I went by the Alban Arena to have my audition and as a first comer, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't need to prepare anything it was literally just an opportunity to come along, sing, dance and act and try things out.  So I came by and you fill out a form which you fill out your personal details like your address, phone number and email and stuff like that. They give you a number and a piece of paper with lyrics on one side and parts of a script on the other. They then call you in groups of eight. You go through to where the stage is, you meet the director (Alison) musical director (Jonny) and choreographer (Amber) you get up on stage and then they start off with introductions and get straight on with it. They start with singing part and we all sang the first two verses of 'consider yourself'. We all sing together with Jonny on the keyboards and then sing again as a group and then one by one by number.

Once that part was over, we then did some dancing, and I hadn't done any dancing for a long time, so it was hard at first to get my head round the steps and the moves, even though they were fairly basic.

Then we did a little bit of acting when we read for the one which we felt we'd get the most character out of. I originally went for Fagin. Then once we had finished Alison thanked us for coming, and that Rare Productions would be touch letting us know if we were successful or not. She wanted a quick chat with me before I left where she asked me if I was only interested in Fagin. To which I said Fagin or Bill Sykes. I felt I could play either of those. It was important for her to know that because it seemed silly for her to offer me a part I didn't want if I was successful. And that was that, they had other people to se throughout the day and they had another audition on the Tuesday so I just left and thought nothing else of it. I sat tight and waited.

After weeks of waiting, the moment of truth had come and it was time for me to find out whether or not I was successful. When it comes to acting, I very nervous, I opened the letter thinking "It's probably going to be a No" no surprise there, I always think that, so I don't get my hopes up and I'm not set up for too big a disappointment but when I read the letter and learned of the news that they liked me enough to want to offer me Bill Sykes, I just thought "Oh ok, Yeah. I'm happy with that". So I told my family and they couldn't be happier for me, because I didn't tell anyone I was going to the audition. That was the whole idea, I wanted it to be a surprise and if I didn't get it there would be no need to tell them that I went for this part and didn't get it.

What happened next was all the paper work they wanted all applicants to sign off before the first rehearsal. You need to pay a fee of £140 otherwise you can't do the show. This £140 is to be paid per cast member, we are paying for a various number of things:

Show director, Musical director and choreographer
Professional tuition required for the show
Insurance for all members
Costumes
Rehearsal venues
Theatre Hire
Script and/or Lyrics appropriate to the show that you're doing
Set props
Sound
Lighting
Full Tech and Back stage crew to work on the show during the run in the theatre
Show Licensing

All of those things needed to be considered. Once that was paid the your part in the show was secured. The whole idea of the show sounded cool and I wasn't doing anything else. Rehearsals were set to start on Tuesday nights at Wheatfields School from 5pm - 9pm from the 19th of April.

I can remember the first rehearsal very distinctly, it was a very chaotic one because everyone is getting together for the first time, and meeting new people isn't always the best experience for me. I am not that great at socialising with others as I don't know what to say to people apart from Hello when I arrive and Goodbye when I leave. And the first rehearsal was more of an introductory type of things where we blocked a few things and worried about moves and getting things right later, as rehearsals went on and I started to become more friendly with my piers, it all became more relaxed for me and I enjoyed going.

Rehearsal photo,  Going through "Pick a Pocket"

Due to the nature of my character it meant that I couldn't get involved a lot in most of the in-between bits like Fagin's gang or consider yourself, all of my bits were with Fagin and Nancy so it was a lot of just sitting around and waiting to be used. I was told that I would be waiting around a lot and that I just needed to be patient but at times it just felt like for a main role I wasn't receiving the right enough amount of rehearsal that I deserved for my part. I wanted to learn more from my team of directors and I got very little out of the eight weeks I was at rehearsals. That was disappointing on that part. Rehearsals are the opportunity for your character to develop and try stuff out and I didn't get much of a chance to prove that. Any development that was made to my characterisation I had to make my own. 

During the whole process, I found that Euan who was playing Fagin was enormously helpful to me. Evan was very late coming into this because he was playing Fagin somewhere else, and was asked if he would mind being in our show as well. He didn't come to rehearsals until the end of May. 

However I got on really well with him and he was very patient with me and gave me a few hints and tips as a means to advise me, which helped me get through. In parts its almost as if he was the director of some scenes because they worked so well due to his ideas. I'm never one who's good at coming up with ideas to help scenes or make them better, so for him to advise in places to make it look better was very good of him to do so.

And then came the time where after ten weeks of rehearsals, this is what we had been working towards, getting up on stage and doing it for real. The Alban Arena is such a wonderful theatre, I loved performing on the stage. You get more of a buzz performing live in front of an audience, a feeling I never got whilst doing Jumpers for Goalposts. The dress rehearsals were the trickiest because they need to check that everything is working properly, they need to do mic checks which is not as fun for us as it is for anyone else, we then get changed into costume. We had three changing rooms, one for the male mains and supporting cast, one for the female mains and supporting cast, one for the younger children. We also has a chill out area, where we could all sit and chill out before we went on stage or before a show or during the interval, there were sofas and a fridge and a kitchen with kettles and a microwave, it was all really cool. 

We got our costumes fitted, at first I was very disappointed with my costume and I brought some extra additions to add to it like a scarf and a waist coat which made it look in my opinion so much better, even though it did go against the intentions of the designer, which I apologise for. Make up was done by my good friend Euan, he did his own make up, my make up and Dodger's make up.  

The show ran from Thursday the 7th - Saturday the 9th of July. We did four shows, we had a massive supporting cast of two lots of work house gang, two lots of Fagin's gang and two Olivers, this was down to licences and reduced working hours with children. So we'd swap casts round and so both casts with their own Oliver would do two shows each, whereas mains and supporting cast would do all four shows. Honestly, I feel that I could have done more than four, but maybe that would be considered as pushing it a bit.  

Me and Euan on Radio Verulam Out and About Show, Talking about Oliver and all things RARE Productions! on Friday 8th of July.

The first show was very special for me because that was the first time I went out on stage and actually felt like I gave a performance. And I felt like everyone felt it and was impressed by it, by the end of the show there was an old man who waited outside for us, and wanted us to sign his posters for him, that made me feel special. 

Second show, not as good as the first and I think I didn't give as good a performance as the previous night. 

The Saturday was the last chance that we would all do it together, which for me made it all the more important. We had all worked so hard to get to this point, and I knew this was the last chance that we were going to get to perform Oliver together. The afternoon went down brilliantly and people seemed to enjoy it a lot with respectable numbers filling blocks of seats all around the stalls. The evening was brilliant, much better and slightly more polished a show than the afternoon. It was a very emotional end to the show, tears were shed, not by me, but by some people. I had such a great time working on this show and had a lot of fun, it certainly was nice to do this as it kept me busy and was fun while it lasted. 

Me with my Nancy, the lovely Madi Cathrow.

Doing this show, really did test my acting abilities and I think showed how much I had underestimated how good I actually was. You take so much out of such a short time and the experience you get back from it is so rewarding that you can't help but feel humble and proud that you have done a great job in fulfilling your role to the best of your ability. Above all things, I enjoyed the attention of being on stage, it was excellent to stay in the moment of your character 

The main thing that needs to be considered when it comes to acting is, unfortunately it is exceptionally time consuming, so with Oliver it was wonderful but by the end of the show I was absolutely exhausted, and I was in a way sort of glad the show was over. As much as I loved it and I didn't want it to end, I was glad to have the day after completely free because it meant I could rest.  

Because for a time I was in the position of rehearsing two different plays at the same time. I would be doing Jumpers for Goalposts Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Oliver on a Tuesday and I would go over to an Oliver rehearsal on Tuesday which would start at 5pm and finish at 9pm and then I'd go back home, have my dinner and then I'd go to bed to wake up and do it all again and it was something that I loved and I absolutely thrived on in some respects and it was great but I'm glad to have been done with it and write it off as something that "Okay, I've done it and it was a great experience" but I need to move on. That's life. You carry on moving forwards. 

There were a few people coming into this show, that I didn't get on with. It's harder not to get on with someone than to get on with them. The harsh reality of acting is you are going to get that wherever you go. There will be someone who won't like as much as somebody else, or you won't get on with for whatever reason. It was something that was a bit of a bed bug. It puts a downer on the whole experience for me as it took away some of the enjoyment of it all. Just as there was someone in Jumpers for Goalposts who I honestly could not stand. At the end of the day you need to stay professional and not let your true feelings show too much as they might be the cause of things getting in the way of a show. 

Oliver was a show that was down to just a split second, or brink of thought that crossed my mind which said "I can do this". That's what in the end made me want to audition and go for it and in every sense seize the opportunity. Even though there were some let downs, and rehearsals a lot of the time were boring and very hard to sit through and there were people I didn't want to be around, It was the fact that I wanted to do well that drived me for it, all the other stuff about making friends and socialising, that all came later and very naturally. This was my first show with RARE Productions but hopefully not my last. I would like to do more shows with them. 

If anything, I would say that with RARE Productions, though they offer older people the main roles it's the opportunities that they offer to the younger students that I think make up the shows that they do and the pay back they get from that is enormous. They are teaching young children, the children of the future generation, how act, how to dance, how to sing in a professional standard show, on a big stage, I wish I had that when I was seven years old. I did come in to RARE rather late, but I'm happy that I have found them and wish to continue with them as much as possible. 

I am and was lucky to have met and worked with such talented, hard working people who I have admiration and respect for. 

DOCTOR WHO Review : Vengeance on Varos

DOCTOR WHO REVIEW : VENGEANCE ON VAROS
Written By : Phillip Martin
Directed By : Ron Jones 

Vengeance on Varos, was the third story to feature Colin Baker as the sixth doctor. It was about a nasty planet of narcissistic commissioners broadcasting, cheap, sadistic game shows on TV. The Doctor becomes involved in a game show where people are killed for the purposes of entertainment. 

Varos, for me is Colin Baker's strongest story out of all the stories that he did as the Doctor on TV. Without a doubt. I say that because Varos is the most relatable to today's society. You got reality TV Shows on today like Gogglebox, Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Love Island. All of which are shows which are set up to see people in emotional pain and is portrayed in such a way that is a big drama and cheap entertainment, easy viewing yet weirdly addictive. 

The writing is stronger, the acting is great from all members of the cast, it's a very dark story but it's also interesting. It's very rare that you watch a doctor who story that you get so sucked into it, you really can't wait to find out what's going to happen.

So by this time, Peter Davison had left, and Colin was just starting out, taking things as they go and holding things in its stride. The Twin Dilemma had not been as popular a story as it could have been with viewers and Attack of the Cybermen was and still is considered to be an okay story. Varos is one of few stories in the Colin Baker era which shows Colin off as the Doctor he should be. The Sixth Doctor era is a tricky one, because you have stories like Twin Dilemma, Timelash, Two Doctors, different verities of story telling that didn't seem to gell well with viewers tastes. Not to mention that the show had also entered a new forty five minute format, which we audiences of today have become accustomed and used to. It didn't work back in the eighties. It just didn't work and people didn't like it. It was great for the production team because it meant they had more time to develop. A four twenty five minute episode story, you have to build up from your starting point, move the story on a little bit and then start to build to the cliffhanger. A new format allows more story to develop better, and it also meant shorter episode structures. Four twenty five minute part stories, became two forty five minute part stories. It was better on the production side of view, on the receiving end it didn't work quite so well, because people at the time were used to the regular format.

There was a lot of change going on at the time, and not just from the the production point of view and in the character of the Doctor Who. The show was moving in a new direction under the wing of the producer John Nathan Turner and Script Editor Eric Saward. Eric Saward wanted to move the show back into the Gothic Horror days of 'Holmes and Hinchcliffe' whereas John owned the show, and wanted to make it his own, and it was very bold, and camp, and colourful. That being portrayed in the doctor's exuberant costume and overtly colourful title sequence at the beginning and end of every story. 

As a story, you watch Varos not really knowing what's going on, and you watch it thinking "what the hell am I watching?" and then once you're in the mood of the story it really carries you along and you become more invested in the rather unpleasant things that happen to the main protagonists. 

We have some great villains in this, from Nail Shaban as slimy Sil to Nicolas Chagrin as pantomime type villain Quilliam, who in my personal opinion has one of the best lines in the whole story. 

One of the best performances for me, throughout is from Martin Jarvis who shines throughout as The Governor. He plays a man on the edge. He plays a broken man in a way, because he knows that he is doing is wrong and yet feels powerless by his superiors to do anything about it. It's a really edge of your seat performance. 

Colin Baker shines as the Doctor. Vengeance on Varos is certainly one of his better stories and he did very well in maintaining an energetic yet slightly contained performance. One which is a little unusual but playful at the same time. 

A noticeable thing is the heavy and graphic violence which happens, not just in this story but throughout season twenty two. In this particular story, you have the acid bath scene, where two men are thrown into a bath full of acid, poisonous vines, the possibility of a gruesome hanging, amongst other things, really quite volatile and horrible things happen in such a context. The things that these commissioners put people through for the purposes of entertainment is truly gruesome and horrible. 

Set design and lighting is very interesting in the way that the director can make the same corridor look different just by adding a different colour of lighting or positioning the camera differently, a lot of the sets in Varos are used repeatedly, to make a corridor look different just by adding a different light or positioning the camera differently. 

In a nutshell, Varos is a much stronger story than what fans give it credit for. 

NEXT WEEK: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy 

What's next for the Fourth Doctor?

COMING UP
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES?

The original idea for this year was to concentrate on the Third and Fourth doctors. That being my intention was to look at stories which I felt I hadn't done enough of. Going through the fourth doctor stories I hadn't done recently. I wanted to do more in the season 13/14 area.

I don't treat my stories as being part of the Doctor Who canon, never have, never will. In the realms of my action figure stories that I do, I create my own cannon with the various different doctors and just make up stories to fit in the seasons and eras of each time so "Gothic Horror - Hinchcliffe/ Holmes Era" for instance. It works like that.

With the year going fast, and not much time left to do things and due to how busy I have been Doctor Who unfortunately took an unexpected 2 month summer hiatus. Ideas weren't coming to mind or they just didn't happen.

My original plan with the Fourth Doctor was to do 3 stories throughout the year, hopefully that will still happen. So far as it stands one of the Season 13 stories will be out this month. 

As well as that, I also plan on doing 3 stories with the Third Doctor, a Fifth Doctor story, a Tenth Doctor story, a Twelfth Doctor story, a First Doctor story and an Eighth Doctor series and War Doctor series. Those will be all be my main focus, anything else planned will have to go in the back burner. 

This was just a post to say, this is what I feel like doing because I haven't done enough of it, type of thing. It's the same thing that goes with the First Doctor post that I posted. 

Be sure to keep an eye out for updates later to come. 

Pub Quiz 2 - Answers

So yesterday, I released a quiz to see how many of you brain boxes could put your general knowledge to the test and have a go at answering a set of general knowledge questions that I have written myself.

The answers are in, see how many you got right and let me know how you did.

1. Which famous author wrote the novel “A Christmas Carol”? - Charles Dickens 

2. In Maths what is 3 times 3? - Nine

3. True or False – Dogs are herbivores? - False

4.  Piglet's bottom farm in Singleborough is in what shire county? - Buckinghamshire 

5. Who was the first presenter of Family Fortunes? - Bob Monkhouse 

6. What would you use a ripcord to pull open? - A parachute 

7. In the sitcom “Father Ted” What is the title of Ted and Dougal's Eurovision song contest entry? - My Lovely Horse 

8. Lleyton Hewitt is an Australian former world number 1 professional in what sport? - Tennis

9. Which writer wrote “ A Game of Thrones”? - George RR Martin 

10. What name is rapper Gandhi Djuna better known?  - Maitre Gim 

11.  In what film does Tom Hanks say “Life is like a box of chocolates”? - Forrest Gump

12. Stilton and Mature Cheddar are verities’ of what food? - Cheese 

13. Name the two families in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? - Capulet and Montague 

14. Who directed ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’? - Blake Edwards

15. Postman Pat lives in what village? - Greendale 

16. The OSS was the predecessor of which organisation? - The CIA

17. Which Actor played Ryan Bingham in the 2009 film ‘Up in the Air’? - George Clooney

18. Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc all starred in what comedy show? - Friends 

19. Which King ruled England from 871 to 899? - Alfred the Great

20. Which famous sitcom actor was the voice of Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons? - Kelsey Grammar

21.  Who wrote the theme music to Big Brother? - Paul Oakenfold 

22. How many hours are there in three days? - Seventy Two

23. In maths what is 11 x 11? - One Hundred and Twenty One

24. What creature provides a moles main source of food? - Earthworms

25. Robin Hood & Friar Tuck appear in which well-known novel, by Sir Walter Scott? - Ivanhoe

26. What is Canada's national animal? - Beaver

27. Which is the smallest member of the flute family? - Piccolo  

28. How many paintings to Vincent Van Gogh sell in his lifetime? - One

29. Which hills divide England from Scotland? - Cheviots 

30. What is the colour of the bull of an archery target? - Gold

A new quiz will be up next week. Thanks for taking part. 

Pub Quiz 2

Think you got the nerve to beat me in a quiz? Have a go at these general knowledge questions which I have set myself and put your general knowledge where your mouth is.

The answers will be released tomorrow.

Good Luck.

1. Which famous author wrote the novel “A Christmas Carol”?  

2. In Maths what is 3 times 3? 

3. True or False – Dogs are herbivores? 

4.  Piglet's bottom farm in Singleborough is in what shire county? 

5. Who was the first presenter of Family Fortunes? 

6. What would you use a ripcord to pull open?

7. In the sitcom “Father Ted” What is the title of Ted and Dougal's Eurovision song contest entry? 

8. Lleyton Hewitt is an Australian former world number 1 professional in what sport? 

9. Which writer wrote “ A Game of Thrones”? 

10. What name is rapper Gandhi Djuna better known? 

11.  In what film does Tom Hanks say “Life is like a box of chocolates”? 

12. Stilton and Mature Cheddar are verities’ of what food? 

13. Name the two families in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? 

14. Who directed ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’? 

15. Postman Pat lives in what village?

16. The OSS was the predecessor of which organisation? 

17. Which Actor played Ryan Bingham in the 2009 film ‘Up in the Air’?

18. Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc all starred in what comedy show? 

19. Which King ruled England from 871 to 899? 

20. Which famous sitcom actor was the voice of Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons?

21.  Who wrote the theme music to Big Brother? 

22. How many hours are there in three days?

23. In maths what is 11 x 11? 

24. What creature provides a moles main source of food?

25. Robin Hood & Friar Tuck appear in which well-known novel, by Sir Walter Scott? 

26. What is Canada's national animal? 

27. Which is the smallest member of the flute family? 

28. How many paintings to Vincent Van Gogh sell in his lifetime? 

29. Which hills divide England from Scotland? 

30. What is the colour of the bull of an archery target? 

DOCTOR WHO Review : The Caves of Androzani

DOCTOR WHO REVIEW: THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI
Written By Robert Holmes
Directed By Greame Harper

Today, I am reviewing what is claimed by some fans to be the best doctor story of all time, and for very good reasons. The Caves of Androzani is truly and amazing story with a tremendous performance from Peter Davison, in what was to be his last hurrah. The Caves of Androzani was to be his last story as The Doctor. Davison had decided to leave at the end of his third year of playing the doctor, he had felt like enough was enough and that it was time to move on and that three years seemed to be long enough for him.

In his personal opinion and its an opinion that is shared amongst fans, Davison felt that this was the story where he had actually put a stamp on his doctor, Androzani was the story where he felt that he had nailed his character, it's just a shame we only get one story where he felt that way.

As much as I love the fifth doctor and the fifth doctor's era, there aren't that many Davison stories that stick out in the fandom as being truly great stories apart from Kinda, The Visitation, Earthshock and The Caves of Androzani. There is something about the fifth doctor's era and the stories in that era that never really seem to stick out, that's probably because of the bland storytelling that we got in the seasons. Stories like Castrovalva, Four to Doomsday, Time Flight, Arc of Infinity, Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment, Warriors of the Deep, Frontios and Planet of Fire are not very interesting as stories. So there is something about the fifth doctor era in which stories just tend to fad into the background a bit, that is due to the fact that people would rather watch stories like: Pyramids of Mars, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Daemons, Remembrance of the Daleks or The Aztecs to name a few examples, because they are so much more interesting as stories. It's a funny thing.

Anyway, Caves of Androzani is definitely not bland. It is truly a fantastic story for Peter Davison to go out on. When deciding on what story I was going to review as my favourite fifth doctor, I was really struggling with choosing between The Caves of Androzani and Earthshock. They're both fantastic, and I have good things to say about both of them; in the end I decided to go with Androzani down to Davison's performance alone is a stand out reason why this should be the best fifth doctor out of all of them. Especially considering what I was just saying about most of his stories being bland and uninteresting.

Brief Synopsis, The Doctor and new companion Peri arrive on Androzani Minor and get caught up in one poor ordeal after another. They both come across a line of explosives, get caught and taken to General Chellak who accuses the Doctor and Peri of spying and sentences them to death, to be shot in front of firing squad. However, the Doctor and Peri get taken hostage by Sharez Jek, who is a creepy, misunderstood, dark, deformed person who fancies Peri in a creepy way of just wanting to keep her it's a bit like Phantom of the Opera in a way if you make the comparison. Anyway what The Doctor and Peri didn't know was that they are both slowly dying from a disease called "Spetrox Toxcenia" and the only cure lies in the milk of a queen bat, which is very rare to find.

The Doctor and Peri manage to escape, only for them to get separated. The Doctor gets taken by a malicious character called Stotz who plans to take him back with him to Androzani Major. The Doctor takes control of the space ship and crash lands on to Androzani Minor. In a desperate attempt The Doctor keeps going because he knows he has to try and save his friend who he doesn't know very well. And basically sums up the story with a big climatic regeneration at the end of it. Into that you have the main villain of the piece which is Trau Morgus, who is horrible and would stab you in the back as soon as look at you. Sharez Jek sworn that he would get his revenge against Morgus, because its because of Morgus his face is deformed, and he has to wear a mask.

Talking about just Davison's performance is the reason alone why you should watch this story if have not seen it already. He gives a tremendously brave performance in how heroic he acts to save his friend, not a planet, or a species or a colony of people from a bunch of sontarans for example, just one, ordinary person who he has literally just met one story before, who he doesn't really know. That sums up the selflessness of his character for you, of putting others before himself, as well as that it's the struggle he goes through in order to save her, and you really root for the doctor to succeed, you're on his side one hundred per cent.

He starts off being normal Fifth Doctor but its the events that happen to him throughout that drive him forward to become this determined hero, and that's the doctor we like to see. There are elements of Tom Baker's character that show the doctor off as being quite a selfish character and in this story Peter Davison creates a complete contrast to that, which is great, he shows that actually the doctor can also think of others before himself. Poor Peter Davison gets bashed about, smacked, beaten, captured, shot at, and at one point is in peril of having his arms pulled off by androids. Its really dark stuff that happens, not to mention he was slowly dying from a very painful disease. There's a lot going on with Davison in this story, more so to any other activity he gets up to in stories before this one.

I thought the story as a story was quite dark and mellow. Written by one of the greatest writers, if not the greatest writer Doctor Who has ever had, Robert Holmes. Holmes was persuaded to come back to write for the series by Script Editor Eric Saward, who was very keen to get Holmes writing again, even if it was one story per season. John Nathan Turner, the producer however, was not keen on having Holmes back. He thought of him as 'an old fart coming back'. Speaking in the defence of Saward, I thought it was absolutely the right move to bring Holmes back. Holmes was brought back to write for "The Five Doctors" the 20th anniversary special, but the task became too hard on him and he dropped out, but Saward was still keen to use him, so with the adamant agreement from John Nathan Turner, he was commissioned to write one story for season 21 of Doctor Who which was this story "The Caves of Androzani".

I thought the soundtrack added so much to the atmosphere of the mood of the story. It makes it quite a dark story and the soundtrack reflected that, as well as the sets as well. The set designs were brilliant. No brightly lighted sets in most places, everything was very dark and light was contained in small areas. The only brightly lit set was Morgus's office on Adrozani Major. Everything else seemed very bleak and colourless which again added to the dryness of the story.

Greame Harper was asked to direct this story and with such a raw, rich, well written script there was so much creativity and intuitive intensive ideas that could be generated throughout, which was excellent. Harper is one of my favourite Doctor Who directors, and I didn't know that he had directed for Doctor Who before and was brought back by Russell T Davies. I think Harper is a good director because he seems to have that sense of understanding that other doctor who directors don't have, Harper has worked on the show before and has watched other directors work and so has gained an understanding of how directing should or could be done. He then takes that knowledge and adds his own ideas into that, that's why I think he is good. He has the knowledge and understanding in order to do a good job, and he executes this story very well and delivers Holmes's script to near perfection.

Sharez Jek is a wonderfully, bitter and dark character, played by a confident Christopher Gable. It would be interesting to mention that David Bowie was asked to be considered for this part, but due to other commitments with his music he couldn't do it, and as much as I love Gable's portrayal, I think Bowie would have delivered a tremendous performance in that part which we can only imagine how amazing that would have been.

The monster in the caves is a bit of a let down, I think that monster is one of the worst monsters in the history of Doctor Who. Just the way it looks, the way it moves, it doesn't come across to be as neither threatening or scary. It's just there. But it's not on screen that much, so it doesn't present too greater a problem of my enjoyment of the story, but it is however a highlighted noticeable issue.

The cliffhanger at the end of Part Three of this story sticks out as being one of, if not the best cliffhanger in Doctor Who's history. Where you have an increasingly desperate Peter Davison deciding to crash land on to a planet, and there's a moment where you see parts of the regeneration coming through and the doctor shakes it off. Because he's thinking, I have got to save my friend. I do not care how I do it, I just have to do it for Peri. It's quite a bold and heroic act for the doctor to do, he's showing a side to his character which we have never seen before up until this point. It's a point in the story where anything could happen, and I genuinely thought when I first watched it that they could start Part Four with him changing into Colin Baker.

The actual regeneration itself goes a bit mental because you have so much build up to this incredible impact of a change of the actor at the end of it. You see Tegan, Turlough, Nysa, Adric and Kamelion pleading with The Doctor not to die and then you have The Master screaming "Die Doctor! Die Doctor!" and you get a massive, build up and then BANG! Colin Baker sits up and becomes the complete and utter centre of attention in three lines, not to mention his face appearing at the end of the credits. I feel that took away from Peter's excellent performance in that episode, and it made it out to look like Colin was the centre of attention after Peter was so good. I felt that was disappointing and that it should have been Peter's face in the credits and not Colin's. As well as that Nicola Bryant's cleavage did also rob Peter of a brave send off, which was a shame. That's probably the only dodgy camera angle in the whole story, where I question "Why did they do it like that?" other than that I thought the regeneration was very good.

Costumes are by the by, you think of them what you think of them. It was 1984 and they tried to push the boat out and be creative with their costumes in looking as further into the future as possible. The one costume that stands out to be is Morgus's receptionist, who by the way is brilliantly portrayed by Barbra Kinghorn as the 'sly dog' of the story. Her look just says everything.

So rounding this all up. Androzani is a brilliant story with the best performance from Peter Davison. It's story which has a lot of thought and effort put into it, and most of the time it works, with a few faults.

NEXT WEEK : Vengeance on Varos.