h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What was going on in "Ghost Light"? I went to see a Planet of the Apes recently with a friend who is a few years older than me and we were discussing weird stuff on telly. He was telling me about "Sapphire and Steel" and I said that something I never understood was the Doctor Who story "Ghost Light". What was it with those things in the spaceship in the cellar?

First Doctor I remember was Tom Baker, he may well have been the best. I also quite liked Jon Pertwee and Sylvester McCoy. I disagree with people who say the show got too "camp" and "tongue in cheek" towards the end. It was made on a very low budget, it couldn't take itself *too* seriously.

Many a long year has passed since I last saw "Earthlight", so I'll leave that one for others.
Awix, I do not have a bad side, unless you want to paint my picture, and yes, I was referring to the role-playing game, which I found stodgy and dull. I do have a vague memory of the board game but not good ones.

I saw the very first episode of Dr. Who in my aunt's house with my cousins and I'm still watching every Sunday morning on UK Gold. The funniest was Delta and the Bannermen (Sylvester McCoy, part of which was filmed in the old Butlin's camp in Barry (near Cardiff Airport),South Wales. The biggest joke was the name of the camp, Shangri-La. Currently, UK Gold is starting season 22 and last Sunday saw the first appearance of Colin Baker in The Twin Dilemma.

Alji

I was born when Shada was supposed to be broadcast, but as we should all know, it wasn't.
You could say that explains a lot about me.
I remember growing up with Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker and even Peter Davison, so I suppose those three are my favopurite Doctors.
Along with Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and Pat Troughton.
My favourite Doctor isn't William Hartnell or Paul McGann, though...

<BB<

Hartnell is hugely under-rated - particularly his performance in year one. I think it's because 'the Doctor' then wasn't the character he eventually became.

I'd certainly go along with that-Hartnell was a fantastic Doctor, but his part was never clearly defined so it can look a little odd from a modern perspective. He remains the only Doctor that all his successors have tried to assimilate into their performances, I think.

I suppose it's difficult now to appreciate the constraints of the show at the time. Hartnell was old and had trouble remembering his lines, the show was shot extremely quickly with very little time for rehearsal (although contrary to some rumours I heard it never went out live), and more specifically, until Hartnell said he wanted to leave there was simply not any serious "Time Lord" mythology as we know it today - no regeneration, no other Time Lords (wasn't the Monk the first "other" one?), I don't even think Gallifrey was mentioned. So Hartnell didn't have as much to work with in terms of background as the subsequent guys.

H.

Hartnell was a technically brilliant actor, but he was a bit poorly and forced to work under alarming pressure - it wasn't actually live, but it might as well have been...

I don't think the lack of a mythos in the early shows particularly made Hartnell's job more difficult. If lots of mythos etc made playing the Doctor easier, how come the 80s guys had such mixed success in the role?

Raised fan expectation post-Tom Baker?

H.

Tom Baker - best doctor ever. He was intelligant enough, scatty without being silly and always seemed to have trouble getting his body to keep up with his mind.

re: Hartnell and the lack of mythos

When rewatching 'An Unearthly Child' a while ago, I was amazed at how fully-formed the show was, right from the start. We take things like the TARDIS for granted now, but at that time it was a very brave concept (and, as it turns out, the driver for the best TV SF format ever).

It might have been slow compared with the shows of today, but it has a million times more atmosphere than much Who that came after it.

Then again, they did 'Quatermass and the Pit' *really* live, and that was almost a decade before Who, and that still stands up today.

Have only seen the movie but that's *fabulous*.

Why DW went rubbish... well, mainly due to dodgy creative decisions, self-obsession, pandering to fans and the change in timeslot. Roughly speaking.

I agree the change in the timeslot was a terrible decision. Monday nights? What were they thinking?

Michael Grade has to take some of the blame for crippling the budget, I think. And lets face it, the bar was raised somewhat in 1987 with Star Trek:TNG. Like it or loathe it, you could tell they were spending more every episode that Who spent in a whole year.

H.

Well, you could equally argue that we should be grateful to Grade for not cancelling the series following the very poor 1985 and 1986 series. I really doubt the series would've kept such a following had it not been for the brief and partial resurgence of the McCoy years.

I wouldn't blame TNG in particular too much. DW had seen off better looking TV series in the past (mainly the Gerry Anderson ones). TNG didn't really reach a mass audience in the UK till after DW had been cancelled anyway - the BBC didn't show it till 1990.

After reading the all the messages i have this to add:
Best doctor wonderful chap all of him(the Brigadier)and i do think he was right they all bring something with them.I have seen other replacement actors play the part of the actor they are replacing instead of the character but the doctor was never like that each actor change the part to fit themselfs.(but if i had to pick one i would say David Banks Just because very few people could argue with that)
Best story well there are so many but i liked the first master Rodger Delgado so must of the episodes with him in and one of the later Dalek storys remembance of the daleks was a great story with a very bad ending(The doctor talks a dalek to death)
As for the actors that played them
Hartnell was a great actor the film This sporting life is now seen as a classic he also stared as the sergeant in Carry on sergeant.
Troughton was in the omen and played one of his best film roles in Sinbad and the eye of the tiger(no rocky jokes please)he said his favourite role was in the jury as he played himself.
Pertwee will be remembered as Worzel Gummidge but for people who remember radio the navy lark was something special.
Tom Baker was the perfect doctor however as a villain in the Golden voyage of Sinbad he stands out it is a shame that he didn't play more baddies.
Davison on the over hand plays comedy better with credits like sink or swim,holding the fort,all creatures great and small and a very strange dish of the day in some comedy i can't remember*
Colin baker is one of the nicest actor i have ever met he may not be everyones favourite doctor but i liked him.
Mc Coy was just the same in life as in doctor who a very strange person.
Paul Mc Gann Was never given the chance one story who would like to Judge any of the other doctors on there first story given that the regeneration itself make them unstable.

I just thought I'd throw in at this point: Look at my personal space. There's an allusion to something I can do with a swiss army knife. It's not a joke - I really do it. I first tried it after seeing Sylvester McCoy do it with a hammer and a nail on the Secret Policeman's Ball. Don't try this at home, kids. Anyone out there remember Sylvester McCoy from Vision On? He pretty much played The Doctor on that, from what I remember.

H.

I have very fond memories of Sylvester McCoy in Vision On. Mccoy's career has been long and varied, and I wish i had been around to see him perform with The Science Fiction Theatre in Liverpool. One of the other stalwarts of that group, was Ken Campbell, now best known fotr being in Citroen adverts,. Campbell is one of the best performers I have ever seen on the stage, holding a one man show for some six hours at one time.
I spoke to him a little about the Science Fiction Theatre and he had very fond memories of it, and seemed genuinely delighted for his "old mate" when he was cast as Who.

On Hartnell: I think he was great. When I was wee and saw him in repeats he used to scare me stupid. He was all mysterious and strangely all knowing to my five year old (or whatever) eyes. I think the lack of mythos at that point is a big reason why he is thought of as different, although I don't think the Timelords or Gallifrey were mentioned until the end of the War Games, which means Troughton had the same freedom (or lack of knowledge depending on your view).

Yeah, pretty much, although the Meddling Monk turned up so there was at least another person "like" the Doctor, which unless I'm mistaken there never was during the Hartnell years (apart from Susan, obviously).

H.

It was never known to the audience where Susan actually came from, only that she considered the Doctor to be her grandfather.

On the subject of other Timelord's, The Meddling Monk appeared in the Hartnell era (not with Troughton) and first appeared in 'The Time Meddler', and was killed by the Daleks in 'The Dalek's Master Plan'. One strange thing that I have noticed is that in The Time Meddler, the Monk shows of his TARDIS as being an advanced Mark 4, better then the Doctor's TARDIS. However, in the Tom Baker era, when the Doctor lands on Galifrey (I think this is from the Deadly Assassin but I'm not sure) the guards notice that the Doctor's TARDIS is a mark 4 and they didn't think any Mark 4's were in circulation anymore.

This is very confusing. Can anyone explain this?

spook