Review: The Daleks' Master Plan Reconstruction

I have dreamed of seeing this story since I was a child, after seeing Daleks - The Early Years when it first came out. The episodes featured on that release never made much sense on their own when I first saw them, until now - having just seen Loose Cannon's wonderful reconstruction of the story (and the surviving episodes 2, 5 & 10 ripped from the Lost In Time box set). After seeing Loose Cannon's wondeful reconstruction of Power of the Daleks, I decided to give this a go...and it delivers! On a grand scale. This is my type of Doctor Who. It is epic - 12 parts in total. This is to Doctor Who exactly what Star Wars is to fantasy cinema. I won't go into too much detail over the plot, or give too much away, but the story oozes atmosphere - Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner at their best!
Many elements in this story also feature in Nation's other Dalek stories, notably The Chase and Planet of the Daleks (alien planets, jungles, invisible monsters, Daleks chasing the Doctor through time & space, invasion forces, etc).
Kevin Stoney is brilliant as the Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen - he also later appeared in the Patrick Troughton story The Invasion as Tobias Vaughn.
William Hartnell is at his best as the Doctor here, he shines in the role - even in the reconstructed episodes. In Episode 7 (The Feast of Steven) the Doctor breaks the forth wall and wishes all of the viewers at home a very happy Christmas!
Episode 12 (The Destruction of Time) is the climatic ending of the saga, the tragic ending of Sara Kingdom was unexpected - must have been shocking for all those kids to watch when it was aired!
I must also give praise to the wonderful soundtrack - eerie to say the least, Murray Gold take note!!!
Again, much praise to Loose Cannon for this wonderful reconstruction, I actually feel as though I have seen this story all the way through now, and the existing episodes make sense like they never did before. This is easily one of my favourite Doctor Who stories now...hopefully in the near future the remaining episodes will be found and given a make-over by the Restoration Team, but until then you can get your copy of the recon from Loose Cannon's website.

City of the Daleks Walkthrough

A new preview of the upcoming PC game Doctor Who - City of the Daleks has been uploaded, with plenty of in-game footage to drool over:

This will be the first in a series of games available to download for free from the BBC's website next month!

What might have been...

I loved last night's episode (The Hungry Earth) in it's entirety save for one aspect: the redesign/update of the Silurians (or Eocenes if you prefer) - they look nothing like their original design, or their Sea Devil cousins for that matter. Although this is explained away by the Doctor as them being a different branch of the species, I still feel a little let down by the fact they look nothing like Silurians! They look like humans with scales, no third eyes and (wait for it) they have ...BREASTS??! I don't see what a reptile would do with breasts? Beats me...but hey, you can't win 'em all!

A screencap from this week's Doctor Who Confidential reveals what might have been:


But instead, we got this:


I had been looking foward to seeing the Silurians return for years, I loved them in the New Adventures novel Blood Heat and had hoped that their return would be something more akin to that...but I guess that is pure fanboy squee wank material! I understand that they have to update certain elements for today's audience, since apparently kids won't connect with anything that doesn't look human.

I hate to sound like a little bitch! Other than this minor gripe I am loving this series so far!!! I hope next week's Cold Blood holds up, I think this is Chris Chibnall's best Doctor Who script so far, it does feel very much like a classic series episode - which isn't a bad thing at all!

A whole new generation of children will grow up hiding behind the sofa from Malcolm Hulke's creation, 40 years since they first appeared on our television screens which is a testament to the legacy of this show...

Review: Amy's Choice

I am already in love with Saturday's episode! It even tops Victory of the Daleks as my favourite episode of this series. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet (and why not?) but to me it came across as The Edge of Destruction, The Celestial Toymaker, The Mind Robber, The Daemons and The Ultimate Foe rolled into one, with a smattering of Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz in there too. What is there not to love about this episode? I can't fault it really, and I think fan reaction has been really positive so far.


This episode is set within a dream world, although technically it takes place in the TARDIS. This is the first time Simon Nye has ever written an episode for the show, or any science fiction for that matter, since he comes from a comedy background. The Doctor gets to do some granny bashing, so what is there not to like? I sure hope Moffat lets him write another episode again soon!


If you are a fan of Andrew Cartmel's darker Doctor (hinted at in Season 26) then you'll love the Dream Lord! Toby Jones is brilliant in the role, I had only ever seen him in The Mist before this episode, I will have to keep an eye out for him in the future. I do hope we will see more of him soon, perhaps he even has a role to play at the end of this series? Who knows...


The preview for next week's episode looks good, although I am still unsure as to what to make of the new design of the Silurians...I think the originals were much better, but I'm probably just being bias! Until next week folks...Geronimo!!!

Review: Vampires Of Venice

I am 100% completely sold - Matt Smith is the Doctor, and a new golden era is here for fans!
I really enjoyed last night's episode (and so did my girlfriend, which is saying something) and still can't see why there were a few negative posts on Outpost Gallifrey. Well, I didn't get the negative reviews that people posted up for Victory of the Daleks either, since that is my favourite episode of this series so far..but you can't win 'em all!


I had been looking foward to Vampires of Venice for quite some time, since seeing a preview clip from The Jonathan Ross Show a while back - the one where William Hartnell makes a cameo appearance in the form of a library card, which was a really nice nod to the classic series and something I don't think could have been pulled off when Tennant was the Doctor.
The folks @ The Mill have done a wonderful job of bringing Venice to life (even though this was filmed in Croatia with CGI added in) and it oozes atmosphere - the fishy aliens (which reminded me of Lovecraft's Deep Ones) are pretty freaky, I can imagine some of the younger kids hiding behind the sofa for this one. I had rather hoped to see the real vampires turn up in this episode though, y'know - the nasty ones from State of Decay - but there are only so many old monsters you can bring back in a series I guess.


I look foward to seeing more of Rory and Amy, I think together with Matt's Doctor they will make a brilliant team and I hope that they stay for the next series too.
I am also really hyped on the trailer for Amy's Choice too, it looks very fairytale and the Dream Lord looks quite creepy - like a parody of Matt's Doctor. I can only hope that Saturday will come round quicker...

Amy's Choice

I'm loving the new series so far! It's been brilliant, far better than any of the trollop RTD used to conjure up! (Apart from Midnight, which was brilliant!) I'm really looking foward to Vampires of Venice and Amy's Choice over the next couple of weeks.

I have been buying Doctor Who Magazine again recently, that's how hyped on this new series I am - something I never did when Tennant tried to be the Doctor. Oh, and today I will continue my viewing marathon with Planet of the Daleks on DVD, might be doing some more reviews soon. Keep your eyes peeled!