Merrick again, with an UPDATE...
Seems the TARDIS interior will undergo what I understand to be a MAJOR overhaul, effective in The Snowmen...this year's Christmas Day Special.
THIS piece at Anglophenia offers a sneak peak....
Thanks to MOV for the heads up!
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No, it's not DOCTOR WHO per se. But it's Moffy enough to warrant inclusion here anyway!
Merrick here...
..with a quick look at The King’s Demons, a two-part Peter Davison-era DOCTOR WHO adventure originally transmitted March 1983.
This episode was selected for several reasons: I’d had it recommended to me by a friend based on my appreciation of a similarly-set, under-appreciated DOCTOR WHO tale called The Crusade (Harnell, Sotry #14), and...frankly...it’s length helped too. Due to major scheduling conflicts over the past few days, I was looking for an abbreviated episode to write-up for this week’s Docback. TKD fit the bill quite nicely. Alas, it emerges as far...very far...from one of my favorites.
More on The King’s Demons shortly. But first...
REMEMBER A FEW FEW WEEKS AGO...WHEN I LINKED OUT TO A POLL TO VOTE TO PUT YOUR FAVORITE SHOW ON THE COVER OF TV GUIDE??
Well, look what won! It should be on stands around...now?
BBC HAS ISSUED A BUNCHA MEDIA...
...pertaining to present and upcoming DOCTOR WHO awesomeness, including these embeds - which originate HERE. The impossibly hot Jeanna-Louise Coleman discusses the process of winning her role as the new companion and her thoughts on working on the show now that she has the part (PART ONE HERE, PART TWO HERE), and there's one video in which this Moffat guy talks about Daleks and stuff. That video's not embeddable...wonder why?
THIS page over at BBC offers a continuing number of DW media releases...stills, videos, and more...and looks like continue through, say, Christmas? It's an ADVENTURE Calendar. Which is kinda like an ADVENT calendar, but with more URE. So keep your eyes on that site...who knows what’ll turn up in the coming weeks!
CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME ACTION FIGURE SET...
...representing The Three Doctors (Pertwee, Story #65). Coming soon from Underground Toys!
[via my man John Ary over at ArticulationTimes]
The King's Demons
“Come rejoice with us in a trial by combat!" - ‘King John’, The King’s Demons Episode One
Scripted by Terence Dudley (director of Meglos - T. Baker, Story #110 and writer of Four to Doomsday, Davison, Story #117 ), The King’s Demons is a wonderful romp of a concept, whose lackluster execution pretty much excises any sense of fun or intrigue from the proceedings. It’s difficult to imagine how inserting the Master (Anthony Ainley) and an identify-assuming android into a plot which sees them attempting to undermine the Magna Carta could go possibly wrong.
The promising opening shot of The King's Demons.
The rest of the story doesn't work as well aesthetically.
But, despite it’s 50ish minute running time (nearly half the length of an average DOCTOR WHO serial), The King’s Demons somehow manages to overstay it’s welcome by about 20 minutes. It advances a great premises, but the supporting material here (overall plotting and character work) does little to argue said premise.
Many guest performances are offered with a misdirected bombast which would befit a high school stage play. An interestingly analogy, now that I think about it, as the episode itself feels exceedingly stagy in both design and photography. Some rather nice location work featuring genuine castles and atmosphere affords TKD much-needed, albeit frustratingly brief, credibility.
The King’s Demons marks my first full exposure to Anthony Ainley’s version of the Master - and here he’s agreeably charismatic, intense, and fully capable (on the whole). Unfortunately, he undermines his own efforts by cackling to himself villainously and cartoonishly on several instances - doing everything but twirling his mustache. Effectively converting a wonderfully conceived super-intelligent ’villain’ role into something of a character and a dramatic no-sale.
Which pretty much sums up the whole of TKD - its tone is, simply, wrong. Most denizens of 1215 England are so OTT that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to invest in their characters to even a small degree...which is instantly alienating. This tendency is compounded by Tony Virgo’s plodding direction...Virgo feels more like he’s trying to get through an assignment here than create any type of gravity or atmosphere, an effect compounded by gratingly plinky score from Jonathan Gibbs and Peter Howell and heinously overlit photography by Remi Adefarasin.
Meet Kamelion - an identify-assuming Android who becomes a companion to the Doctor in this story.
While interesting in concept, this relationship did not last very long.
While it will never happen (and probably shouldn’t), I’d assert that The King’s Demons is ripe for remaking. Fundamentally, it’s hugely promising and offers a mighty intriguing concept which could make for a helluva fun time even considering budgetary restraints. While TKD should be commended for being something of a throwback to historical tales told in DW’s earliest years (The Time Meddler - Hartnell, Story #,17 or The Crusade - Hartnell, Story #14 come to mind ), it wholly misses the mark in areas where those stories succeeded quite nicely. Proving once more the age-old adage that “newer isn’t necessarily better”...
The King’s Demons is available on DVD HERE in the US and HERE in UK.
PREVIOUS DOCBACKS
[Season / Series Seven Docbacks - MOST RECENT DOCBACK IS HIGHLIGHTED]
[SEASON / SERIES SIX DOCBACKS]
"The Impossible Astronaut"
"Day of the Moon"
"The Curse of the Black Spot"
"The Doctor's Wife"
"The Rebel Flesh"
"The Almost People"
"The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" (2011 Christmas Special)
[RETRO-WHO DOCBACKS ]
"An Unearthly Child" (Story #1)
"The Daleks" (Story #2)
"The Edge of Destruction" (Story #3)
"Marco Polo" (Story #4)
"The Keys of Marinus" (Story #5)
"The Aztecs" (Story #6)
"The Sensorites" (Story #7)
"The Sensorites" (Story #7 - full DVD release)
"The Reign of Terror" (Story #8)
"Planet of Giants" (Story #9)
"Planet of Giants" (Story #9, full DVD release)
"The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (Story #10)
"The Rescue" (Story #11)
"The Romans" (Story #12)
"The Web Planet" (Story #13) / SHERLOCK - "A Scandal in Belgravia" (Story #4)
"The Crusade" (Story #14)
"The Space Museum" (Story #15)
"The Chase" (Story #16)
"The Time Meddler" (Story #17)
"Galaxy 4" (Story #18)
"Mission to the Unkonwn" (Story #19)
"The Myth Makers" (Story #20)
"The Gunfighters" (Story #25)
"The Tomb of the Cybermen" (Story #37)
"The Mind Robber" (Story #45)
"The Krotons" (Story #47)
"The Seeds of Death" (Story #48)
"Spearhead from Space" (Story #51)
"The Abassadors of Death" (Story #53)
"The Claws of Axos" (Story #57)
"The Colony in Space" (Story #58)
"The Daemons" (Story #59)
"Day of the Daleks" (Story #60) + Preview of the DotD Special Edition
"The Three Doctors" (Story #65)
"Carnival of Monsters" (Story #66)
"Death to the Daleks" (Story #72)
"Invasion of the Dinosaurs" (Story #71) and SHERLOCK: "The Reichenbach Fall" (Story #6)
"The Claws of Axos" (Story #77)
"The Android Invasion" (Story #83) and SHERLOCK: "The Hounds of Baskerville" (Story #5)
"The Face of Evil" (Story #89)
"The Robots of Death" (Story #90)
"The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (Story #91)
"The Sun Makers" (Story #95)
"The City of Death" (Story #105)
"Nightmare of Eden" (Story #107)
"Kinda" (Story #118)
"Snakedance" (Story #125)
"The Five Doctors" (Story #129)
"The Awakening" (Story #131)
"Frontios" (Story #132)
"Resurrection of the Daleks" (Story #134)
"The Caves of Androzani" (Story #136)
"Vengeance on Varos" (Story #138)
"Time and the Rani" (Story #144)
"Paradise Towers" (Story #145) + New WHOvian Documentary / Newsbits
"Dragonfire" (Story #147)
"The Happiness Patrol" (Story #149)
"The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (Story #151)
"Doctor Who: The Movie" (aka TVM) - McGann)
DOCTOR WHO: THE COMPLETE SIXTH SERIES
Merrick's Personal Journey With The Doctor (How Merrick Got Hooked On DOCTOR WHO)
DOCTOR WHO Title Sequences & DW At Comic-Con 2011
"The Crash of the Elysium" (Manchester version - interactive DOCTOR WHO adventure)
Why Eccleston Left, Here Comes Caroline Skinner, And Season/Series Six Part 1 on Blu-Ray And DVD
New Trailer For Season/Series Six Part 2
The Companions of DOCTOR WHO + New Trailer & Artwork For Season/Series 7
Impromptu Docback!! + Galaxy 4 'Airlock' Coming to DVD, Christmas Special 2012, And More!!
The Friday Docback Mulls The 50th...
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