Doctor Who Reviews: 'The History of the Doctor'

The Minister of Chance Review

Day of the Moon is a little more businesslike than its predecessor, but no less enjoyable for it. Whereas The Imposs-ible Astronaut was a creeping tale structured around a handful of impossibly-staggering set pieces, Day of the Moon is con-sistently fast, loud and plausibly dramatic. This is perhaps best exemplified by the episodes’ respective pre-title sequences: while director Toby Haynes’ gentle cinematography...

So, after weeks of speculation, I finally discovered who was destined to die in this year’s opening episode, when The Sun decided to ruin the surprise for everyone by printing a big picture of the Doctor being shot in its TV section on Saturday morning. I only read the bloody thing at work - if I’d had the day off, I could have watched it on broadcast...

Do you remember a couple of years ago, when the bizarre rumour that Richard Hammond was going to be taking over as the Doctor was doing the rounds? This seems to have been based entirely on the fact that he looks - very vaguely - like David Tennant. Quite why this rumour was ever lent any...

The final volume of IDW’s tenth Doctor adventures is concerned with tying up loose ends and bringing some closure to this incarnation’s adventures. Final Sacrifice itself makes up the entire final run of Ten’s Doctor Who Ongoing series...

Doctor Who’s good at impossible things; always has been. In fact, so superlative is the series when it comes to the impossible, with enough exposure to it one starts to think in degrees of impossibility - which is, of course, impossible. We can all accept the everyday impossibility of the TARDIS, and of the Doctor himself, but every so often the show will hit us with something even more impossible...

When most of us think of Planet of the Spiders, we think of what might have been. The untimely death of Roger Delgado effectively put paid to the production team’s planned Jon Per-twee finale, which would have seen Delgado’s Master lose his life in a Reichenbach Falls-style battle with the Doctor in a way that would suggest, at the last minute, he chose to save...

It’s remarkable, really, that it’s taken over a decade for the Sontarans to make their first Big Finish appearance. Robert Holmes’ race of fanatical clone warriors have long been rega-rded as being up there amongst the Doctor’s most reputable recurring rivals, and what’s more they have a sound to them that’s as every bit as short and as distinctive as their potato...

I first got to know Sarah Jane Smith in the early 90s by way of UK Gold’s copious Doctor Who repeats. Like many fans, I was instantly taken with her loyalty and tenacity – traits that, as the years went by, I would see the actress who played her shared. Lis Sladen’s love for the series that she helped to make such a scorching success in the mid-1970s has shone through in every interview that she’s ever given, and it’s been borne out by her returning to the character again and again, culminating in Sarah’s own acclaimed spin-off series. Her loss is one that will be keenly felt by not only those who knew her, but those who knew her work. And now I’ve got the unenviable task of breaking the news to my forty-something sister, who’s just lost her biggest childhood hero.

As a mark of respect, the site will be offline for the next few days - a digital moment’s silence. Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith. EGW

It feels like we’ve been here before. In December 2004, a little naughtily, Big Finish entitled their final pre-revival Paul Mc-Gann release “The Next Life” and adorned it with a very pro-vocative blurb, prompting fervent speculation about the eighth Doctor’s impending doom. Six months later, it looked like...

Victor Pemberton is best remembered by Doctor Who fans as the author of the Patrick Troughton serial Fury from the Deep, as well as the later audio release Doctor Who and the Pescatons, starring Tom Baker. This is, of course, just one facet of a prolific career in television and radio, including work on the UK version of Fraggle Rock (!) and this well-remembered radio serial from 1966...

Aliens in the Mind began life as a submission for Doctor Who in the late 1960s by the now legendary Robert Holmes. Init-ially titled Aliens in the Blood, it would have featured the second Doctor, Jamie, and presumably Zoe. For various reasons, the script was never picked up, but several years later its outline was, and used to form the basis of this radio...

The Minister of Chance is the latest addition to the swelling ranks of Who spin-offs, and a rather unexpected one at that. I for one had no idea of its existence until one day it appe-ared on doctorwhonews.net. It’s been quietly gathering quite a reputation online as an impressive production well worth liste-ning to, and on the strength of this first episode and its prologue, I’m certainly inclined to agree. Billed as a “radiophonic drama...

I was rather surprised when, a few years ago, the Res-urrection of the Daleks DVD appeared in the otherwise-lush Davros box set just as it had been released in late 2002, less the distinctive rubber packaging. Like the original Remem-brance of the Daleks release, which the Davros box...

The Seeds of Death was an excellent choice for an ear-ly release on DVD as it is so emblematic of Patrick Troughton’s era. When people think of late 60s Who, their minds inevitably conjure images of hulking, greyscale monsters; the most ener-getic of Doctors; the most endearing of...

The Revisitations 2 box set’s second offering is a two-disc edition of Carnival of Monsters, one of the most popular serials of Jon Pertwee’s tenure, and certainly one of the most colourful. The original 2002 DVD release contained the...

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