wsl@eosp1.UUCP (Warren Lobel) (07/02/84)
I have just seen 'City of Death' this past weekend for the third time and would like to pass along a bit of interesting trivia. For all Monty Python fans John Cleese appeared in a cameo role in this episode and was actually very funny although he was onscreen for just a few minutes. I attended the February Dr. Who convention in Phila. this past winter and had the pleasure of meeting Tom Baker. I was curious as to how John Cleese managed to get in the story so I asked the Doctor. And true to my suspicions Mr. Baker told me that he had met John Cleese in the BBC cafeteria during a break in the shooting and invited him to appear in the episode albeit in just a cameo. For any of you who haven't seen this story yet (though how any true Dr. Who fans could manage to miss a 5 year old story) be sure not to miss it it one of Baker's very best (in my opinion second only to Logopolis as the very best). Warren Lobel
gordon@uw-june (Gordon Davisson) (07/03/84)
>(though how any true Dr. Who fans could manage to miss a 5 >year old story) Yes fans, it's NIT-PICKING TIME!! The intensity of one's fandom is not measured by the number of episodes he has seen. The Time Lords, in their infinite wisdom, have done to the Pacific Northwest what they did to the Fifth Planet, and hence the only episodes available to us are the Twelfth through the Fifteenth seasons (Tom Baker and [Sarah Jane & Leela]), and those only on an obscure cable channel. I do, however, consider myself a "true Dr. Who fan" (to the point of buying books, magazines, posters and various paraphernalia I can discover in dark corners of comic-book stores). If you like, I could go on and on about my immersion into the world (universe?) of Doctor Who (a true Doctor Who fan doesn't abbreviate!), but that would be tiring for me and bor- ing for you, so I'll just sign off with a trivia question: What exactly DID the Time Lords do to the Fifth Planet? Human: Jamie Green @ Gordon's Account UUCP: {ihnp4,decvax,tektronix}!uw-beaver!uw-june!gordon ARPA: gordon@uw-june Gordon hates flames, so send 'em in!
jjsk@ihuxn.UUCP (jim kent) (07/04/84)
The time lords committed a big no-no when it came to the fifth planet.
They broke their most important law of non-involvement. However the Fendahl
became very dangerous so they made an exception. ANYWAY the answer is that
they put the planet in a time loop.
Doctor T.ericf@inmet.UUCP (07/13/84)
#R:eosp1:-98400:inmet:24000002:000:2724
inmet!ericf Jul 5 09:48:00 1984
As much as I hate to, it's time to put my two cents in...
I first saw Dr. Who about 8 years ago, in Boston, where they were
showing the Jon Pertwee episodes. I had no idea who/what the Doctor
was, except that he was a Time Lord (whatever THEY are), and there was
this nasty fellow, The Master, who ran around wreaking havoc. I tried
to follow the stories for a while, but WGBH airs Dr. Who as 4-5 25 minute
episodes (making up one "story"). If you miss one segment, you tend to
lose the continuity, and since the episodes aired (and still do) at 7pm,
it was hard to keep up. Also, I knew of NO ONE who had ever heard of Dr.
Who. Several years later, I caught some Tom Baker episodes, which is when
I found out about the Tardis, and things began to fall into place (the
third Doctor's Tardis was broken, so I never knew what it was). Unfortunately,
Boston was also time looped for a VERY long time (3-4 years maybe?), which was
long enough to catch almost all of the Tom Baker episodes, but only through
Sarah Jane (I think that's up to, but not including, his last season).
Recently, I was in Madison, Wisconsin, where they show an ENTIRE story, all
in one shot, and it was great! I got to fill in a lot (but not all) the
holes. And they had a fundraising Dr. Who marathon for 12 hours, including
The Three/Five Doctor episodes, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker's regenerations,
and Peter Davison's first episode. I finally figured out what was going on
(and I found some other Dr. Who fans, too). But still, I have NO idea what
the references to the fifth planet being time-looped are. I think I saw
one segment of that story, but missed the rest. Some of us just aren't
priviledged enough to be able to catch entire stories all at one crack.
By the way, is anyone going to answer the question about the Tardis controls
being isomorphic (if you have, it hasn't gotten here, yet)? That's been
bugging me for a long time... Sutekh (sp?) wanted the Tardis, and the 1-1
ness of the controls saved the Doctor's skin, but since then many other people
have worked the Tardis controls. In a similar vein, in one of the Peter
Davison episodes it's mentioned that the Tardis is no longer in a state of
"temporal grace", which meant weapons couldn't be used inside. When did
that change? And another thing... in Castravalva, what the heck is going
on with Adric popping in and out, being strung up by The Master, and appearing
in the Tardis? I thought things just couldn't pop into the Tardis (in general),
because of it's force field, etc.
Well, enough of this... time to get to work.
-Eric Feigenson
{ima, harpo, ihnp4, allegra}!inmet!ericf
or
{seismo, harpo, ihnp4, allegra}!uwvax!ericfhartwig@stolaf.UUCP (Shoonie Hartwig) (07/20/84)
In reply: having Dr. Who on all at one time instead of serials is sometimes kind of a hassle. It starts at 10:00pm(sometimes 10:30) and goes to midnight or beyond. Sometimes I think serials are better, although I agree, you lose the flow of the story if you miss an episode.
hobbit@sunybcs.UUCP (Thomas Pellitieri) (07/30/84)
[ His hands are cold!! ]
The BBC has this funny little rule: A person may only do one job for a
television programme. Therefore, the script editor is NOT ALLOWED TO
WRITE PROGRAMS!!
Well, rules were made to be broken. 'David Agnew' is a pseudonym used
more than once to cover up the fact that the script editor had done some
writing. Terrence Dicks and Barry Letts did this A LOT during the
Pertwee era. Doug probably got paid for it, but he wasn't allowed credit.
In more recent days, a BBC production unit manager, Gary Downie, did some
choreography for 'Black Orchid' (Teaching Janet Fielding to dance was nigh
on impossible!). He did not get any credit for that in the episode, but
he did get the cash!
Whoviastically yours,
--
-The Parker Hobbit
a.k.a. Thomas R. Pellitieri
UUCP: {allegra, seismo}!rochester!rocksvax!sunybcs!hobbit
decvax!watmath!sunybcs!hobbit
ARPA & CSNET: hobbit.buffalo@rand-relay