J is for... Jagaroth

The Jagaroth were an extremely ancient race who wiped themselves out in a terrible war. They were bipedal creatures, with a single eye in the centre of their forehead, and with a mass or worm-like tendrils covering their bodies. Their spacecraft were spider-like black spheres, with support struts which could be retracted up towards the body of the craft. One of the last surviving Jagaroth spaceships landed on prehistoric Earth. The crew attempted to repair it but were unsuccessful. On lift-off, against the judgement of the captain, the ship exploded. The captain - Scaroth - was in a control cabin on the side of the craft. The blast caused a temporal disturbance, which resulted in Scaroth being splintered in time. Twelve identical aspects of him were scattered through Earth's history - leading separate, but psychically linked, lives. Each had one goal - to work towards the survival of their race by influencing human development, so that the Scaroth furthest into the future would have the capability of travelling back through time to stop the spaceship from attempting lift-off - for the Jagaroth race ended with the destruction of the ship.

Donning a human disguise, Scaroth caused the heavens to be mapped, fire to be discovered, and the wheel invented. He was behind the building of the Egyptian pyramids. In the guise of Count Scarlioni, in 16th Century Italy, he also employed Leonardo da Vinci to pint multiple copies of his painting which wold come to be known as the "Mona Lisa".

The twelfth and final splinter of Scaroth adopted the persona of the Count Scarlioni, who resided in a lavish Parisian town house in 1979. 

Here he set Professor Kerensky to work building the machine that would enable him to travel back to prehistory and stop his spaceship from taking off. To pay for the equipment needed, he sold off various art treasures which his earlier personas had left for him, as well as planning the theft of the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre. He would sell this, and all the copies Leonardo painted, which have been left bricked up in his cellars.

The Doctor's companion Romana was forced to help him complete his device - not realising that it was vital to human history that the Jagaroth spaceship blew up. The Doctor had realised that it was radiation from this explosion which had given life to the primordial seas, which ultimately led to life developing on Earth. Romana and a private detective named Duggan travelled back 400 million years with the Doctor to stop Scaroth reaching and warning his ship. Duggan knocked Scaroth out with  punch and the craft exploded. The last of the Jagaroth was thrown back through time to 1979. The Count's servant, Herman, failed to recognise him without his disguise and caused an explosion in the laboratory which killed them both.

Played by: Julian Glover. Appearances: City of Death (1979).

• Glover had previously appeared in the series in 1965 as King Richard I.
• He's one of that select group of Doctor Who actors who have appeared in the series more than once - and who have also played Imperial Officers in the Star Wars movies.
• He has also been a Bond villain, and an Indiana Jones villain.
• Peter Halliday (who plays an Italian soldier in this story) and Tom Chadbon (Duggan) both provided Jagaroth voices in the opening prehistoric Earth sequence.

Tony Selby 1938 - 2021

It was reported yesterday that actor Tony Selby has passed away at the age of 83. Lambeth born Selby played the rogue-ish interplanetary conman Sabalom Glitz in two stories in the 1980's. He first appeared in the opening section of Trial of a Time Lord - the four episodes usually known as The Mysterious Planet. Glitz was then brought back by his creator, Robert Holmes, for the story's finale (the two episodes often known as The Ultimate Foe, but to others "Time Inc".

Glitz then returned for the final story of Sylvester McCoy's first season - Dragonfire.

Who knows, had the series not ended in 1989, Glitz may have made the occasional further appearance.

I first came across Selby in the RAF-set sitcom Get Some In!, but you'll spot him in a number of classic 1960's movies, such as Alfie and Witchfinder General. Later work included a couple of episodes of Eastenders and the movie Cockneys vs Zombies.

Tony Selby - RIP.

Back to Blackpool

 

A few months ago I told you about a free e-book - Blackpool Revisited - which was all about the Blackpool Doctor Who Exhibition, which ran from 1974 to 1985. It ran to over 400 pages and was full of photographs of the exhibits, alongside the memories of people who had visited.

Well. the people behind it have jut issued a second e-volume, titled Blackpool Remembered - which runs to a whopping 6oo odd pages. It updates the previous work, with lots more exhibit pictures, and adds loads more about the later Blackpool DW Museum, and its Welsh predecessor, and tons more.

I would heartily recommend this latest volume, whether you've ever visited these exhibitions or not.

The place to go is:

https://blackpoolremembered7485.wordpress.com/2020/11/23/blackpool-revisited/

Normal service resumes in September (fingers crossed)...

After almost 6 months in hospital I have a potential discharge date of 26th August. Am going to be recuperating for some time, and the blog will help with that. I should be back to 3 posts per week from September, with the return of the Story synopses / reviews, and the A to Z posts, plus ongoing "What's Wrong With...". Plus, we will have the 6 part Series 13 to look forward to, which I suspect might be on TV later in the year, closer to Christmas.

Something else I'm looking forward to is catching up with the Blu-rays I had bought which I never got the chance to watch - Seasons 8 and 24, plus The Web of Fear. (Back in March I also ordered both seasons of HBO's Rome, and the BBC classic I, Claudius.

Am resigning from work on health grounds and so will be spending the Autumn and Winter months watching TV and blogging. After the last 6 months I think I deserve a nice long break.

See you soon.

What's Wrong With... Tomb of the Cybermen

Ask this question any time between 1967, when it was broadcast, and 1992, when it was released onto VHS, the answer from many would have been "Nothing".

Those who had seen that original broadcast informed those of us born just a little too late, that this was a perfect story in every way. This impression was reinforced by a very good Target novelisation of the story, written by its co-writer Gerry Davis.

For the benefit of those new to the classic era of the series, this story was one of the many lost when the BBC wiped the tapes, believing them to be of no further value. This junking of many B&W episodes wasn't widely known about, even by fans. Most believed the BBC had everything sitting in its archives. Come 1983, during the 20th Anniversary event at Longleat, a questionnaire was circulated asking attendees to nominate a 4 part story to be released on VHS. Tomb of the Cybermen came out top in this poll thanks to noone knowing it no longer existed. The BBC simply ignored this poll and released Revenge of the Cybermen instead - on the grounds that it was the only other 4 part Cyberman story they did retain, plus it was in colour and featured the most popular Doctor.

Tomb of the Cybermen was eventually found, in Hong Kong, in late 1991, and issued on home video the following year.

That is when fans got to discover that it wasn't as perfect a story as they had been led to believe...

The first thing fans picked up on were the very obvious visual problems, which you would never have known about from book or audio. One scene which people raved about was a Cyberman having its chest UNIT smashed, with horrible gunk oozing out. This scene had featured in a BBC Talkback programme about violence and horror on TV. 

What we didn't know, was that immediately prior to this we get the Cyberman being held aloft over Toberman's head - with harness wires clearly visible. This had also been the case earlier, when Toberman himself had been held aloft. Towards the conclusion of the story we see Toberman lift the Cyber Controller - but this time it's clearly a substituted dummy, as we see the helmet almost fall off as he is thrown across the room.

We get a clear look at one of the Cyberman costumes coming apart under the armpit, at the foot of the ladder.

In a scene at the top of the ladder one of the Cybermen lets out an audible "Ooh!" as he is hit.

En masse, the Cybermen appear to quack like ducks when consternated.

Both the circular hatch and the door to the recharge unit, supposedly metal, are too obviously balsa wood.

Plotting issues include the good guys locking up the villains, unsupervised, in a room which just happens to have a powerful ray gun in it.

Ever seen an archaeological dig? Every inch of soil is sifted and every inch of surface meticulously recorded. Viner takes a couple of hand written notes and declares that he has every detail worth collecting from the recharging room. Not one of the party sports a camera.

Despite having met them on the Moon only recently, in this current design, the Doctor and Jamie are a bit slow to notice the big Cyberman images dotted all over the tomb.

The Cyberman plan is not as daft as some, but is still a little stupid. They've gone into hibernation due to running out of power and resources. Their tomb is designed to lure people who they can capture and convert. Making it really difficult to break into, and filling it with death traps, is not the best way to capture lots of new recruits to their ranks.

After getting up out of their tombs at the end of part two, the Cybermen just go back to sleep again in part four.

Why seek out only the most intelligent of interlopers, if you're only going to turn them into unemotional drones?

The Doctor seems to know about Cybermats, yet Jamie doesn't. The Doctor hinted that he might have met the Cybermen before his encounter at the South Pole, as he predicted their arrival after recognising their planet - yet he didn't know about their lack of emotions. He must have known about Mondas, but not about what happened to it's people, and his knowledge of Cybermats must come from an unseen story.

Not an issue at the time, but problematic now, is the representation of the human villains.

All three of the villains are of ethic minority origin, with one "blacked up" to play an Egyptian. Her partner is actually of Cypriot birth, but is playing another Egyptian - as he had done twice before in Hammer Mummy movies.

At least Toberman gets to redeem himself at the end and destroys the Controller (or so it seems) as the tombs are resealed.

And they're off...!

 Officially announced by the BBC this afternoon that both Jodie W and Chris Chibnall are leaving together in the autumn of 2022. This will be at the end of three special episodes, which it seems are likely all we are to get next year.

Series 13, which we knew was going to be shortened due to Covid restrictions, has now shrunk from 8 to only 6 episodes. No mention if one of these will mark a festive special, or if that is going to be the first of the three final Specials. 

The final JW episode will be in the autumn rather than Christmas / New Year, as it is intended to tie in with the BBC's centenary celebrations. 

The festive period of 2022/23 may mark the first adventure of Doctor 14, under the new show runner, neither of whom are known. We should find out the new showrunner well before they cast their Doctor. 

What to make of today's announcement? Proof positive that the Chibnall era has been a failure. He's quitting after only 2 and a bit series, and well before the next big anniversary (the 60th) in 2023. Someone else is going to take over and get to celebrate that.

I feel sorry for Jodie, having been landed with some truly awful scripts and showrunner decisions, but will be mighty glad to see the back of him.

Update

 It was announced today that Jacob Anderson, best known for Game of Thrones, will be joining the series in a regular role. He plays a gun-toting character named Vinder. He is neither described nor presented as a new companion, however. There were rumours that Captain Jack was to have played a significant role in the new series, after his return last New Year's Day. Could it be that this new character has been created to replace Barrowman, following "flashergate"?

You'll recall that the character of Captain Jack was created primarily to have a fighter on board the TARDIS, as the Doctor would not bear arms. Well, 13 is even more of a pacifist, and the series needs to rediscover its Action-Adventure roots.

On a personal note, I've just had another emergency operation (bringing forward something they would have to have tackled later anyway). It has resolved one of my main issues, but set my recovery back slightly. I should be back home in August, when I can pick up the blog more fully.