Doctor Who Cuttings Archive

Difference between revisions of "Exterminate! (1992)"

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10th anniversary story with jelly monsters and lots of shots of that quarry.
 
10th anniversary story with jelly monsters and lots of shots of that quarry.
  
[[broadwcast:The Time Warrior|The Time Warrior]] (four episodes) Sofa Rating: {{stars|4|4{{
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[[broadwcast:The Time Warrior|The Time Warrior]] (four episodes) Sofa Rating: {{stars|4|4}}
  
 
Sarah-Jane ("Oh, Dok-tuh") Smith and Sontarans introduced. Lots of castles.
 
Sarah-Jane ("Oh, Dok-tuh") Smith and Sontarans introduced. Lots of castles.

Revision as of 19:42, 18 August 2022


[edit]


Time-travelling vampires in World War 2. Nicholas Parsons as a parson and lots of added, non-televised scenes.

Excellent stuff. If you're one of those people who reckons that Doctor Who was never any good after Tom Baker left, get hold of Curse a Fenric and find out now very wrong you are.


WIN! WIN! WIN!

A complete boxed set of Dr Who videos plus your very own copy of Alternative's Dr Who - Dalek Attack. Hurrah!

What better way to spend an autumn evening than with The Hartnell Years, The Troughton Years, The Pertwee Years and The Baker Years? These vids contain what episodes the BBC haven't lost as well as reminiscences from the people involved. There are two vids in each boxed set, so that's eight vids in all worth eighty quid. And we've got two of these wondrous sets to give away. The two winners will also receive a copy of Alternative's new Dr Who game, as will the ten runners-up. All you have to do to guarantee yourself hours of pleasure is answer these questions...

  1. Who had a number one hit with 'Doctorin' the Tardis'?
  2. Who played the Doctor in the movies?
  3. Where does the Doctor come from?

Now write the answers on the back of a postcard or envelope, stick a stamp on the front and send the whole package off to Dr Who-oo, Oil Compo, YS Campos, 29 Monmouth Street, Bath% Avon BA1 26W.


BOOKS

They're rough. They're tough. They're the new Dr Who books. Here they come now. (Eek!)


Timewym: Genesys John Peel Virgin £3.50

The first in the new series of Dr Who adventures, Timewyrm is a quarter of books that tells the tale of, erm. the Timewyrm, a really nasty piece of work foretold in the legends of old Gallifrey and now running around horribly true-to-life. It all starts with Genesis set in ancient Mesopotamia, where the Doctor and Ace plan to spend an educational holiday. Before you can say 'astounding coincidence that only seems to happen at the beginning of every Dr Who story' a space parasite has crashed out of the skies and installed herself as the goddess Ishtar in the very city our heroic pair are heading for. Life, as you can probably guess, rapidly becomes pretty miserable for the populace, and the Doc and Ace set out to put things straight.

After a lifetime of Terrance Dicks TV story adaptations. Genesys comes as a bit of a shock. It's hard-edged, violent, politely gruesome and spotted through with mild swearwords. And it's a complete stonker. Smartly-drawn characters inhabit the refreshingly complex story, entangling Ace and the Doctor in the plans of Ishtar, a group of her victims from another planet that might just inherit Earth from the humans, and an extremely brutal Mesopotamian king called Gilgamesh. Laced with humour, punchy and exciting, it's a fine start to the new series. (And they're right - it is too big for the humble TV screen.)

FLIP RATING

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Maximum number of loops have been performed


Timewyrm: Exodus Terrance Dicks/Virgin/£3.50

At the end of Genesys, the Doctor's attempt to destroy Ishtar with a computer virus (she was a sort of cyborg, y'see) went ever so slightly wrong, accidentally creating the Timewyrm. Oops. Anyway, the wyrm nips into the timestreams, emerging in Nazi Germany and altering the outcome of World War 2 so the Nazis win But the Doctor and Ace are in hot pursuit. Hurrah!

Okay, so the plot's a mite jaded. (The old "what if the Nazis won the Second World War ploy? Please!) Okay, so the author's Terrance Dicks, the chap whose Dr Who adaptations give new meaning to the words amazingly obvious while being fluffy and inoffensive. But! It's quite a

rattling yarn. There's a great piece of comedy at the start of the story, where the Doctor bluffs his way into the Nazi stronghold by impersonating the all-powerful Reichsinspektor General, and some nice business with Hitler, whom the Doctor has to keep alive in order to preserve future time - a tricky task with Ace and her cans of nitro-nine around.

In amongst the rather predictable events of the story (mad Nazis, secret plans. The return of a couple of old enemies) there are some flashes al classic Dicks - ie, plastic characters, clumsy exposition and stupid throwaway explanations (such as the Doctor blandly assuring Ace she'll scrape by in speaking German - as she always does). Actually, considering old Terrance's past record, Exodus is a surprisingly good read. It moves along at a fair old lick, handling a well-worn theme rather darn well and managing to squeeze in a couple of show-stopping Ideas (such as Herman Goering and his troops rushing in like the seventh cavalry at the eleventh hour). Solidly entertaining

FLIP RATING

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Maximum number of loops have been performed


Timewyrm: Revelation Paul Cornell/Virgin/£3.50

Em, okay. admission time. There is a third book - Time wyrm: Apocalypse - but could we find it anywhere in Bath? Nope. Sorry. So we'll have to jump straight to the final book in the Timewyrm serines - Revelation. It starts with a nasty bang as eight year old Ace's playground nemesis beats her to death with a brick. From there, things get markedly strange. The Timewym, y'see, has grown rather powerful over the last three books and now feels confident enough to attack the Doctor on his own ground. (His own ground being a sentient church in Cheldon Bonniface.) The first part of the book is written in a style approaching stream-of-consciousness as various events seem to (or possibly do) happen to the characters (who may or may not really exist), until you stumble across the bit that causes it all to make sense. Before then, Ace dies (again), goes to Hell, returns t school and frees the Doctor's conscience.

Revelation is a fine finish to the Timewyrm serles. The story builds up, layer upon baffling layer, until the aver so clever key is revealed and the whole thing becomes sharply clear. (And then there's one topper of an ending. Even better, it's a smashing read as well Top (top) notch.

FLIP RATING:

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