Dan loves science fiction and fantasy in just about any format. He has so many shelves full of dvds and books that there's no where for him to sleep. One day he hopes to add his own novels to those shelves. You can contact him at dcollins@troughtonismydoctor.com
The wait between seasons is always my least favourite part of fandom. It seems like it has been forever and a day since we last saw, I mean heard, the Cool Beans Doctor getting himself into a lot of trouble. Well, the wait is over, AM Audio Media premiered episode 1 of Series 2 today! Listen and enjoy. After the episode MA and Andrew chat with the Gallifrey Stands folks!
Canadian Doctor Who fans are in for a treat this summer as Fan Expo Canada has just revealed that the three most popular new series companions are ALL going to be at the event taking place in Toronto from September 3-6. Billie Piper, Karen Gillan and Jenna Coleman were just announced as featured guests. Now that they have the most popular recent companions locked up, will they get a Doctor? They have had some over the years including Matt Smith and Colin Baker. Stay tuned to TIMD for more Fan Expo Doctor Who details as they are announced!
Recently at the Toronto Comicon I had the chance to meet the Doctor Who Dark Journey guys in person for the first time. It was a real treat to finally shake hands with Andrew “the Cool Beans Doctor” Chalmers and Mike Tamburro after spending so much time interviewing them and speaking to them about Dark Journey online. Things were going very smoothly until Mike decided to turn the tables on me. Now instead of being the interviewer I became the interviewee as he did an off the cuff interview for Who Wars, a podcast that they contribute to! Give it a listen! I look forward to seeing Andrew and Mike at the next convention!
There is a companion who is going to be at the Toronto Comicon this coming weekend, but now there’s a Doctor as well. Karen Gillan will be attending the show, known of course for her role as Amy Pond. Joining her (though I am sure a wall of security will keep them from ever meeting) are the guys from Doctor Who Dark Journey including Andrew Chalmers, the Cool Beans Doctor!
If you are in the Toronto area this weekend, check out the show! AM Audio Media (www.amaudiomedia.com) will be at Toronto Comic Con at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre March 20, 21, 22 – Booth A182. Join the award winning cast and crew, chat about the series with them. Not only can you meet the guys and gals, but you can also listen to a preview of the upcoming Series 2, be amonst the first to purchase the first pressing of Dark Journey on CD, and help support them by spending all your comic money on their swag, including Doctor Who and Dark Journey buttons!
And if you are real lucky you might see me there. I will be in attending on Sunday and will be hanging out with the guys for a while!
A few days ago I came across a post online regarding the status of The Underwater Menace on DVD. BBC WW seem to have no plans to release The Underwater Menace any time soon. Fans are up in arms with the delay and want reassurance that the story will be physically available at some point. Enter Chris McAleer. He has started a petition on change.org to get the story released. I asked Chris a few questions about the whole thing.
Why did you start this petition Chris?
I started the petition because, at present, it’s incredibly unclear as to whether BBC Worldwide still intend to release The Underwater Menace on DVD. Since its announcement, it’s previously at least held a place in the DVD release schedule – even if only an intended year of release – but as far as I’ve seen, this is the first time it’s been removed from the schedules altogether. This was a potentially worrying development as it leaves no clear indication of when or if the title is planned to release. Additionally, there were suggestions that the viability of the release itself was being looked into, and with the rest of the classic Doctor Who range complete there seemed a very real danger that this release could slip through the cracks and never see the light of day. So I thought it would be useful to try to organise a way to demonstrate to BBC Worldwide the release is indeed viable, and that there is still support from fans for a DVD release of The Underwater Menace!
The decision to remove The Underwater Menace from the schedule was revealed in an email from the BBC DVD enquiry line. What led you to email them in the first place?
The DVD release of The Underwater Menace already has a history of delays. The plan to give it a standalone release with animation for the first and final episodes was originally announced in 2013, and at the time fans seemed hopeful for an early 2014 release date. It was later confirmed for a 2014 release by the BBC and even advertised on the DVD release of The Moonbase – however, subsequently no firm release date was forthcoming. The Restoration Team made it clear that work on restoration of the existing episodes had been all but completed, and that all DVD extras had been produced and were just waiting for delivery. I saw a lot of uncertainty amongst fans as to what was happening with the release, so I decided to e-mail the BBC DVD enquiry line to see if I could get some answers. At the time, the official word was that the release was still planned and was under active development.
2014 passed without any sign of the release, barring a statement given to Doctor Who Magazine in December that the release had been pushed back to 2015, and that it was still planned to animate the two missing episodes. However, with no more word since then I’d started to see a lot of uncertainty amongst fans, including frequent queries as to whether the release had been cancelled outright. For this reason, I decided to e-mail the enquiry line again for an updated statement. Given that only two months previously BBC Worldwide had stated their commitment to the release, I was incredibly surprised to hear that the DVD had been removed from the release schedule, and that the viability of the release itself was being worked on.
What do you hope to accomplish with your online petition?
My hopes for the petition are two-fold: to demonstrate to BBC Worldwide that there is definitely a market for this release, and hopefully to get a firm confirmation that they still intend to release it. Although work on the existing episodes and DVD extras is all-but-complete, there’s no indication that work has progressed on any animation or reconstruction for the missing episodes 1 and 4, so whatever form they would take, time would of course need to be spent on these prior to any release. But as far as I’m concerned this isn’t a “we want it now” situation – all we want is for BBC Worldwide to confirm that they will definitely issue The Underwater Menace on DVD and are not cancelling the previously-advertised release.
How many signatures are you hoping to get?
To be honest, as many as possible! Our current goal is 1,000 signatures, and I think it’s really important for us to break that four-figure barrier in order for BBC Worldwide to take the petition seriously. But beyond that, the more the merrier – the higher the number of signatories, the better it illustrates that there’s market demand for the release.
Why is it so important for the BBC to release The Underwater Menace on DVD?
There are many reasons this DVD’s release is important for Doctor Who fans. The most obvious reason is it would give fans he chance to own Episode 2, recovered in 2011 and still unreleased officially. It’s the earliest surviving episode featuring Troughton’s Doctor, and offers the only visual glimpse of the slightly-different take on the character from his first three serials, where he was a little more prone to clownishness, and had a pronounced love of both hats and disguises, all of which pretty much disappear as of The Moonbase.
Also, while I’m aware The Underwater Menace doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation among fans, in my opinion if people are content to let Episode 2 slip through the cracks and remain unreleased it could set a precedent for future releases. Hunts are still ongoing for further missing episodes, and there’s always the potential for more finds to come to light. So if you’re someone who isn’t that bothered just because it’s The Underwater Menace, ask yourself – would you feel the same if the unreleased episode was one orphaned from Marco Polo, The Power of the Daleks or one of the other better-regarded missing serials? Another reason it’s important is that the Restoration Team have already completed work on restoring the episodes and creating DVD extras, and DVD is definitely the best format on which to enjoy the full fruits of their labours. If, for example, it was decided to shelve the DVD and release the story as a digital download, comparing the iTunes release of The Enemy of the World to the DVD shows that the full extent of their restoration work isn’t done justice through the digital release, thanks to a combination of lower resolution visuals and a non-interlaced format, the latter of which destroys the effect of their VidFIRE process for restoring the fluid motion of scenes originally shot in studio. Finally, BBC Worldwide have actively advertised the DVD release of The Underwater Menace on the DVD of the following serial, The Moonbase – since they’ve advertised the product, I feel it’s only fair that they deliver it to market.
Who are you hoping will sign this petition, just fans of the 2nd Doctor?
Not at all! Fans of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor will of course have a great interest in this release, not least because it would be the first official release of his earliest surviving episode in the role. However, they’re by no means the only group that this petition is meant for – anybody with an interest is encouraged to show their support! Any fans of Doctor Who are more than welcome, as are fans of sci-fi, of archive TV in general, or anyone else for that matter! The more people who show their support, the better we’ll demonstrate to BBC Worldwide that the release of this DVD is still viable for them.
Besides signing the petition, what other ways can people let BBC WW know they want to see Underwater Menace on DVD?
It’s very important that, as well as signing the petition, people also take the time to send a direct message to BBC Worldwide, if possible, expressing their interest in this release. Although the petition is a great way of showing support in numbers, it’s less likely to be noticed right away by BBC Worldwide. However, through my contact with the DVD Enquiry line I’ve been informed that the number of direct enquiries they receive regarding specific titles are periodically passed on to the relevant departments; so the more individual enquiries they receive regarding The Underwater Menace, the more of a potential market they’ll see for its release.
With this in mind, I’d strongly suggest that anyone who signs the petition also sends a message to BBC Worldwide in one or more of the following ways:
Send a polite letter expressing your interest to the following address: BBC Worldwide 33 Foley Street London W1W 7TL UK
Send a tweet to @bbcwpress and @classicdw stating your support for the release, including the hashtag #SaveTheFishPeople
If fans who sign the petition also take the time to directly messaging BBC Worldwide in this manner, I’ve no doubt the voices of fans who want to see this DVD released will be heard!
Thanks Chris for the interview and good luck with the petition. If you haven’t signed it yet, you can head over to change.org and do so right now.
Every once in a while the stars align and something magical happens. One of my favourite moments as a Doctor Who fan was this past October when the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group on Facebook celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the miraculous return of Enemy Of The World and Web Of Fear by Phil Morris. There was a lot of planning and preparation put into the event. We held a week long contest, had a cavalcade of random facts each day and votes on the episodes. The whole thing culminated in a comment a long to the final episodes of Web and Enemy.
As a part of the event I had come across a website about Jack Woolgar, the actor who played Staff Sergeant Arnold. The website was run by his son Tim. I invited Tim to join our group and informed him about the comment a long. He graced us with his presence for both and the result was truly magical. Over the 22 odd minutes that Web was running, we had an online love in where Who fans got to express their gratitude. The praise wasn’t just for Phil Morris, who’s hard work and dedication allowed us to see these wonderful episodes that had been lost for 45 years, but also to Tim for the fantastic performance his father had given.
I recently had a chance to talk with Tim about the website and his father.
TIMD: Why did you decide to start the website?
Tim Woolgar: I thought that a website would make a great memorial to dad as at the time we hadn’t done anything with his ashes and there was no memorial to him except of course the hours of footage that must exist and that he regularly turns up on the TV screen – so the 25th anniversary of his death seemed a fitting point to make a web site. It’s a place to collate photos and writing about him for me and the family and of course fans of his work. I have always intended to grow it regularly and for others to contribute but life just gets in the way. I did do some finishing and editing some years in and have every intention of rebuilding the site… soon
TIMD: Have you had many visitors?
Tim: Web counters were de rigeur in the early days of web sites but I never put one on this site so who knows – there are probably some google analytics to be had but it’s one thing I don’t seem to have a need to count !
TIMD: Have you learned anything surprising about your father as you were doing research for the site?
Tim: Nothing in a BBC “Who do You Think You Are?” way; all the family skeletons were well out of the cupboard but it is interesting to realise that the adage ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’ is very true. A lot of dad’s work was for the same producers or directors. You get to work with one or two and then they use you for different projects. He did a lot of work for Pamela Lonsdale for instance. The web is great for finding new stuff I found a film I never knew he was in and only last week found a drama he did in Sardinia on Vimeo that I’d never seen.
TIMD: How does the rest of your family feel about your endeavor
Tim: They like it I think but aren’t involved in the upkeep.
TIMD: What role of your dad’s stands out most in your memory?
Tim: The ones that stand out to me are
Lion the witch and the wardrobe – enabled us to go on a family holiday
Professor Branestawm – lots of excitement “a bomb of my own invention’
The Borrowers (radio) – lots of tiny stuff
Barlow of the Car park – produced the line ‘Choc- o- lates for meee?’
Dr Who – of course well it was dr who
TIMD: Do you know which role was his favourite?
Tim: He liked the drama work on 30 Minute Theatre and Play for Today I think like Barlow and The Discharge of Trooper Lusby. I think he just liked working so may be Carney in Crossroads
TIMD: He did a lot of work, but he will probably be best remembered (at least by my readers) as Staff Sergeant Arnold from Web Of Fear. That story was lost for 45 years, but returned a year and a half ago by Philip Morris. How did it make you feel to hear the news?
Tim: Very very excited. I had heard that some lost episodes had been found and had that sort of oh it might be web of fear feeling you get like oh I might win the lottery but you know you won’t. But it was – when it was released I downloaded it straight away from iTunes and watched the first couple of episodes but then saved the rest as a treat.
TIMD: What was your reaction to seeing the story for the first time in all those years?
Tim: Honestly it feels a bit wooden in places and the story quite simple but it was simpler back then and a kids’ show and only watched once and once a week. We have higher expectations now and tv shows have to stand repetition. There were some great performances and it felt quite theatrical.
TIMD: Jack sure acted his pants off in that one, especially the final episode. How did he feel about that story? Was it one that he was proud of or just another job?
Tim: It’s always nice to play the character with the twist and therefore have good lines and scenes. I can’t honestly say how he felt I was only 7 years old but the feeling at home was good and exciting and he brought home a rubber death mask which was great to play with!! I’m sure he was pleased with his performance, he watched everything very critically, he wanted to be the best that he could be.
TIMD: You joined the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group on Facebook during their anniversary celebration for a comment- a- long of episode six. How did it feel to watch the outpouring of love and respect from the members for your father and his performance?
Tim: I was very touched and surprised at the interest in a very old black and white TV show. You’re all mad !!
TIMD: On the website you refer to his story telling and there is a wonderfully evocative passage where he tells us in his own words about running a W.H. Smith stall at the train station, and later on you reveal that he was a published poet. Jack had a great way with words, didn’t he?
Tim: He was very proud of his self- education and loved words. I wish he had written more prose and more of his life story. He was doing it but didn’t expect to drop off the twig at 64.
Thanks to Tim for taking the time to talk to me and please take a moment to check out the website www.jackwoolgar.org.uk it’s incredibly interesting.
Well January 1st has rolled around once more and from everyone here at TIMD let me wish you a happy New Year! It’s been quite a year for us. Last January I was just getting my start in the world of Doctor Who news.
Starting at Doctor Who Worldwide on January 6th, I made the leap to my own sit in March, continuing on as a mainstream DW news site. Over the past year we have gotten a few awesome interviews (Neil Perryman and Andrew Cartmel) and talked about missing episodes and Series 8 spoilers, all before I decided a change of direction would be nice.
Any site can talk about the latest news and rumours, so I broke away from that pack and decided to focus on the fans and what they are doing to make Doctor Who one of the world’s biggest franchises. I talked to fans who made their own tardis consoles, fans that published their reviews in e-books and fans that have made their own audio dramas!
So, from me to you, thanks for sticking with me and making this last year awesome! And to all those who were active participants in my venture, writers like Martin, Gary and Andrew, interviewees like Museum Dave, Andrew Chalmers and Mike Tamburro, I consider you friends, one and all!
The pace of posts may have slowed slightly, but I remain committed to being the number one site by fans, for fans and about Doctor Who fans!
Doctor Who Dark Journey and the folks from AM Audio Media were up for 4 Audio Verse Awards. The voting ended in early December and the results were just announced.
Congratulations to Roy Miranda. His role as Sherlock Holmes won him “Best Actor in a Fan/Adaptation Leading Role.” Unfortunately that was the only win for Canada’s #1 fan produced Doctor Who audio, but there’s always next year and next season.
I’ve been posting bits and pieces of news here and there as they come, but I decided it’s time to round up all the information. So just what do we know about series two of Canada’s number one fan produced Doctor Who audio, Dark Journey?
Joshua Hemming, pictured far left, joins the crew for series 2
Audio:
Sound designer Joshua Hemming will be joining the crew this time around. From AM Audiomedia.com:
“Joshua Hemming brings a wealth of sound recording/production experience that will bring music to listeners ears…”
But what can the listeners expect from series 2 itself?
Roy Miranda and Andrew Chalmers very into character
“Dark Journey Series 2 features a completely unexpected turn of events for Holmes and his companion The Doctor. The story changes a lot from the blood soaked streets of 18th century White Chapel to a subterranean supernatural hell storm where the stakes have never been higher for our heroes. Sherlock Holmes is forced to confront his past and faces his worst weaknesses and fears as we discover a lot of things about the Doctors past that he would rather no one knew.” – Andrew Chalmers Writer/Actor Dark Journey
MA Tamburro and new comer Joshua Hemming
“Everything about Series two is big. Bigger stories, bigger characters, bigger sound. Dark Journey had a heck of a start with our initial 5 episode run but the next five feature a super action packed, funny, emotional Doctor, as so skillfully scripted by our writer Andrew Chalmers who also plays the troubled Timelord. Our key cast members make a memorable return as well as a few guest cameos that you’ll have to hear to believe. Who will live? Who will die? Who nose!” – MA Tamburro Producer/Director Dark Journey
Series 2 finished recording earlier this month and is now in post production. Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the release!
Canada’s #1 fan produced Doctor Who audio drama has made it through the preliminary round of voting for this year’s Audio Verse Awards. Dark Journey is up for 4 awards including Roy Miranda for Best Actor in a Fan/Adaptation Leading Role, Kate Elyse Forrest for Best Actress in a Fan/Adaptation Supporting Role, Andrew Chalmers for Best Writing of an Ongoing Fan/Adaptation Production and Clayton (Claytech) Turner for Best Audio Engineering in an Ongoing Fan/Adaptation Production.
Congratulations to the four of them for making it through to the final round, but now they need your help now more than ever! Please take a moment to check out the Audio Verse Awards website and vote for them. Voting closes on December 3rd so there is still time!
Troughton Is My Doctor 