TV Gold

Well the current rumour for ?classic series? DVD titles beyond the June 2006 release of ?Inferno? is that both ?The Hand of Fear? (24th July) and ?The Mark of the Rani? (4th September) are being considered for later this year.

Regarding 'The Hand of Fear', although the date hasn't been officially confirmed the fact that <a href="http://www.restoration-team.co.uk" target="_blank">a new article</a> has now appeared seems that this story will be following 'Inferno' into the shops. Glad to see that Tom Baker and Judith Paris (Eldred) are both on hand to contribute to this discs commentary.

On the face of it a return to the October 1976 ?The Hand of Fear? story would seem like an inspired choice as it is undoubtedly best remembered for the final regular series appearance by Elizabeth Sladen?s ?Sarah Jane Smith? character. Having received the telepathic call to return to Gallifrey the Doctor is forced to deposit Sarah back on Earth, dramatically cutting short their continuing travels with an emotional final scene in the wood panelled TARDIS control room where his parting words ?Till we meet again, Sarah? that hangs in the air of thirty years duration. The manner in which Sarah Jane Smith abruptly left the fourth Doctor?s side is something that crops up in the 2006 story ?School Reunion? where she expresses her emotions towards the Tenth Doctor. Sladen?s performance in ?The Hand of Fear? is indeed excellent especially when possessed whilst moving around the nuclear research station and proves a great refresher to newer fans of the valued contribution this actress has given to the ?Doctor Who? franchise. However Judith Paris steals the show as (the female) Kastrian criminal Eldred and around the time of the BBC VHS video release TV Zone magazine reporter Jane Killick conducted a brief interview with this stories leading guest star. Just in case you might have missed it this is what was said:-

Actress and actresses have gone through some bizarre trials when it comes to Doctor Who, and such is the case with Judith Paris who plays Eldrad in this month?s video release, The Hand of Fear. ?I remember most importantly my costume which was very difficult to come to terms with,? she says. ?It was a lycra body stocking, a pair of high-heeled boots, a kind of Egyptian Upper Nile-type headdress and the whole thing was encrusted in plastic rock-crystal. They stitched me into it at the beginning of the very first day and I couldn?t sit down! And I couldn?t go to the lavatory! And I spent the day from 8 o?clock in the morning to about 6 o?clock at night not eating, not drinking, not going to the lavatory and not sitting down. Tottering up and down the quarry in high heels and this cat suit, it was quite hard to move.?
In reality, Eldred is an executed criminal whose fossilized hand is found by Sarah Jane on 20thh Century Earth. The remnants of Eldrad?s immense powers have survived inside the hand and they force Sarah to take it to a nuclear research station. There it uses the energy from an explosion to bring Eldred to life. The story was originally broadcast in 1976 during one of the high points of the series, the third year of Tom Baker?s Doctor.
?Tom Baker was a total delight,? says Judy Paris. ?He was wonderful to work with and very scholarly. He always used to arrive at rehearsals with at least four huge tomes to read and about three newspapers. During rehearsals he would do crosswords and read newspapers and dig into books and things.?
Judy gave Eldrad the shape of a woman, but this is only an image he is using to fool people. In the final episode a crushing machine forces him to reveal his true form when the figure of actress Judith Paris changes into that of actor Stephen Thorne. ?They nearly killed me in the machine that ground me down into powder!? Judy remembers with horror. ?It was lie a press, like a vast great trouser press, but horizontal. They laid me down on it, set the machinery into process and the lid came down. When it reached an inch above my nose it [was supposed to] stop, they would cut the film, I?d slip out and then they?d continue filming. They had this machine with this great flat plate on top coming down very slowly on hydraulics ? very Edgar Allan Poe ? and it reached my nose and it went on going! It was very frightening. It was absolutely terrifying because it was a great big piece of heavy machinery. I screamed my head off and somebody reached for a lever. I think it was probably more dramatic from my position than it was from their position. That wasn?t very nice, I didn?t enjoy that at all.?

Negative aspects to ?The Hand of Fear? are fairly minimal however you?ve got to laugh at Sarah?s ?pink striped overalls? (as described by Rex Robinson?s ?Doctor Carter? character) which makes her look ?just like Andy Pandy?. Early on you have the Doctor and Sarah, in a rock quarry being totally unable to comprehend clear signs of danger (sirens, man waving etc) around them, plus during an air strike against the nuclear complex you have our group of story characters bizarrely hiding behind a jeep from an exploding reactor. It?s a good thing that Eldred needs the nuclear energy to regenerate herself from the fossilized hand Sarah finds in the quarry. Location work is generally excellent including the Severn Nuclear Power Station in Oldbury which would a few years later crop up in the second season Blake?s Seven opener ?Redemption?. On balance it?s a great ?classic series? story and an excellent ?new series? tie in which undoubtedly the extras will, I suspect, fully explore.

I'll turn my attention to 'The Mark of the Rani' next time

I know we are a long way of from this becoming confirmed via a new addition to the Restoration Team's website, the best indication I believe however, thinking about <!--coloro:#FF9900--><span style="color:#FF9900"><!--/coloro-->'The Mark of the Rani'<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> I would like to say the following...

As we now know 2006 is best remembered for the return of the Cybermen, appearing in no less than four episodes of the second season of adventures with David Tennant and Billie Piper. It therefore seems rather puzzling that, having decided to once again plunder the ever shrinking story choices in Colin Baker's era to sidestep the obvious <!--coloro:#FF9900--><span style="color:#FF9900"><!--/coloro-->'Attack of the Cybermen'<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> to what at first seems a less obvious choice. Personally I revisited 'Attack' recently and apart from some witty by-play between Peri and the Doctor early on as well as the temporary repair of the chameleon circuit and their return to 76 Totters Lane (where it all started back in 1963!) I personally found it a rather tiresome, dreary affair which can indeed be left in the archives for a bit longer. No, I personally feel that in selecting Pip and Jane Baker?s <!--coloro:#FF9900--><span style="color:#FF9900"><!--/coloro-->'The Mark of the Rani'<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> BBC Worldwide have undoubtedly selected a much more appealing, charming piece replete with a first rate cast and enjoyable script. Amongst the notable guest cast you have the scheming biochemist 'Rani' (replete with a more high tech looking TARDIS) memorably brought to life by Kate O'Mara, an actress who clearly enjoyed this particular role as she mentions in her autobiography ?Vamp Until Ready? (Pages 136-139):-

I enjoyed playing the Rani in Doctor Who in 1985. She had supposedly been at University with the Doctor and was herself a Time Lord. The great advantage of playing power-crazed people (and the Rani wanted to rule the Universe, in fact any Universe and any number of Galaxies) is that one can be as extreme as one likes in the big scenes, because being totally fictional and science-fictional to boot, there are no rules of conduct. One assumes that a creature such as the Rani, who is a scientist, is totally amoral and prepared to sacrifice all in the cause of science. It is interesting playing ruthless characters, they are motivated purely by self-interest and get off on power. I'm a bit like that myself, although I would like to think I have some redeeming features!
I had a fairly alarming experience while on location for Doctor Who. The Rani is supposedly the mistress of disguise, and in this episode had transmogrified into an old crone. The make-up and ravaged version of my own visage. Liquid latex had been painted on to my face and left to set. The result was suitably grotesque. I was given a straw with which to breathe through my nose and told not to panic!
One morning on location in the Black Country, cradle of the Industrial Revolution, we were filming my first episode of Doctor Who. In the make-up caravan at about 6.30 on a dark and chilly morning, my latex mask was being fitted onto my face. Attached to it were wisps of long grey hair. My mouth was blanked out and my eyelashes powdered. I was clad in mid-nineteenth-century clothes - long skirt, boots, petticoats and shawls over my shoulders, mittens, a mob cap and more shawls on my head. Well, at least I was warm. I was glad of my bundle of clothes when I stepped down from the caravan into the early morning air. The make-up girl had suggested that I grab a spot of breakfast while waiting to be called to film.
I never eat breakfast, but thought a cup of hot tea would be welcome, so I made my way to what I could see was the mobile canteen truck. To my surprise, I found that people were brushing against me and in some cases, roughly pushing me out of the way. I have always been used to a certain amount of deference on a film set. On the whole, I have found film crews to be the most affable and overly polite bunch of men. (It is only relatively recently that women have managed to infiltrate this male technical preserve - women have traditionally been make-up and hair artists and wonder whether the courteous, respectful treatment I had always received on a film set was due to my status and maybe people thought I was an extra and perhaps extras were always subjected to this lack of consideration. But then I saw some young girls receiving smiles and right of passage from technicians engaged in the normal hustle and bustle of setting up.
I joined the queue at the canteen truck. Several people pushed in front of me. I finally managed to get a cup of weak tea, but not before a member of the kitchen staff had demanded ungraciously of me what I wanted. It was pointed out to me with barely concealed irritation, that the tea was self-service from an urn on an adjoining table. I took a polystyrene cup and poured it. I found a piece of plastic that passed for a spoon and put in plenty of sugar to make up for the weakness of the tea. I searched around and, seeing an upturned oil drum, sat down thankfully. 'Sorry luv, need that,' and it was wrenched unceremoniously from under me by a passing crew member. It gradually dawned of me that it was not just because people did not recognises me that I was being treated so carelessly, it was because people though I was an old woman. I wondered whether my mother, who was always playing what she called 'bundles', was subjected to this indignity on set.
Eventually, I gave up and went back to the make-up caravan for warmth and to await my call.
We started filming at 7.30 a.m. and I had some fairly unpleasant scenes where I had to pretend to put maggots into an actor?s mouth! The maggots were a heaving, glistening mass and smelled revolting. I had a make-up change during the morning, when my mask had to be removed and my normal self was revealed, but I was still wearing my rags. The big transformation came at midday. I was taken off to the wardrobe caravan and put into tight black, aubergine and bronzed leather pants, matching plunging jacket and thigh-high heeled boots. I had hair down to my waist and my most glamorous make-up. Transformed, I stepped out of the make-up caravan once again. I was immediately surrounded by men. Someone brought me a chair, someone else produced a plate of lunch 'all vegetarian, because I know that's what you like,' yet another person submitted a cup of tea - in a proper cup and saucer. The contrast was total and revelationary. I decided there and then that I would never get old if I could possibly help it!
This all happened in 1985 and things have generally improved for women, largely thanks to Joan Collins, who made being an ?older woman? acceptable, but only the other day I read a review of a film featuring the ever-youthful Catherine Deneuve, whose beauty transcends the advancing years. It read, 'Mlle Deneuve is a credible sex-object in spite of her sixty odd year.' I rest my case!
In spite of my inauspicious beginning, I found filming Doctor Who immensely enjoyable. It has an atmosphere all of its own, probably due to its enduring popularity, the affection it engenders in the public?s hearts and its undeniable cult status. I was later to do more, but my first efforts in 'The Mark of the Rani' were my favourite episodes.

Also joining Kate, Colin (Baker) and Nicola (Bryant) on <!--coloro:#FF9900--><span style="color:#FF9900"><!--/coloro-->'The Mark of the Rani'<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> we have another excellently devious and scheming appearance of 'The Master' brought so memorably to life by the late ?Anthony Ainley? and the welcome inclusion of Terence Alexander (forever remembered as Bergerac's ex father-in-law Charlie Hungerford) here playing Killingworth mine boss, the crotchety Lord Ravensworth. Special mention should also go to Gawn Grainger as hard-pressed legendary Northern inventor George Stevenson and Gary Cady as his impressionable assistant Luke Ward. However the strongest aspect of <!--coloro:#FF9900--><span style="color:#FF9900"><!--/coloro-->'The Mark of the Rani'<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> is undoubtedly the splendid totally authentic location of Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Ironbridge in Shropshire. Apparently story director Sarah Hellings remembered if from a ?Blue Peter? film she?d made there a few years earlier and I guess that will undoubtedly now be pulled out of the archives ready for welcome inclusion on the 'as yet unconfirmed DVD release'. Personally I don?t find too many negative points to this story apart from the totally impractical costume Nicola Bryant has on this occasion and the frankly laughable land-mines that the Rani lays which transform humans into trees! If the rumours are indeed confirmed this will indeed be a highly enjoyable DVD release which hopefully will present an opportunity for Mark Ayres to create either another impressive (maybe even 5.1 mix) sound mix or significantly improve the sound reproduction should it prove necessary.

Comments on either 'The Hand of Fear' or 'The Mark of the Rani' are welcome here!
B)

Just read this on the recently revived 'Outpost Gallifrey'

At a recent fan event, Sophie Aldred revealed that she and Sylvester McCoy were scheduled to do the audio commentary for the as yet unannounced DVD of 1989 classic series adventure Survival. They had originally planned to make the the recording early in November, but had to postpone due to McCoy's busy schedule.

Not surprising, but certainly very welcome should it make its DVD debut during 2007!

Well further to my last post, and confirmed in Doctor Who Magazine 377 (on sale today!) we shall indeed be seeing 'Survival' on DVD now set for a March 2007 release.

I sincerely hope that they are able to rope in Lisa Bowerman for commentary duties alongside messers McCoy and Aldred. Her performance as the cheetah person Karra was, aside from Ainley's 'Master' character one of the strongest aspects of this story.

Here's also hoping that we will be treated to a snazzy 5.1 sound mix from Mark Ayres.

One story, more than any other from the Jon Pertwee era, that I have wanted to see on DVD, since I bought my first title back in 2002 ('Tomb of the Cybermen') has got to be 'The Sea Devil'.

It is with the greatest delight I've seen, today, the following quoted from 'Outpost Gallifrey'...

The Sea Devils is being prepared for release on DVD, the latest edition of the Royal Navy's official newspaper has revealed.

Navy News was contacted on behalf of the Restoration Team in the hope of tracking down naval personnel involved in or who witnessed the story's filming - in particular, the team hopes to find a rating believed to have shot some cine footage.

The June edition of the publication says that as part of the DVD, a documentary is being produced on the making of the Jon Pertwee six-parter. The adventure originally aired in 1972 and the location work was carried out in the Portsmouth area in October 1971.

A story about the location filming was done at the time by the local daily paper, The News, which photographed Pertwee chatting with three ratings at the Fraser gunnery range.

One of the ratings, an Able Seaman David King, pictured above right, who was then aged 26, appears to be capturing the moment for posterity on a cine camera.

In the Navy News piece, project team member Richard Bignell says: "If Mr King did take any cine film of the shoot, we would be very interested in talking to him!"

The documentary-makers also hope to track down people who took still pictures.

A release date for the DVD has yet to be confirmed.

The BBC radiophonic workshop really excells themselves with the unnerving experimental synth incidental music which makes this story all the better.

I am so very, very happy about this, whenever it eventually gets released!

Related to my last post in this thread I thought it interesting to hear about the fort featured in "The Sea Devils" is now up for sale as reported here (http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/latest?articleid=3015713). I wonder if there are any rich WHO fans out there who want the ultimate collectable???