Category: Classic Season 24

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Classic Season 24 Doctor Who

Time And The Rani

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS crash-lands on Lakertya with such force that the Doctor is forced to regenerate. He is promptly removed from the TARDIS by the evil female Time Lord biochemist known as the Rani, who is behind his rough landing. Melanie, also knocked out by the landing, is kidnapped by Ikona, a birdlike Lakertyan whose people are behind forced to cooperate with the Rani’s scheme. In the meantime, the Rani gives the newly-regenerated Doctor a drug-induced bout of amnesia, trying to use him to help her complete her latest experiment – but she doesn’t count on the rebellious nature that the Doctor carries through all of his incarnations.

Order the DVDwritten by Pip Baker & Jane Baker
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Kate O’ Mara (The Rani), Mark Greenstreet (Ikona), Donald Pickering (Beyus), Richard Gauntlett (Urak), Wanda Ventham (Faroon), John Segal (Lanisha), Karen Clegg (Sarn), Peter Tuddenham, Jacki Webb (Voices)

Broadcast from September 7 through 28, 1987

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 24 Doctor Who

Paradise Towers

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Mel arrive to do a little vacationing in the lush artificial paradise known as Paradise Towers, only to find that the huge structure has fallen into disrepair – and furthermore, its inhabitants have descended into savagery. The Kangs, warring factions of girl gangs, struggle for survival among the rule-bound Caretakers, the cannibalistic Rezzies, and another force which lurks in the shadows, using the mechanical cleaning robots to murder members of all of these groups. The Doctor is captured by the Caretakers, who believe him to be the Great Architect of Paradise Towers and sentence him to death, while Mel befriends Pex, mighty in his own mind and weak of stomach. The Doctor discovers that the Great Architect is indeed still lurking in his masterpiece of construction, killing off its residents before they foul Paradise Towers by living in it.

Order the DVDwritten by Stephen Wyatt
directed by Nicholas Mallett
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Howard Cooke (Pex), Richard Briers (Chief Caretaker), Clive Merrison (Deputy Chief Caretaker), Joseph Young (Young Caretaker), Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner), Julie Brennon (Fire Escape), Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang Leader), Astra Sheridan (Yellow Kang), Brenda Bruce (Tilda), Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby), Judy Cornwell (Maddy), Simon Coady (Video commentary)

Broadcast from October 5 through 26, 1987

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 24 Doctor Who

Delta And The Bannermen

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Melanie land at a kind of toll booth in space, but instead of exact change, they wind up winning a trip to Earth in 1959 for being the ten billionth visitors to the station. Joining the chartered trip is Delta, queen of the Chimeron, and the last of her race who hasn’t been hunted down by genocidal Gavrok and his army of Bannermen. Gavrok’s forces trail the tourists to Wales, intent on killing Delta, who carries with her an egg that will soon hatch the first child in a new generation of Chimerons. Billy, a local boy with rock ‘n’ roll aspirations, falls in love with Delta, while the Doctor tries to prepare the Welsh locals for a mercenary attack from space.

Order the DVDwritten by Malcolm Kohll
directed by Chris Clough
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Don Henderson (Gavrok), Belinda Mayne (Delta), David Kinder (Billy), Sara Griffiths (Ray), Richard Davies (Burton), Stubby Kaye (Weismuller), Morgan Deare (Hawk), Hugh Lloyd (Goronwy), Johnny Dennis (Murray), Anita Graham (Bollit), Ken Dodd (Tollmaster), Leslie Meadows (Adlon), Brian Hibbard (Keillor), Martyn Geraint (Vinny), Clive Condon (Callon), Richard Mitchley (Arrex), Robin Aspland, Keff McCulloch, Justin Myers, Ralph Salmins (The Lorells), Jessica McGough, Amy Osborn (Young Chimeron), Laura Collins, Carley Joseph (Chimeron Princess), Tracy Wilson, Jodie Wilson (Vocalists)

Broadcast from November 2 through 16, 1987

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 24 Doctor Who

Dragonfire

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Mel pay a visit to Svartos, an ice planet with an enormous habitation complex which extends far above the surface. Though it seems innocuous enough on the surface – the TARDIS materializes in a frozen goods store – a chance encounter with Sabalon Glitz, bumbling intergalactic treasure-seeker not-so-extraordinaire quickly leads the Doctor into trouble, and introduces him to Ace, a sarcastic teenager from Earth who inexplicably found herself on Svartos and now works as a waitress. Glitz has obtained a map of the caverns beneath the planet’s surface, where a dragon is rumored to lurk, guarding a priceless treasure. The Doctor agrees to accompany Glitz on his search, more curious about the dragon itself than what it may be guarding. Mel, left behind with Ace, finds herself in very deep trouble when the younger girl runs afoul of the authorities and brings herself to the attention of Kane, an alien who cannot leave the sub-freezing portions of the complex. Little do the Doctor and Glitz realize that the dragon is all that stands between the people of Svartos and Kane’s plans for a bloody reign of terror.

Order the DVDwritten by Ian Briggs
directed by Chris Clough
music by Dominic Glynn

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Tony Selby (Glitz), Edward Peel (Kane), Patricia Quinn (Belazs), Tony Osoba (Kracauer), Stephanie Fayerman (McLuhan), Sean Blowers (Zed), Stuart Organ (Bazin), Nigel Miles-Thomas (Pudovkin), Shirin Taylor (Customer), Miranda Borman (Stellar), Ian Mackenzie (Anderson), Chris MacDonnell (Arnheim), Leslie Meadows (Creature), Daphne Oxenford (Archivist), Lynn Gardner (Announcer)

Broadcast from November 23 through December 7, 1987

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green