Interviews Nathan Sussex by DJ Forrest

You've been in both Coronation Street and Emmerdale, have they been regular roles or just one offs?

Nathan: Coronation Street was a one off role for 2 episodes and in Emmerdale I play the role of PC Colin Brown which is a recurring role.

Your role as Roy in Caerdydd was he a regular character and is Caerdydd to the Welsh equivalent of River City or Eastenders? 

Nathan: ROY in Caerdydd was a one off role and the series was set around a group of twenty   somethings living in Cardiff.

‘Sleep Tracks’ was a little weird can you tell us about that? Although I did like the way the bike operated without the rider, how was that put together without the handlebars veering off in another direction?

Nathan: SLEEP TRACKS was an interesting film and was produced by CYFLE which is a scheme in Wales that works with emerging directors, writers and producers. A lot of the film was made in the studio and the bike scene was done using CGI so that was the magic used in that scene.

In 2007 you played Peter's hand in Summer Scars, was this literally the hand or did you play other parts too? Can you tell us more about the film?

Nathan: Summer Scars was a Horror/Thriller directed by Julian Richards about a group of Teenagers who come across a very dark character in the woods while on their school holidays; it was a very dark film and filmed in Wales.  I was asked to step in because the lead actor wasn’t available for some “Pick up shots” so I was indeed used to play his hand......I was even credited with that privilege.

Torchwood is where I noticed you first, as the desk Sergeant in Small Worlds, looking back through your IMDB credits you've played quite a few service roles, such as police and doctors, are these the roles you prefer to take or are offered more of?

Nathan: I have played many DOCTORS and Emergency service roles, I guess I have that look, they are not my preferred role but they do give you a chance to work on set and learn a lot about your trade.

Can you tell us about Green Man Festival? 

Nathan: I recently worked at the GREEN MAN FESTIVAL for a specially commissioned project for NATIONAL THEATRE WALES which was written and directed by Gerald Tyler. The play took place over the 4 days of the festival with a grand finale on the last day. The piece was titled GREEN MAN/RED WOMAN and featured Father Xmas and his dodgy elves (of which I played one of) and was mostly improvised over the 4 days. We had little script and relied entirely on the GREEN MAN festival goer’s imagination and patience. We were let loose on the public and it was an experience which involved some boozy scenes, all in the name of theatre I might add.

You're currently involved in two new projects: ‘Roleplay’ and ‘Viking: The Berserkers’, can you tell us anything about your roles in these two productions, and will they be released in cinemas or straight to DVD films?

Nathan: ROLEPLAY is a short film directed by Brynach Day who is an emerging director and was offered a BAFTA Scholarship in the states; he is a Welsh director with roots in Pembrokeshire where the film was set. The film is a coming of age story about a brother and sister but was quite controversial as it involved sexual scenes with youngsters; it was a very sensitive piece and one which was handled very delicately and professionally. The film is doing the rounds on the festival circuit. In it, I play the role of Ethan who is the boyfriend of the mother in the film.

The Berserkers was a feature I made last year and was shot on location in Port Talbot it was my second time working with the company as they had received funding to make Viking films and tapped into the Game of Thrones/Hunger Games market. I played the role of HROK who is a Berserker and  there was no dialogue for the berserkers in the film so it relied a lot on physicalisation to bring the characters to life, we all each had a different  character trait which I hope makes us recognisable in the film. It was made for DVD and has done very well in the DVD charts to date.

I'm completely out of touch with Emmerdale these days; you appeared in an episode on 4th November 2013 as a police officer.  Was this a big role, played over more than one episode and who were you after?

Nathan: In my first appearance in EMMERDALE I was playing my recurring character PC COLIN BROWN and my episode was looking for a little boy who had gone missing and I was the regular character ALICIA who was related to the boy.

Whenever I'm looking through the cast lists for various shows on IMDB there is always a link back to Torchwood, or some link with another cast member within Torchwood.  For example, Belonging links quite a few cast members, and so does Baker Boys.  Do you always find when you work with someone in one show that it feels like a reunion when you meet up again in another production perhaps a few years later?

Nathan: Being a Welsh actor and getting the chance to work on few productions in Wales does mean that I get to work with different friends/colleagues all the time, it’s a very small community in Wales so everyone pops up playing a different character in various shows plus it’s a nice way of catching up with people i haven’t seen in a while.

Although the role of Desk Sergeant was only a few scenes were there any funny moments on set that you can remember?

Nathan: I can’t recall any funny moments on set in Torchwood as we were on a tight schedule and I was trying to stay as focused as possible but the main cast were in good spirits and I do remember John Barrowman singing show tunes in between takes which was very entertaining

What building did they use for the police station and police cells in Torchwood?

Nathan: We filmed all our scenes in a real police station in Roath, Cardiff which still has the original Victorian police cells it was very atmospheric.

In some programmes, actors tend to shadow the people they portray such as medical teams, police etc, did you have to shadow a police officer in order to play the desk sergeant or had you seen enough dramas to know how to portray the character?

Nathan: I didn’t shadow anybody for the custody sergeant role, I tend to do a little bit of research but usually there are ex police on set to give guidance so it’s more accurate.

Have you ever been involved in film making as in working behind the camera as oppose to in front of it?

Nathan:  I haven’t made any films although I have thought about making a short but at the moment I prefer to stay in front of the camera.

Have you appeared on stage in any productions?

Nathan: I have appeared in many theatre productions in Cardiff, mostly fringe productions.

How did you become an actor, was this something you always wanted to be or did you become an actor later on in life, and not as a child?

Nathan: Acting is something I have always wanted to do since I could remember. However, it wasn’t until I was 21 that I decided to do something about it and auditioned for a couple of drama schools in London, I finally got accepted into one so grabbed the opportunity and went for it.

Other than acting what other jobs have you had to support yourself through periods of resting?

Nathan: I have a very illustrious temping career with jobs including CALL CENTRE, FINGERPRINT BUREAU FOR SCENES OF CRIME (which was probably the most exciting temping job) and various admin jobs. It’s a needs must thing and sadly very much the case for thousands of jobbing actors but it keeps you very grounded and in my case even more determined to keep going.

Were you following in the footsteps of family to become an actor, or were you inspired by someone in the media to become an actor?

Nathan: I am the first person in my family to pursue an acting career so I have no idea where I get it from although I suspect it’s my dad who used to enjoy performing when a young boy. I can’t say anybody really inspired me to act as it was something I couldn’t stop thinking about when I was a child but I do have actors that I look up to and aspire to.  I suppose my hero in life is the fantastic Anthony Hopkins and being a  fellow Welshman makes it all the more humbling.

Thank you for a great interview Nathan.

Profiles Pvt. Thomas Reginald Brockless

Species:  Human

Episode appeared in: To The Last Man

Played by: Anthony Lewis

“Take me, I’m in the ward in 1918, you have to take me so I can be 
here now.  Just take me!”

Private Thomas ‘Tommy’ Reginald Brockless, born 7^th February 1894 in Bracken, Manchester, served with the 10^th West Yorkshire Regiment.  He was the only son of Constance May Bassett who died in 1900 and Thomas Campbell Brockless who died aged 57 of a heart attack in June 1931.

Tommy was 24 years of age when he was taken by Torchwood officers Harriet Derbyshire and Gerald Kneale from St Teilo’s Military hospital in Butetown, where he was suffering shell shock, and brought to Torchwood Hub and frozen until he was needed.  Although the officers were unable to ascertain when that time might be, due to the level of ‘ghosts’ appearing in the hospital in 1918, Tommy was defrosted every year to be sure he still worked in order to prevent the collapse of the universe caused by the time shift which was allowing portions of 1918 to enter into present day. 

Details surrounding Tommy Brockless and the time shift were stored in a rusted metal tin with an inscription reading ‘Eyes Only documents FAO Torchwood Commander Overseeing case 1918 TB.’ A temporal lock on the tin prevented the documents from being read at any other time.  When the time shift was activated, the tin unlocked and a white envelope with a sealed Torchwood stamp on the back held a letter containing details that told Captain Jack Harkness what he must do to prepare Tommy for his return to 1918, the documents also included a hand drawn portrait of Toshiko Sato. 

In the matter of 24 hours Tommy shared his feelings for Toshiko.  “I’d do anything for you.”  He tells her over a drink in a pub.  They share the night together before Toshiko knows they have to return to the hospital and part company.  Tommy takes a Rift Key back into the ward when he steps into 1918, St Teilo’s hospital but as soon as he returns, his mind resets to the nervous soldier suffering from shell shock and he forgets what he has to do with the Key.  Owen decides to use Jack as a psychic projection in order to locate Tommy and get him to use the key but Toshiko volunteers.  She manages to reach Tommy and encourages him to use the Rift Key..  He does and the time shift closes in 1918 and Tommy saves the world.

Three weeks after Torchwood sent Tommy back to 1918 the British Army executed him by firing squad along with more than 300 other soldiers for cowardice. 

In 2006 Pvt. Reginald ‘Tommy’ Brockless was posthumously pardoned.

Resources:

©BBC Torchwood 2006

To The Last Man episode

Torchwood Definitive Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

ISBN 978-1-846-07764-7

  

Reviews To The Last Man by DJ Forrest

Written by Helen Raynor

Directed by Andy Goddard

Broadcast 30^th January 2008

In the usual complicated way that Torchwood and Who writers tell a story, such as the story of Captain Jack Harkness, this is a story of Thomas Brockless a man brought from 1918 to the present in order to be used to save the universe from impending doom at some point in the future.  The story also tells of Toshiko’s love for the defrosted soldier and how deeply emotional the final few scenes were when they had to say goodbye.

Friday the 20^th was circled as the day of the thawing out of Pvt. Tommy Brockless yet it puzzled me as to why they hadn’t stated which month this was, although given the level of stories from the tie in novels, I suppose giving a month threw it a little for the writers.  So I decided for my own piece of mind, as after an extensive search of the internet for matching Japanese art calendars drew a blank that the only other option was to find out when the episode was originally filmed and count back.  So I did.  And I’m satisfied enough that I have the correct date for the episode.  The episode itself was broadcast on the 30^th January 2008, but the actual filming was 9^th May 2007, coincidentally the same day as much of the filming for ‘Adam’ was done.  So if anyone on the set owned a Japanese calendar, given that not many people tend to keep back used calendars, then the only other possible month available for Friday the 20^th was April 2007, 19 days earlier, as it happens. 

There is also a continuity flaw with this episode that was blindingly obvious and I’m surprised nobody noticed before editing, or perhaps it was but it was too late to do anything about it and they hoped nobody would notice.  Sorry guys!  It was the scene where Tommy chases Toshiko along the Penarth pier and she drops her shoulder bag, but in the next scene which is when Tommy grabs her and lifts her off the ground, she’s suddenly got the bag back around her shoulder, yet there’s no way she would have had time to pick it up and do that. 

The story itself is centred round Toshiko Sato and Tommy Brockless.  For Toshiko this was the highlight of her year, for when she wasn’t trying to gain some kind of recognition from Dr. Owen Harper, she was choosing what outfit to wear for the thawing out of British soldier Pvt. Tommy Reginald Brockless.  And given her track record for relationships, this one wasn’t going to be putting the world in danger....oh wait....hang on, maybe.

Tommy was brought from the past in order to save the future and each year when he’s defrosted he learns something from that time, such as when the war to end all wars ended, when the next one started and so on.  He learned also about fashion especially the women’s so when the mini skirts became fashion, he obviously enjoyed that period a lot!

Towards the end of the episode it did make you think how you would react, either as Toshiko or as Tommy.  For Toshiko had fallen in love with Tommy and although in years past he would return to the chiller for another 12 months, this time he would cross the threshold and never return, he could never write her a letter and they would never ever meet up again. 

For Tommy, the thought of returning to 1918, back to the hospital, knowing that the recent memories would return him back to the shell shocked soldier, (try saying that with a mouthful of marbles) destined to return to France and the trenches must have been terrifying.  You could sympathise with his reasons for not wishing to return, but there was a double whammy, he had to go back, because if he didn’t, the chain reaction of the time shift would mean more of the past would erupt into the present and it would never stop. 

The scene in the Radiology room of St Teilo’s hospital for me was possibly the saddest part of the story, as I put myself in Tommy’s shoes, a terrified young man desperate to remain in the present, where he could start a life with Toshiko. 

But what if Torchwood couldn’t return to 1918 using the psychic projection, what if once Brockless had crossed the threshold that was it?  Could they really stand to lose Captain Jack Harkness who was intending to return to the hospital if Owen hadn’t have stopped him, and who might have been one of those soldiers who were shot for cowardice during that time? He certainly showed levels of disgust and emotion during the time he spoke with Toshiko about the contents of the instructions that Torchwood 1918 had left. 

Even in the hospital ward with Gwen, Jack held deep feelings about the War, and we’re aware of his conman days, so there were levels of time within both wars, that Jack was a part of, as we remember the conversation on Malcassairo in ‘Utopia’ with the Doctor. ‘World War One, World War Two....’ so was Jack a soldier then? Or had he been in love with a soldier who had faced one of Haig’s firing squad?  I guess we’ll never know.

I can think of no greater madness than to run across No Man’s Land where you’re cut down by gunfire from the opposing side, I don’t blame anyone who wanted to turn tail and run away from that.

Tommy, despite using the Rift Key, recovered enough to be sent back to France, to the front line, where sadly he suffered from shell shock again and was shot by firing squad.  Although it wasn’t stated in the episode, it is written in the Torchwood Encyclopedia that Pvt Thomas Reginald Brockless was posthumously pardoned in 2006, which prompted me to look into this a little further.

During the Great War, 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers suffered from shell shock and were shot by firing squad.  Britain was apparently one of the last countries to still label soldiers suffering from shell shock as cowards.  John Major back in 1993 had emphasised in the House of Commons that to pardon the soldiers would be an insult to those who had died honourably on the battlefield. 

In 2007, the Armed Forces Act 2006 was passed.  It allowed soldiers to be pardoned posthumously although in section 359 (4) it states that the pardon “does not affect any conviction or sentence.” 

By coincidence we reviewed this episode in November, and in light of Remembrance Day, we will always remember those who lost their lives, not just from the enemy but from their own side.

We will never forget.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_at_Dawn_Memorial

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Act_2006#Pardon

©BBC Torchwood 2006

Torchwood The Encyclopedia ISBN 978-1-846-07764-7

The Definitive Guide by Gary Russell

Cover art by Nikki Forrest

Expo & Cons Cardiff Film and Comic Con 2014 by Louise Neale and Melanie Peake

Cardiff Film and Comic Con is an event where comic and movie fans alike can come together and show off their creativity through the very popular art of Cosplay. 

This event was both mine (Louise Neale) and Melanie Peake’s first Comic Con event.  We have done various Cosplay events in the past and hope to do many more in the future.  From our experience of this year’s event, we had a lot of fun shooting videos, mingling with the stars, having our photo’s taken and hanging out with fellow Cosplayers. 

We appeared in the papers and were filmed for a BBC3 documentary following a disabled student who shared our love of Cosplay and enjoys Cosplaying as Batman. 

We arrived bright and early on Saturday the 8^th November where we transformed into one of our many alter egos.  We attended this event in order to promote Paul Mohamed’s stall Heroes, Aliens and Monsters.  We have attended many events where we have had the opportunity to promote many businesses as the one above and hope to continue doing the same in the future. 

Once transformed in to our alter ego’s we made our way into the crowd to entertain and join group photographs.  Throughout the day we took part in short film sequences where we were asked to act out some fight scenes as our characters.  We also took part in radio and short video interviews as our characters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1oOlQ5xXNc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=553Z5mEAUy8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ExLgiGmUIo

Throughout the day we were asked by members of the public to have photos with them and also by some of the celebrities at the event who appreciated our costumes.

From attending this event we have been asked to participate in further events and have been booked into many events next year.  We even hope to travel to the San Diego Comic Con in July next year which we are currently looking in to.

We have met so many great people at the events that we do and have made many friends and contacts and hope to gain more through future events. 

If you would like to follow our cosplay adventures please visit us at:

https://www.facebook.com/ViciousDeliciousCosplay?ref=hl

Beyond the TARDIS Not Another Happy Ending by DJ Forrest

Writer David Solomons

Director Ian McKay

Released 30 June 2013 (Edinburgh Film Festival)

11^th October 2013 UK

8^th August 2014 US

Having already seen Karen Gillan’s performance as Jean Shrimpton in ‘We’ll Take Manhattan’ written and directed by Ian McKay, and already a fan of Amy Pond in Doctor Who, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed by Gillan’s performance in ‘Not Another Happy Ending’.  Filmed mostly in Glasgow, plus a few surprisingly familiar local areas to me, I settled down to watch the film.  One thing I can say about this film, is that it’s bright and colourful, and even when Gillan’s character Jane Lockhart is going through a bout of writer’s block, everything is still brightly coloured, unlike the usual run of the mill Scottish films that show a starker, bleaker outlook on the city.  So this was a total breath of fresh air. 

The story is a romantic comedy about a writer Jane Lockhart played by Karen Gillan who develops writers block as she can’t write when she’s happy, and a publisher Tom Duvall played by Stanley Weber who has to invent ways of keeping her unhappy so that she will finish the book.  But the more he tries to make her unhappy, the more he finds he can’t get her out of his head and ultimately falls in love with her, but it’s not all plain sailing, love never is – apparently! 

Tom Duvall has another reason for pushing Lockhart to finish the novel.  Jane is his only client and he needs her in order to not become bankrupt.  But Jane, disliking the way that Tom operates, and he does come across as a very arrogant Frenchman decides that she would be better off with a more reputable publishing firm. 

Desperate in a way to put a wedge between her and Duvall, Lockhart writes the final chapter and destroys the one character in the story who meant anything to her, and that’s where it starts becoming an all too familiar picture for me.  I’ve been in exactly the same situation as Lockhart and felt the wrath of the character as I conveniently threw a curve ball, in other words, you do something so completely different to how that character should react, just so you can end that chapter. Bad idea.

Enter Darsie.  Now this in itself is when I got excited as I whooped at the screen, much to the annoyance of others watching the film with me.  I should really watch films on my own!

Darsie is the character that Lockhart creates in the novel.  She is only seen by the writer and because of that it’s often mind blowing when they’re having a conversation, or sharing chocolate.  I’ve never shared chocolate with my character, perhaps I should start that!

I could see myself a lot in the times when Lockhart spoke with her fictitious character Darsie.  It’s that moment that you know you’re on a level par with your character, when they’re that real you could almost touch them and feel their physical presence. 

But why I whooped is that the character is played by Amy Manson, and being the geek that I am and knowing in a way I should really have classed this as a Connection rather than a Beyond the TARDIS review, Amy Manson played Alice Guppy in Torchwood – ‘Fragments’. 

The film was partly funded through a crowd funding project on Indiegogo website, and raised over $22,000.  I remember reading about it in the local newspaper as a few scenes were filmed around Moffat area, as Gillan was reported to have stayed in one of the local hotels in the town.  I’m not sure if they were looking for Extra’s too for the film or whether they were only looking for funding. 

So of course during the portion of the film where Jane Lockhart fled Glasgow for some quiet time in an empty cottage in the middle of nowhere, the location looked awfully familiar, so familiar that it took another family member to have me pause the film and go frame by frame to see if he recognised the buildings in the background.  (So if you’re reading this Ian McKay I’d really love to know whereabouts in Dumfries & Galloway you filmed the white cottage).

The film is available on Netflix but I’d like to own it on DVD as I’d like my own personal copy.  It’s a wonderful, light-hearted comedy with down to earth characters including Gary Lewis who plays Jane’s Dad Benny.  I have to say I didn’t like Henry Ian Cusick’s character Willie Scott, but then I think you weren’t meant to like him much really.

If you’re tired of the ‘shoot em up’ films or the sci fi and just want an afternoon film which is light viewing and doesn’t require too much of a CSI whodunit kind of story, then watch ‘Not Another Happy Ending’ you won’t be disappointed.  I wasn’t.

Who Reviews The Sun Makers by Tony J Fyler

Written by Robert Holmes

There can be little doubt that Robert Holmes was one of the great writers of the Classic era of Doctor Who. Some people would even argue that he was the great writer of the Classic era. When Holmes got a bee in his bonnet, it would almost invariably result in satire, liberally soaked with lemon juice and not a little vitriol.

The Sun Makers is a thing of satirical beauty, inspired by Holmes’s running foul of the Inland Revenue and that most invidious of social necessities – the system of taxation. Beauty, wit, deliciously waspish humour, but never let it be said that The Sun Makers is a thing in which subtlety or multiplicity of viewpoint ever raise their grubby storytelling heads. No, right from the outset, the world in which the story will unfold is laid before the viewer in primary colours and broad strokes. In the future, on Pluto, the workforce is held down by an oppressive, ever-changing, ever-increasing tax regime, with local tax gatherers living like kings off the sweat of the labouring classes, and the Collector at the heart of the system, rigging it towards profits for his ‘company’ at the expense of every human decency. The first scene paints the whole world for us – Citizen Cordo, a D-grade worker, has been working double-shifts to raise the death taxes to allow his father a decent funeral, only to find when he presents the money that an unexpected tax hike means he will be trapped in a debt-spiral for the rest of his increasingly miserable life. There is no way out of the spiral, so he determines to kill himself and let the taxes be someone else’s problem.

The Doctor, Leela and K9 arrive just in time to stop him jumping off something high. In case the lack of subtlety hasn’t sunk in by this point, the Doctor explains taxes to Leela, who asks if it’s ‘like making sacrifices to tribal gods?’ ‘Similar,’ says the Doctor, ‘only paying taxes is more painful.’ Using Leela’s savage background to mercilessly drive home the point, Holmes has her declare that in that case, the oppressed should rise up and slaughter their oppressors – very Citizen Smith, ‘Come the day of the Revolution’ stuff. But of course in Doctor Who, the revolution is usually only four episodes away, and with the Doctor’s usual conviction that some things in the universe ‘must be fought,’ it’s not long before he, Leela and Cordo are meeting the underclass who have opted out of society. Sadly, this is no Robin Hood and his Merry Men – rather it’s Misanthopic Mandrel and his Cut-Throat Killers, planning a kind of less sophisticated Ocean’s 11 operation to swindle ‘the Company’ out of millions of credits. Holmes is, to be fair to him, just as savage in his appraisal of the outsiders as he is in his spearing of the people happy to operate the mechanisms by which the noses of the citizens are ground into the dirt. More by virtue of being a stranger, and a potentially untraceable criminal – and even more because the Merry Men threaten to kill Leela if he doesn’t agree – the Doctor is roped into trying to obtain the fraudulent credits through the fairly simple mechanism of asking for them with an ATM card (Bear in mind, this was futuristic technology when The Sun Makers aired in 1977. Yes, really, my young padawan). The attempt fails and far from simply swallowing his card, the ATM envelops the Doctor in nerve gas, knocking him unconscious. (Don’t tell me the Royal bank of Scotland wouldn’t try that if it thought it could get away with it…)

From the moment of the failed fraud, the Doctor is a figure of opposition to the Gatherers and the Collector – in fact to the whole operation of the sun makers (Rather oddly, the name of the story comes from the barely significant but still satirical fact that ‘the Company’ are the firm who have installed miniature suns in orbit around Pluto, allowing it to sustain life after the original sun goes supernova. The idea of being taxed for sunlight is Holmes going just about as far as can be imagined in the satirical vein, but as a concept, it’s barely mentioned enough to be significant throughout the story). There’s a good deal of running about – Leela, having defended herself against imminent throat-cutting, goes to rescue the Doctor from a detention centre where he has been taken, post-gassing. He’s already escaped, naturally, but she frees his detention-mate Bisham, and the two, reuniting with Cordo and the gang, begin the revolution almost by accident as they try to escape. Bisham is useful in that he knows how order is maintained on Pluto – by means of a gas in the ventilation system (Holmes perhaps inspiring Terry Nation there, with a pacified populace going on to feature strongly in the control methods of the Federation in Blake’s 7). Knocking that out allows the oppressed to wake up (as if from a fog of X-Factor complacency and iPhone serenity) and realise they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore, and the revolution gathers pace to its inevitable, bloody conclusion, with Gatherer Hade – the scumbag du jour played with relish by Richard Leech as an example of all that’s wrong with a system where taxes are more important than liberties and where mediocrity rises to prominence and power (think George Osborne or Ed Miliband, depending on your political preference, and then add a stupid hat) – eventually being thrown, in a delicious moment of full circle ‘natural’ justice – off something very high by a band of revolting citizens. Then all that’s left is for the Doctor to Do Something Clever – which he does, introducing a hyperinflation loop into the Collector’s computer projections. The shock of spiralling, uncontrollable, inflation forces the Usurian (Yes, really. He’s a Usurian, from the planet Usurius, running a planet based on usury – I did say it wasn’t the most subtle of satires) to revert to his natural fungal form, where the Doctor traps him, allowing Pluto to break free of the grip of the sun makers. How it will fare in the grip of rampaging mobs of anarchists is a question Holmes refrains from answering, as the Doctor and Leela slip away quietly during the looting.

The Sun Makers, as we’ve said, is not a subtle thing. It’s a sledgehammer satire on what happens when, to quote the Doctor, there are ‘too many economists in the government’ – it should be noted that for all the inferences that the sun makers are a private enterprise, the Usurian Collector had bushy eyebrows that have been notably compared to those of the Labour then-Chancellor, Dennis Healey, and certainly it is by no means a privilege of the left, or the poor, to complain about high taxation, so while being at the time a distinctly political rant in four episodes, The Sun Makers is broad enough to be enjoyed at any time, by any viewer. What’s more, it’s Holmes on fire, with director Pennant Roberts matching the vision of oppression with a kind of almost stale, life-drained look to the piece. Roberts and Holmes were also Louise Jameson’s dream team and both Leela and K9 get plenty of chances to shine in The Sun Makers, adding life and spark and comedy to a story that could easily have become a tedious lecture. Both Richard Leech as Gatherer Hade and more remarkably Henry Woolf as the despicable Collector, turn in performances that help make an essentially hilarious idea seem more grittily serious than you might imagine, and guest stars including Michael Keating before he was Vila (again, evidence of a thread between The Sun Makers and Blake’s 7) help bring the piece to life in a way that would for instance have been sorely needed after the downbeat scare-fest of the previous story, Image of the Fendahl, and which would be rather lacking in The Underworld, the week after The Sun Makers finished.

While it’s unlikely to appear on many people’s Top Ten lists, The Sun Makers is still, watched some 37 years later, eminently enjoyable, satirical dark chocolate fun science fiction. Stick it in your DVD player today and fight the power!

Who Reviews The Invasion by Tony J Fyler

Written by Derrick Sherwin,

From a Kit Pedlar story

In the fifty-one years of Doctor Who history, there is no shortage of iconic imagery and scenes:

The Dalek emerges from the river Thames; the Cybermen emerge from their gigantic tombs on Telos; the giant maggots writhe; the Sea Devils rise out of the water; ‘Do I have the right?’; the suave aristocrat pulls his own face off to reveal a hideous tentacle-covered face beneath; the Cybermen burst out of their tubes and start to march; the Dalek floats effortlessly upstairs in pursuit of the Doctor – and so on. There are plenty more, but the one that comes first to mind for fans and non-fans alike is the monstrous, unstoppable march of a Cyber-army down the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. There’s a very palpable shudder in that imagery that catches the viewer so viscerally – the alien, here at home – that it has lived in the pop culture memory almost up there with the other handful of things non-fans have always known about the show – Tardis, police box, Daleks, exterminate. It’s a scene so iconic it was always ripe for a re-do, as was proven in the Series 8 finale.

But so famous is the scene, it’s in danger of being the only thing people remember about The Invasion.

So given its recent head-nod in the post-millennial show, let’s take another look at The Invasion, and see whether its whole extends much beyond that single landmark scene.

First, let’s make one sad admission: when viewed with a cold, objective eye, The Invasion is at least a couple of episodes too long. Cyber-creator Kit Pedler had originally submitted an idea for a four-part story, but Production Team concerns about the generally late delivery of scripts at the time mandated that it be stretched to a mammoth eight episodes. And viewed as a whole story, the hyper-inflation shows. There’s a lot of semi-farcical toing and froing with the Doctor and Jamie looking for Zoe and Isobel Watkins, and vice versa. There’s a fairly pointless journey from the factory setting of the beginning to the central London location so crucial for delivering the St Paul’s scene. And there are a lot of almost-captures and cunning escapes. It all amounts to little more than a rather more grown-up, and crucially therefore rather more believable take on the ‘running down corridors’ that habitually used to pad out the middles of stories which made only tangential sense at best.

But before all that, we’re already drawn in by a couple of elements – arriving in the countryside and with a mind to visit Professor Travers of Yeti-fiddling fame, the Tardis crew are given a lift by a lorry driver, who tells them about the nefarious activities of International Electromatics (or IE), the world’s leading technology supplier. Practically on screen, though once the Tardis travellers have left him, the lorry driver is then shot dead by black-suited IE security staff. It all makes for a claustrophobic, Orwellian hook, and we feel ourselves almost in unfamiliar territory for Doctor Who – traditionally, all the bad things happen out in space and time, or back in our own more barbarous history. The War Machines and the Web of Fear were at the time relatively lonely examples of bad things happening in our contemporary world, and something of a betrayal of the point – the show’s unique selling point was that it could go anywhere; to have the monsters be here on Earth was flouting the point of having a Tardis. It also had a harder, more potentially disturbing edge for an audience of children, some of whom would be playing on the streets of London. The idea wasn’t to actually traumatise them – was it?

The Invasion takes us immediately into that territory where nothing is certain about the cosy world beyond our sofa. Derek Sherwin and Peter Bryant had an idea to turn the show on its head – to re-format it as a principally Earth-based serial, like the Quatermass shows, and The Invasion was eight weeks of trial for the concept. With Patrick Troughton already scheduled to leave at the end of the season, it was hoped The Invasion could put the building blocks in place to bring Doctor Who down to Earth.

The building blocks largely consisted of UNIT, which appears here in its first fully-fledged adventure, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart firmly in place at its head and Sergeant Benton credited for the first time, but right in the first episode, that assassination of the lorry driver pushes home the new tone – realistic threat, here and now, and how it could possibly be dealt with are the hallmarks of The Invasion.

It’s important to remember that this is not ‘Invasion of the Cybermen’ – the Cybermen were due to be a mid-serial reveal in the days when such things were still possible. If, however, you’re going to make that work, you need a solid secondary threat to get you invested in the drama.

Step forward Kevin Stoney and Peter Halliday (both of whom would go on to be Who stalwarts), as Tobias Vaughan, the megalomaniac genius who owns IE, and Packer, his brutally sadistic – but thankfully hapless – henchman. Stoney had already turned in an epic performance as arch-traitor Mavic Chen in The Daleks’ Masterplan, but here he delivers something more weighty and menacing. He’s avuncular, suave, and even charming – as long as everybody does exactly what he tells them to. But Stoney’s performance bristles with an intensity that makes you not only believe he could have a world-spanning business empire, but also that he’d have the planet-sized cojones to make contact with the Cybermen in space, and offer them the planet, so long as he gets to rule it. This is the crucial point about Vaughan – he’s more equal to the Cybermen than any stooge before or since (until, possibly, the arrival of Missy). He hasn’t been elevated above his capacities by Cyber-technology, he is the prime mover of their invasion plan. And as you might expect from someone with that sort of chutzpah, he’s working on a way of controlling them if and when they decide he’s expendable – he’s getting Professor Watkins, Isobel’s uncle and friend of Professor Travers, to build him a machine that can, under the right circumstances, induce emotions in the Cybermen. It can ‘blow them up with love’ in fact – or at least, send them screaming mad with fear.

Stoney’s performance is such that he could be quite frightening, were he not undercut – and so he is, here, by Halliday’s Packer, who seems to have been hired through the same Incompetent-Henchmen R Us agency to which most 60s Bond-villains resorted. He’s clearly a degenerate sadist, but the fact that he’s so utterly useless in terms of actually running security turns the fear of him into a kind of playground game, the bully rendered almost-sobbing coward when his plans go awry.

As the Doctor and his friends faff about, challenging Vaughan, evading Packer, and giving nervous breakdowns to robot receptionists (be honest, you would if you could), they encounter the Brig and the Boys, who are already watching IE’s activities, but have no cause to storm the gates of the place. Meanwhile, Vaughan is laying down the law to the as-yet unnamed invaders, in perhaps the biggest game of ‘I’ll take my ball and go home’ ever played in Doctor Who history.

But it’s when the first Cyberman is ‘born’ on Earth that the story stops being about Vaughan, and starts being properly about the invasion. Incidentally, of all the Cyber-emergences over the years, this one is easily the creepiest – they’re born out of flexible, pulsating, very organic-looking ‘wombs’ (Womb of the Cybermen?) rather than the more clinical tubes of the 80s. It’s also likely to have been as much of a shock in context as the revelation of Cyber-involvement at the end of Episode 1 of Earthshock was. Once they’re in the story, it’s as though the big green ‘Go’ button that everyone has been avoiding for the past few episodes is well and truly pushed and the storytelling becomes far simpler – there are Cybermen in the sewers, and an enormous Cyber-fleet in orbit. Game on!

Once the Cybermen are revealed, defeating them becomes the business of the day and things get high-octane – the St Paul’s march beginning a full-on street battle with UNIT troops. And when they find themselves hopelessly outgunned and out-bombed against the invasion fleet, all the UNIT expertise in the world is no match for Zoe’s brain – she instantly calculates a way to set off a chain reaction of explosions in the fleet, and they are wiped out of the sky with little ceremony, the outer space threat never quite mustering the same oomph as the street-battle (proving Sherwin’s theory that bringing the danger onto our streets was an effective way for the show to go). For a story that spends several episodes in languor, The Invasion then comes to an end of unseemly haste – no sooner has the fleet exploded than the Tardis crew are being escorted to their vehicle and leaving.

So what is left of The Invasion? Ultimately, the best bits – the waking Cybermen, the staunch Brigadier and his UNIT, the street battle, Kevin Stoney’s superb performance as Vaughan. The Invasion will always be, at its heart, Kit Pedler’s four-part idea stretched over eight episodes, and is probably better remembered than watched through, better dipped into as clips for the starkness of its images, and for the proof of a concept that would go on to define the Pertwee era – terror on the home front, with help given by the Doctor, but the strength and resolve of human beings standing up to the threat and winning through. In those two elements – its imagery and its core concepts - The Invasion is fresh and brilliant to this day, unmatched, quite, by anything that followed in its silver-plated footsteps, up to and including Death In Heaven.

Who Reviews The Five Doctors by Jeffrey Zyra

Written by Terrance Dicks

“I am being diminished. Whittled away, piece by piece. A man is the sum of his memories, you know. A Time Lord even more so.”

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are actually enjoying some down time and doing things that are restful.  Turlough is painting and The Doctor is remolding the control console of The TARDIS and Tegan well she is doing something.   While this is all happening someone is taking the Doctor’s past lives out of time. The 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th Doctor have all been scooped up by the time scoop and put into the Death Zone on Gallifrey. That is except the 4^th Doctor as he seemed to have gotten stuck and is trapped in the time vortex in a time eddy and not on Gallifrey at all. 

There also appears to be old friends and enemies inside the Death Zone also as Susan, Sarah Jane and The Brigadier are there also.  The Time Lords sense there is something wrong as they cannot find The Doctor at all.  They end up offering a deal to The Master to go into the Death Zone and rescue The Doctor.   The Master eventually agrees and heads off into the zone and is instantly scorned for his efforts and allies himself with the Cybermen who are also in the Death Zone to cause havoc and confusion. 

What they do not know is that President Borussa trapped them there and is after the ultimate prize in which The Doctor unwittingly discovers for him.  He is after immortality and in order to gain it you must play and win the game of Rassilon.   So it is up to four Doctors to find a way home and to stop Borussa from gaining immortality.

I love The Five Doctors.  Always have ever since I saw it for the first time on November 23^rd, 1983.   What is a little known fact is that the United States actually got to see The Five Doctors before the UK did.  John Nathan – Turner held it for the weekend so it would air during Children In Need instead of airing it on the anniversary day which was a Wednesday and that just happened to be the day us Americans saw it on our local PBS stations.  So that is one for us to see it before the UK.

Unlike The Three Doctors which was part of season 10 and was a 4 part serial The Five Doctors was a 90 minute special that aired between season 20 and 21.  As anniversary stories go this is a fanboys dream as it was loaded with lots of appearances of characters from the past.  While The Three Doctors was a UNIT story and just had the past Doctor’s return each Doctor in The Five Doctors had a companion with them that made this story even more special.   The Five Doctors was a celebration story plain and simple building off of the fans nostalgia of yesteryear and creating the multi Doctor story phenomenon.

I really loved seeing all the past Doctor’s again in this story.  What is funny is that The Five Doctors is the first non Tom Baker story ever and my first exposure to the other Doctor’s.   It was a real thrill to be able to see the other Doctor’s as my PBS station was doing the Tom Baker thing so this story was even more exciting for me back in 1983.   It was a big thrill and it would have been even better if Tom Baker had decided to participate.

The first Doctor was played by William Hurndall who stood in for William Hartnell who had passed on in the Seventies.  He was a decent 1^st Doctor but he was no replacement as William Hartnell had a certain style.  I do give them credit for doing it though as it was a bold move to have someone else play the 1^st Doctor.  But in reality it just wasn’t the same and they did pay tribute to him by playing The Dalek Invasion of Earth closing clip of him saying his farewell to Susan.

I loved seeing The Master’s involvement in this story even if it seemed weird that the Time Lords were able to summon him so easily and the fact he showed up and not thinking he would be imprisoned.  If they could summon him so easily don’t you think they could have captured him at any time?  It was also good to see a Dalek and The Cybermen also as those two enemies have been stalwarts through Doctor Who’s history. 

The Five Doctors is the last story that Terrance Dicks would write for Doctor Who on TV.  He has written some books but this is his last televised adventure and he leaves the series in grand style giving us a really magnificent anniversary story.   

The Five Doctors was the biggest fanboy and fangirl story of its time and yes there have been other great fanwank stories but this one paved the way.  It is a fun story to watch and there is something for everyone.  A lot of Doctor Who history crammed into 90 minutes and the story doesn’t even suffer at all from all the appearances.   This is one of my favorite stories and one that I have seen over and over again as it is just really fun to watch.

Grade A

Who Reviews State of Decay by Jeffrey Zyra

Written by Terrance Dicks

“Hence it is the directive of Rassilon that any Time Lord who comes upon this enemy of our people and of all living things, shall use all his efforts to destroy him, even at the cost of his own life.”

Still trapped in E- Space the TARDIS materializes on an unknown planet that seems to be like medieval times back on Earth.  There on the planet the local villagers fear The Three Who Rule.  The Three Who Rule has banned all technology and all learning and anyone caught doing it will be put to death.  The villagers are also in fear of their sons being picked in the selection and sent to the castle where they are sacrificed and drained of blood to feed the Three Who Rule but more importantly the Great Vampire living below the castle.

The Doctor tells Romana that it is the responsibility of every Time Lord to destroy vampires but more importantly The Great Vampire.  The only way to kill the Great One is with a bowship and there are none around.  With the help of the villagers and some ingenuity to use the castle as a bowship it is up to The Doctor to save Romana and Adric from the vampires and to destroy the ancient enemy of Rassilon and the Time Lords, the Great Vampire once and for all.

Edward and Bella, Sookie and Bill and other sappy vampire couples are second rate compared to Zargo and Camilla.  Zargo and Camilla along with Aukon is Doctor Who’s one true vampire couple. Long before the Matt Smith story “The Vampires of Venice” this classic story by long time Who scribe and fan favorite Terrance Dicks actually boasts human vampires and a really cool castle.

The State of Decay is the second part of The E- Space Trilogy and heralded by some to be the best story of the three.  I tend to agree.  Some may say that State of Decay is downright scary and has a creepy feel to it.  For example when Romana cuts her finger while clanking glasses with The Doctor the look on Camilla’s face is downright creepy as you know she wants to suck up that blood. The atmosphere of this episode really makes it one of those stories that you tend to remember long after watching it.

It is also a very interesting story in the fact that Terrance Dicks delves us into more Timelord history and their involvement in a war with the Great Vampire.  Yes it seems the Time Lords were a warmonger race well before they fought in the Time War.   But it is also great to see the Doctor scared as he is reading the history of the Time Lords involvement with the vampires that you tend to get scared yourself.  It is just a classic scene finding out more about the history of the Time Lords.  Imagine how the Doctor must feel like knowing it is his solemn duty as a Time Lord to eradicate the universe of vampires and he happens upon the king of all vampires who happens to be feeding off an IV of blood that Arkon has gathered from sacrificing the villagers.

My fond recollection of watching this story is mainly that the Doctor is fighting vampires and a return to the gothic feel Tom Bakers earlier stories had.  A group of three vampires that is in a word very odd and very scary.  One hell bent on terrorizing the villagers and the other two who seem to be living an extremely bizarre love life.  Plus it also has a great story of the villagers rising up against their oppressors and winning their freedom.  That formula was a staple of most Doctor Who stories but mainly from the Jon Pertwee era where Terrance Dicks did most of his writing for the show but it was good to see that in a Tom Baker story.

Doctor Who didn’t do vampires very often if at all and when they did way back in 1980 with a story Terrance Dicks wrote back in 1977 they succeeded in giving us and Season 18 a wonderful and scary story.  Imagine opening up the fuel tanks and seeing it filled with blood.  Really chilling and cool at the same time.  The gothic feel to this story helps with the horror story feel to State of Decay.   State of Decay is a wonderful story that gets lost in the shuffle when talking about the best stories of the Tom Baker era and this one should be right up there.

Grade B +