Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to You All

The team at the Doctor Who Bar want to wish their fans a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We hope you had a lovely Christmas and will have a very prosperous New Year.

The Bar itself will return in the New Year.  Look out for our tweets.

The Doctor Who Bar Christmas Poll

Here at The Doctor Who Bar we are gearing up for Christmas and looking forward to watching the new Christmas special "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" on Christmas day at 7pm.

So what better way to pass the time until then than to watch your favourite Christmas episode with some friendly fans and tweet your comments, using our hashtag, #DWBar (and following @TheDoctorWhoBar

Don't forget to vote on the poll on the left hand side!

The #DWBarUSA is back on tonight with "The Curse of Fenric."

Sylvester McCoy’s penultimate story takes us back to the era of World War II. All is not well, as an ancient Norse god, vampires and an overzealous military leader all add to the war time turmoil. "Curse of Fenric" also marks the second of the Periville stories, the only foray the original series made into the psyche of one of the companions, the troubled teenager, Ace. Meanwhile McCoy’ s manipulative streak rises to new heights as questions are answered from plot lines developed two seasons back. Join us tonight for this deep and dark adventure. The story is available from Netflix, both on dvd and for streaming.

We'll open at 7:45 pm EST and we'll press play at 8pm EST (that's 1 am in the UK). Please remember to use #DWBarUSA in your tweets!

What Doctor Who means to me

As a kid growing up in the Eighties I was quite taken by the repeats on BBC2 of the original Star Trek, I also liked Doctor Who too, but it was with the changeover from Tom Baker to Peter Davison which really got me into the show and when I really became a fan.

I followed the show quite religiously through my teens and into my twenties. My two favourite shows of all time from this era are Doctor Who and Dallas. I loved Colin Baker's brusqueness when he took over the role, and then had to endure the 18 month suspension when Michael Grade attempted to cancel Doctor Who. It was a shame the BBC forced Colin Baker to go, citing that three years was the optimum time for a Doctor. The BBC's attitude at this time disgusts me.

What can I say about Sylvester McCoy, a very good Doctor, but unfortunately the BBC were past caring about Doctor Who and wanted well rid of it. They got their wish in 1989, when the final episode of Survival became the last Doctor Who story to be transmitted. As to the programmes future, the show was in limbo. It was heart-breaking living through the wilderness years.

I turned my attention to Star Trek: The Next Generation when it began on BBC2, and still had the comfort of watching my other favourite show Dallas, at least until 1991, when after thirteen years of being on air the continuing saga of Southfork Ranch finally rode into the sunset. My two childhood favourite shows were no more. There's an old saying that you don't realise how much you love something until it's gone, that's exactly how I felt when I lost Doctor Who back in 1989 and then Dallas in 1991.

I love both those shows, I grew up with them, they were a part of my life, and I desperately wanted them to come back. I kept the faith during the wilderness years that eventually the BBC would bring the programme back. After the failure of the 1996 Television Movie, I knew even then that sooner or later the programme would come back.

I'll never forget that day in 2003 when I read a little Stop Press article in my then latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine that the Controller of BBC1 Lorraine Heggessy had recommissioned a new series of Doctor Who. I emailed the then editor Clayton Hickman for confirmation, and he was kind enough to reply to me that yes, the BBC were bringing Doctor Who back. I cried! Tears of joy of course, but sadness too as I still mourned the loss of Dallas, because I realised there was no way they could ever bring Dallas back.

For the first series back in 2005 I must've cried every episode at the mere sight of the titles and the iconic theme music as the programme started! Thankfully I don't cry as much as I used to, but I do remember gasping with joy at the reveal of the Time Lords at the end of the first part of The End of Time, and being clutched by my boyfriend who probably thought I was having a heart attack.

Of the new series Doctor's I really liked David Tennant, but it was still a shame that Chris Eccleston only did one series, I hope he returns for the Fiftieth Anniversary. What can I say about Matt Smith, he's terrific, a worthy successor to David, he reminds me of a young Jon Pertwee, with that very Doctorish nose he's got!

I'm looking forward immensely to the new series of Doctor Who next year, even though we do have to wait till the Autumn, but it will be lovely to have the programme back in it's old traditional time slot.

I'm also very happy too that my other favourite show Dallas, which I thought could never come back is currently filming a new series in America for transmission on TNT and Channel Five next summer. So it'll be great to find out what the Ewings have been up to. Like the new Doctor Who series, this new Dallas series is a direct continuation of the original CBS Dallas series. For anyone who wants more information about the new Dallas series click on the link further down this page on the left.

Not many people get to have both their two childhood shows return, so I'm really extremely lucky. Roll on 2012, when I'll get to see both my fave shows together again, isn't it amazing they both start with a D!!

Please support the official Doctor Who DVD's from 2|Entertain and BBC Worldwide. Please support the official Dallas DVD boxsets from Warner Home Video.

Written by @Via_The_Void

Zai Bennett on Sundays Points of View

BBC3 Controller Zai Bennett appeared on Sunday's edition of BBC One's viewer opinion programme Points of View to discuss the channel's most recent commissioning policies, of which the first question raised was about the cancellation of Doctor Who Confidential, the spin-off documentary series which goes behind the scenes of Doctor Who.

Kimberley Ritchie: Being a viewer of Doctor Who Confidential made me realise how much I wanted to go into TV production as a career. I've recently begun a course. I hope you take into account the efforts we're all putting in to try to save something we love.

Zai Bennett: Doctor Who Confidential was a brilliant series that we made six series of. It's a show about the making of another show - Doctor Who - and there are only so many ways explaining how a show is made, and in these straightened times when BBC3 is actually cutting its budget we have to prioritise the shows that we think are most important to our viewers. Doctor Who Confidential was a great show, but after six series we think that it had a very good go explaining how to make Doctor Who.

In response to reports that a Christmas edition of Doctor Who Confidential has been recorded, Bennett also added:

That's absolute nonsense, there is no finished programme sitting on a shelf. That show, however, was made for lots of different people, so for DVD and for BBC Worldwide, and there was some footage, which was about ten minutes, which will end up going online - but there's definitely not a finished show.

The lacklustre brush off of Doctor Who Confidential by Zai Bennett, the current BBC3 Controller probably came as no surprise to the shows fans.  Perhaps a few years down the line the programme may be revived for the parent programmes Fiftieth Anniversary.

A Story of Doctor Who, My Memories by @BestDrWho

I remember 1963 for two things, one being the first time I encountered deep snow, playing outside this was wonderful stuff for a scruffy six year old kid living in the early council estates built in the late 1950’s, I still have a clear image in my mind of looking down at my feet and only seeing snow up to my knees, my friends and I even found the pond formed by a bubbling spring in the woods had frozen solid, so skating, probably more on our backsides than legs was to be enjoyed by all.

The second and most important thing for you readers was the first episode of Doctor Who, William Hartnell was like my Grandfather, thin and grumpy haha, so I already related to him as a grandfather figure, this was brilliant stuff too, a time travelling grumpy granddad, who you just knew would tell you, you’re not chewing your food forty times before swallowing.

The opening scene was like Dixon of Dock Green (Google it) with a policeman and his flashlight (these were also alien communicators to a six year old, but you had to hold it under your chin and talk in a deep spooky voice) the policeman seems to be checking everything is locked up and the name of the junkyard is lit up, 76 Totter’s Lane.  Are you excited yet?  You just knew something was going to happen in that yard, but what?

It does all fade a bit with time but I remember Susan being followed by two of her curious and worried teachers, she goes into the junkyard and they are not far behind. Police Boxes used to be a common sight in those days, so to see someone go inside wasn't all that strange, but this one buzzed and vibrated from the inside.

The rest is history as far as An Unearthly Child goes, so I wont bore you with the details, we talked about the programme at school and imagined how brilliant it would be to go back in time and see a Dinosaur or be a Cowboy, bang bang bang, you're dead, if you didn't play dead when you were banged at, you were a dirty little cheater.

My favourite time for Doctor Who for me was the regeneration of the Doctor, although I think they called it renewal back then, Patrick Troughton was now the Doctor and he was Brilliant. I’m now nine years old and very impressed, he was mischievous, funny , witty and clever, and a childish sense of wonder at all things new (Matt Smith has taken this aspect of Pat’s Doctor) an Uncle you wish you had, because you knew he’d give you a jelly baby even if you’d been naughty and had a sweetie ban slapped down on you to put you straight, My Great Grandmother was like that, she loved me and would give me a Jaffa cake even though I was in the dog house.

So again I could relate to this Doctor, when Jamie joined the crew things really took off, Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton were a perfect combination, I was too young to appreciate Zoe’s assets to the crew because she was a girl errrrrrrrr.

I couldn’t bear to watch Patrick’s Doctor die, or in his case change his features so I never watched The War Games right to the end.  I never saw the change, I didn’t like Jon Pertwee’s Doctor mainly because he wasn’t Pat, I do appreciate his portrayal now that I’m older, the BBC also ruined it for me by making Jon’s Doctor time locked on Earth so they could save budget on set designs. So he was more like Quatermass to me, that put aside I know Jon did a lot for the programme and headed the way to Doctor Who conventions. 

My favourite episode of Jon’s era was of course The Three Doctors to see Billy and Pat back was just pure joy to me , now a teenager it was like Christmas and Birthdays had joined for one great show, it’s this episode where Pat says for the first time: ”I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit, I don't like it.”  Jon Pertwee was very much his own Doctor.

Tom Baker was a wonderful and funny Doctor, just like Pat. He even stole Pat’s Jelly Babies, an idea he’s often given credit for, really every Doctor that followed Jon seemed to take on some aspect of Pat’s performance, let’s face it if it wasn’t for Patrick Troughton, being accepted as the Doctor, the programme would have stopped with him, so he has more than earnt the right to be the Best Doctor of them all.

I enjoyed Peter Davison’s Doctor also, he had that venerable Doctor who cared for others more than his own life, Peter’s Doctor was also joined by a companion who's assets I was now old enough to appreciate even though she was a girl., as I’m now in my early twenties. There used to be a group called Yellow in the 80’s and when I first saw Peri that dat dat OHHHH Yeaaaa song was in my head. The Five Doctors was the best episode for what should be obvious reasons.

Colin Baker was another Doctor I liked, he had a darker, untrustworthy Doctor going on, unlike Pat.

The Two Doctor’s was the highlight because my favourite Doctor and companion combo were back, and fully in the driving seat. Patrick would steal every scene he played in The Two Doctors, The Three Doctors and even The Five Doctors.
 

Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor at the time I didn’t like, I never liked the Doctor being called Professor by Ace, another character I never took to at all, for me at the time McCoy’s tenure was the Death Knell to the series and Doctor Who was no more. (I know this will be a controversial view as most fans in their thirties grew up with McCoy’s Doctor.)

It's now 1996 and I thought Wow the Doctor is back, I’m now coming up to forty, and a fantastic actor, Paul McGann was going to play the Doctor, but due to America’s none acceptance of the show it died an early death, I feel he would have gone on to be one of the all time greats in Who History.

The rest you all know, 2005 saw the return with a cocky Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. I liked Chris a lot, but when he left early I wasn’t surprised. So enter David Tennant and the fun loving Doctor is back taking on the talking to himself side of Patrick, and that sense of wonder. Tennant was my daughters Doctor, she absolutely loves David Tennant, and yes he was a great Doctor, but this is now the era where lovey dovey Doctor rules. There was no time for kissing in Pat’s day, there were monsters to stop.  I do think David’s regeneration went on far too long, again lovey dovey diey Doctor.

Matt Smith is the Doctor and I rate him close to Pat, but if they shared a scene it would be Pat your attention would go to, I’m not a big fan of some of the stories and I’ve said as much on twitter, this again upsets people but I go back a long way into the show, so I see it from a different perspective to the new fans. If the writing was made more for the fight against all evil in the universe rather then the internal anguish of the Doctor, the Doctor could be amazing under Matt. But to me the stories have become all about relationships of the characters and the monsters have little air time.

Let me also add that some other character’s have helped this show last in the mind, the Brigadier

(Nicholas Courtney) and Sergeant Benton, (John Levene, who was the first person I met in Newcastle, and remarked how well I dressed in my Replay tweed jacket) and one I met in the Lanes in Brighton, when in my twenties but too polite to bother her while she was shopping was Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) fine fellows all of them.

Well these are my views and I’m being honest about how I see the show. I think Matt will be remembered as one of the all time Greats, after the Greatest of them all Patrick Troughton.

I thank anyone who has managed to read the rambling of the person now referred to as Besty.

Written by @BestDrWho

Who & I

For the anniversary week I thought it would be interesting to find out the fans first memories of the series and their involvement in the world of Doctor Who.

My first memory of Doctor Who was quite possibly a dream:

On a Dark and Stormy Night the Doctor was pushed out of a helicopter by the Master. The Doctor fell to the ground. His companions surrounded him, but the Doctor started to change into different robots..

That seems like a re-imagining of the Fourth Doctor's regeneration at the end of Logopolis.

My fondest memories of watching the series was running home from Cubs in time to watch seasons 24 to 26. I thought Ace was the coolest girl ever! My Dad would say that it wasn't as good as it used to be. But the stories did seem to improve to me. Well, I didn't know any better as I hadn't seen the older series.

In 1990 I visited family friends, who had pictures of Doctor Who all over their bedroom walls. They told me about the Doctor Who Magazine, which I started to collect soon after. DWM opened up the world of Doctor Who to me. Through the detailed archive articles I was able to find out about stories from other Doctors.

For Christmas that year I received my first Doctor Who video: The Five Doctors. I was able to see the previous Doctor's for the very first time!

In 1991 my Dad took me to a small convention at Canterbury university. It was organised by the great John Nathan-Turner, who told me he was worth four of the Doctors! It also featured William Russell, Mary Tamm, Barry Letts and Michael Kerrigan, though the highlights for me were Colin Baker and Tom Baker.

It was during this weekend I discovered that the BBC were going to do a series of repeats, one story from each Doctor. It was thrilling seeing William Hartnell's Doctor battle against a mischievous Monk, Patrick Troughton in the surreal The Mind Robber, Jon Pertwee battling the Master and The Sea Devils, then the Master again in The Daemons. Later that year I saw Genesis of the Daleks for the first time, then the Caves of Androzani, Revelation of the Daleks and finally Battlefield.

The following year I went to another small convention in Peterborough, Writer's Gate, which DWM told me was to star Jon Pertwee! I was nervous at meeting him. However when I got there it was the writers of the New Adventures books, Jim Mortimer, Andy Lane, Gary Russell and Paul Cornell.

In 1994 I went to Dreamwatch 94 and met the great Jon Pertwee himself, but I barely managed to say more than hello as I was so overwhelmed! During that convention I also meet Elisabeth Sladen, Sylvester McCoy and Nicholas Courtney.

It was exciting to think that the Doctor was coming back in the TV Movie in 1996. I was hoping for a new series.. I kept waiting, but it unfortunately never happened.

Then as I went away to college my interest waned. I bought some of the Big Finish releases and continued to get DWM.

Then in 2003 the announcement that the series was to come back seemed to come out of nowhere. I couldn't wait for the show to return!

Though I had dabbled in various Doctor Who forums and the old newsgroup rec.arts.drwho I had never made any connections with Doctor Who fandom, until March this year I heard about Doctor Who Bar. It was great fun tweeting whilst watching my old videos and added a new element to watching stories I had seen many times before. I joined the sessions regularly and was soon asked to be part of the team. At first I was reluctant. However I am now helping to run the sessions and have made great friends with the other DWBar members and have connections with other fans.

I would love to hear about your stories of your first memories of Doctor Who. Please post in the comments section below or use the contact form on the left.

Anniversary week in The Doctor Who Bar

This Wednesday sees the 48th anniversary of Doctor Who, so we thought we would celebrate our favourite series. On Wednesday night we will be watching the very first story An Unearthly Child aka 100,000 BC.

We will be putting a a poll shortly, to watch next Saturday, with an anniversary theme. We will of course include The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, the 25th anniversary specials Silver Nemesis and Remembrance of the Daleks. But what else would you like to see included within this theme?

We will also have some articles on our memories of the series and what made us fans. We would love to hear from you.. What are your favourite memories of Doctor Who and what turned you into a fan? Tweet us @TheDoctorWhoBar or via the contact form on the left hand side.

Product Review: Poseable Action Set - Peri and Sharaz Jek From Caves of Androzani

As reviewed by Ditsy_companion


For this weeks review I would love to do a review on my favorite companion of the Doctor's from the classic series, Peri Brown as played by Nicola Bryant.

The cover of the package is very strong and the product is clearly visible. The words are clear, the colours are bright and the picture of the Fifth Doctor is nice and respectable.

The warnings are visible and it clearly states 5+.  The back of the packaging is also very well put together and the pictures are well done too.

The Dolls are both very well put together and the colours are fairly accurate to the original characters in the programme. So all in a good buy and if you are a fan of Peri or the Fifth Doctor story then get this one.