Fiftieth Anniversary Poll: William Hartnell

At the beginning of every month from now on there will be an individual Fiftieth Anniversary Poll dedicated to each Doctor which the Doctor Who Bar will run over the course of the anniversary year.

We would like you guys and gals on Twitter, Google Plus or Facebook to tweet us your favourite Doctor Who stories.  This very first Poll is the William Hartnell one and the most popular stories will go on the Poll for next Saturday.  You will then have another week to vote for which story wins and get's watched on the following Saturday.  If you are tweeting us please use the special hashtag #DWBarWH.

You can also use the comment box attached to this article to nominate any stories you would like to see on the William Hartnell Poll, which will go up on the Doctor Who Bar site on Saturday 5th January.  

So please get in touch everyone as the Bar begins it's celebrations for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Doctor Who.

'The Mind Robber' Preview

‘The Mind Robber’ is an unconventional story. First broadcast in 1968, it follows directly on from the previous serial ‘The Dominators’ and opens with a flood of lava rapidly approaching the TARDIS. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and companions Jamie and Zoe (Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury) are forced to dematerialise and take the TARDIS “out of reality” in order to escape the flood of what appears to be melting cheese.

After landing ‘nowhere’ – an everlasting expanse of white – the crew are lured out by visions of home, where they face a group of robots.  Despite the Doctor managing to get everyone back into the TARDIS, he is unable to stop it exploding, the outer shell shattering and the console spinning off into the distance.

From then on the story takes place in “The Land of Fiction” which is ruled over by The Master (but not that one). Battling irritating children and robot toy soldiers, the Doctor and his companions struggle not to become a work of fiction – as this will mean that they are trapped forever.

Frazer Hines caught chicken box during filming of this serial, which meant that he was replaced by Hamish Wilson in episode two (explained by having the Doctor rearrange an image of Jamie’s face incorrectly). The previous story had originally been conceived as a six parter, but had been reduced to five parts, meaning that the ‘leftover’ part of the story became the first episode of the previously four part ‘The Mind Robber’.

We will be watching ‘The Mind Robber’ on Saturday the 29^th. The Bar opens at 9.45pm GMT and we press play at 10.00pm GMT. Hope to see you there.

'The Next Doctor' Preview

‘The Next Doctor’ is a massively misleading title, but that doesn’t mean the story isn’t a good one. Broadcast on Christmas Day 2008, it attracted 13.1 million viewers. It starred David Tennant as the Doctor, accompanied by David Morrisey as Jackson Lake (or possibly the Doctor) and Velile Tshabalala as Rosita Farisi.

Ok, it’s a bit silly (particularly the two Doctors getting pulled around on the rope by the Cybershade) but that can be forgiven, it is a Christmas special after all. It’s not all fun and games however, with some quite emotional moments throughout. The child actors working in the Cyber factory all seem to be straight out of Oliver Twist, but again, it would be stupid to pick holes in a story designed to be so Christmassy.
 

Miss Hartigan makes a good villain, and the Cybermen are as threatening as ever, even if the Cyberking is a bit of a dodgy CGI representation. David Morrisey makes a likeable Doctor (spinoff series anyone?)

All in all, ‘The Next Doctor’ is a good story with an interesting plot line and some nice character moments and comedy elements.

Fiftieth Anniversary Poll

We are bringing back the Poll next year briefly because 2013 is Doctor Who's Fiftieth Anniversary.

At the beginning of every month there will be an individual Fiftieth Anniversary Poll dedicated to each Doctor which will run over the course of the year.

We would like you guys and gals on Twitter or Facebook to tweet us your favourite stories belonging to each Doctor and the most popular will go on the Poll.  You will then have a week to vote for which story wins and get's watched on the Saturday.

The first Saturday of every month will be the Fiftieth Anniversary Poll.  The first Poll the William Hartnell one is Saturday 5th January.

So join us to celebrate the Anniversary over the course of the year.