Fiftieth Anniversary Poll: Patrick Troughton

At the beginning of every month 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 Poll is the Patrick Troughton one and the most popular stories will go on the Poll for this 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 #DWBarPT. You can also use the comment box attached to this article to nominate any stories you would like to see on the Patrick Troughton Poll, which will go up on the Doctor Who Bar site on Saturday 2nd February 2013.

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

Please note that only 2|Entertain BBC Worldwide DVD's are eligible to vote for, thank you.

Arc of Infinity Preview

‘Arc of Infinity’ opened Doctor Who’s 20^th season. It starred Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and reintroduced Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka after her departure from the TARDIS crew in the previous story.

Season 20 coincided with the programme’s 20^th anniversary and each story featured a villain that had previously appeared in the series. In the case of ‘Arc of Infinity’, legendary Timelord Omega reappeared, having been absent from the show since its 10^th anniversary special.

‘Arc of Infinity’ takes place in Amsterdam, the second time that Doctor Who had been filmed abroad. This lead to an awkward encounter for Janet Fielding when she was mistaken for someone in quite a different profession as a result of her outfit.

Colin Baker also makes an appearance as Commander Maxil when he shoots Peter Davison. This is clear evidence that Colin Baker really wanted the part. Colin Baker would reprise the role of Commander Maxil for an uncredited cameo appearance in Big Finish’s Gallifrey spin off series.

Perhaps some aspects of the story don’t work so well (The Ergon certainly is a “less successful attempt at psychosynthesis” and probably not likely to return for the 50th) but the majority of the story works well.

The idea of adversaries returning for an anniversary year is a good one, it’s a shame that the 50^th anniversary run of stories doesn’t seem (as of the date of this post) don’t seem so spectacular.

We will be watching ‘Arc of Infinity’ on Wednesday. The bar opens at 7.30pm GMT and we press play at 8.00pm GMT. Hope to see you there.

Doctor Who Returns in March

Doctor Who returns to BBC One screens during the Easter weekend on Saturday, 30 March, 2013.

The Doctor is back in an adventure written by the show’s lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat. The episode which is the first in a run of eight will be directed by Colm McCarthy whose previous credits include Hustle, Spooks and Endeavour.

Later adventures in the series run include episode contributions written by Mark Gatiss (Victory of the Daleks, Night Terrors) and acclaimed author Neil Gaiman.

Steven Moffat has promised that in terms of Doctor Who, 2013 will be a ‘tremendous’ year for the programme. However there is already uproar amongst the fans due to a leaked promotional card from BBC Worldwide which purports that the Anniversary will be marked by one sixty minute episode.

So just how will the BBC mark the anniversary?  Well until a proper statement comes from a reliable source, I suggest everyone disregards the content of the promotional card.

We'll have to wait and see.