What connects a blue man, a toilet and Steven Moffat's face?
Why, it's Issue 10 of Fish Fingers and Custard!
Now celebrating two years on the fanzine scene, we continue to bring you all the goings-on in the Doctor Who underground. Though, we're more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, than Rat.
In the latest Issue we have:
Our view on the casting of Jenna-Louise Coleman
Interview with Simon Fisher-Becker aka Dorium Maldovar
Six Appeal - what one Doctor means to a young boy
Season 18 - A Breath of Life, or A Strangulation?
Which Fan Group Are You?
Monster In The Bathroom - Our brand new comic!
And much more besides!
You can download this Issue by clicking here (right-click and save) if you're feeling rather flush and would like to support the fanzine, you can purchase a paper copy here
If you want to contribute to any future Issues, please e-mail your work fishcustardfanzine@googlemail.com and one of our handsome Robomen will get back to you.
The Daleks eh? I’ve never been as fascinated with them as other people seem to be. You’ll always hear “Well, Doctor Who isn’t
Doctor Who without The Daleks”, but that’s not really true, is it? Despite
being The Doctor for 7 years, Tom Baker only had two stories with them and his
era was arguably the best ever. Fair
enough, this may have something to do with Terry Nation hoarding the rights, but
it still points to the fact that Doctor Who doesn’t need Daleks to be
successful.
The 2005
series though is an altogether different animal. Like a Tiger with pink and blue stripes. We’ve
had at least a Dalek cameo every single year since it returned. Now the cynic in me believes that the fact
that they appear every year, is due to a deal with the estate of Terry Nation,
but that’s just idle gossip and probably not true. What IS true, is that The Daleks are a huge
moneymaking factory for BBC Worldwide – so there’s your answer. It’s just extremely disappointing when we
watch a Dalek story these days. What
stories since 2005’s ‘Dalek’ have
actually contributed anything to the mythos behind them? Please don’t mention
the Human Dalek – a concept that was hideously realised, before being dumped on
its arse. To be honest, I quite enjoy a
good Dalek story. On audio. Big Finish’ Dalek Empire series have done more to
build upon the Daleks than the New Series has ever achieved in 6 years - Human
Daleks, Pig Slaves and silly re-designs included. People may say that making money will only
help the show in the long-run, but does it really
help in creating a decent story?
When I look
at Victory of The Daleks as an whole,
it’s screaming out to be spilt into two episodes - there is just too much to
cram into 40 minutes. We’ve got
plotlines flying all over the place, the direction is very shaky and the pacing
is just very patchy in places. Didn’t
the creation of a new Dalek race deserve more explanation? Didn’t these new Daleks need to be paraded
for a bit longer? Didn’t Bracewell and the girl who lost her husband, deserve a
bit more backstory? Not to mention the
Second World War setting, Amy’s first past adventure and how and why were The
Doctor and Winston Churchill friends?
It’s a real shame, because with a bit more room to breathe, Victory of
The Daleks had all the elements of a classic.
Yes, and I’m including the iDaleks in that statement!
To be fair
to the episode though, it did have its moments.
I found it very intriguing that The Daleks sided with the British,
rather than the Nazis, who they share most of their characteristics with. It was also a nice change to see the Daleks
win for once, which can only give The Doctor more headaches in the future. Ian McNiece was very good as Churchill, and I
think people should remember that he was doing a caricature - the amount of cigars he had and usage of the
pharse ‘KBO’, should prove that!
Bracewell
being an android was another intriguing element and despite plenty of scorn
being poured upon it by fandom, I bought the scene in which he had to remember
his (stolen) life to deactivate the bomb inside him. It’s like when you see someone who is upset
or angry and you make them remember something nice (calm them down basically)
that way, they aren’t likely to ‘explode’ and cause themselves harm. And if you think of it in that sense, that is
what makes Bracewell human – he has feelings like the rest of us. It was also interesting to see that The
Doctor, who isn’t human, wasn’t able to convince Bracewell that he had human
feelings. It took a real human, with
real human feelings (Amy) to make him realise.
I thought that was a nice touch and provided one bright spark in this
otherwise disappointing episode.
Perhaps I’ve
touched on the Daleks too much, but again, there’s elements of the plot that
make little sense to this GCSE-educated simpleton. How on earth did the Progenitor device recognise
The Doctor’s voice? He couldn’t have met
any previous Daleks in his future, as they don’t exist. Or will they? You see,
I’ve confused myself now, perhaps a DNA identification was too much to ask? As mentioned, I liked Bracewell but would The
Doctor really leave an android walking around the 1940’s? Letting him go was nice, very typical of The
Doctor and was a great moment in the episode, but still, it was a bit silly not
to include a better line to explain why he should be fine!
And ‘a bit
silly’ is a phrase that best sums up Victory of The Daleks.
KBO
What We Think Now: Oh, is that it?
Your (5-word) Reviews:
David MacGowan: "Fun space battle! Shit Daleks..." @Mr_Brell: "Filler, plus dreadful new Daleks!" @AbelUndercity: "Candy-colored Daleks? Whovians: Meh" @JayMcIntyre1: "Modernized Cushing Daleks, not bad" @abby_queenofall: "Wish Matt Smith would regenerate"
If you would like to contribute a 5-word review for
Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, please @ us on Twitter, using the hashtag #ComfyChair, or
post on our Facebook Page!
It’s 1996. One of the best years in my young life. England are hosting Euro 96 (where we beat Scotland, Holland
and then Spain
on penalties. Then my little heart was broken by a German man, as Andreas
Moller scored the winning penalty in a shoot-out in the Semi-Final. Bastard), it’s
also the height of Britpop, the summer was hot, and there’s some excellent
children’s programming. Like many kids my age, I loved a programme called The Demon Headmaster. I suppose you could call it a ‘Children’s
Sci-fi Drama’, where a very strange man, posing as a Headmaster, would use
children for ‘scientific purposes’. In
later Series’ he would move on to establish a scientific base and continue his
experiments and just generally be a pain for the kids who tried to stop him. You probably couldn’t make anything like this
today, in fear of The Daily Mail Brigade getting their knickers in a twist,
over a man in his 50’s hypnotising children to do his bidding. But being 10 years old, the show was genuinely scary - and it must have been
decent - it was even nominated for a BAFTA!
That was my childhood. I had no Doctor Who to affect me whilst
growing up. It was just this scary grey-haired man who I had nightmares about,
not Daleks or god forbid, Quarks. So
imagine my surprise when the actor who played that nightmarish man, Terrence
Hardiman, popped up in the second episode of Series 5 of the revived Doctor
Who! And yes, I haven’t forgot about The
Beast Below, which ironically, is probably forgettable as Doctor Who
episodes go! Don’t get me wrong, it’s
alright, but it’s not about to push to the front of my top episodes list.
I found it interesting that this story was set during the 29th
Century, after solar flares burnt the earth.
This is an obvious call-back to The
Ark In Space and I found it intriguing that there were other plans for
people to escape Earth, as I got the impression that the people in the Ark(s) were the only ones
who had survived. Another classic
call-back (or rip-off?) was the Star Whale.
Now in my notes for this episode, I kept writing ‘Space Whale’ by
accident, as that was the name of a similar creature for a story (‘Song of The Space Whale’) purposed by
Pat Mills and John Wagner in 1980. It’s
a very intriguing concept, which was revisited by Big Finish in the shape of ‘The Song of Megaptera’ (possibly changed
for obvious clash reasons), released in May 2010. Now I’m not accusing anyone
of anything (as if I would!) but this – and many other ‘Lost Stories’ - would
have been something very interesting to touch on, in the Confidential or on a
DVD Extra. Not to mention anything at
all was a bit disappointing and an opportunity was missed in educating a new
fan about the long (and sometimes confusing – if not explained properly) past
of Doctor Who.
The story itself was made up out of plenty of decent bits
that just didn’t quite fit together. One
element I did love though – was the comparisons with the Space Whale and The
Doctor. At the end, Amy’s speech about ‘What would you do, if you were so old, so
wise, so lonely and you saw a child crying?’ just sums up The Doctor (I’m
paraphrasing, probably incorrectly, but you get the idea). The shot of him comforting/trying to steal
off the young girl, whilst Amy was thinking he was still in the TARDIS (so was
still talking to him!) was fantastic and a moment which you can use to sum up
Matt’s Doctor. Or any Doctor, really.
Steven Moffat can see the importance of using children in his stories to
appeal to the children watching, which will get them involved in the on-going narrative (just like the makers of Demon Headmaster did 14
years previously, no doubt!) Although everyone seems to
forget that The Star Whale ate adults.
So much for youth development!
My real gripe about The Smilers was that they were built up
to be some sort of ‘big monster’ but in reality, were about on the level of Rose
Tyler, in terms of scariness. To be fair
though, I did enjoy their role of ‘Policemen’ in this Police State, that The
Doctor refers too. A comment on the
modern world, maybe? Though the moral dilemma of Starship UK was a good one, I
just felt that it was a little too convenient.
Would parents really allow their children to be put into such danger?
(yes I know The Beast doesn’t eat children – but they do seem to be used as
slaves by The Demon Headmaster!)
On its first airing, Matt seemed to get a bit of flak for
his rant about humans. I know plenty of
humans, and a good proportion are bastards.
Why is it surprising that The Doctor went off on one after he found out
they were torturing this beautiful creature?
A creature, may I add, who he identifies with, as mentioned above. How many times has he been on the wrong end
of a nasty human? You have to say though, that Matt was fantastic once again. His delivery of line telling Amy about his race being gone, was just beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Under another regime, that plot-point could have dragged on and on, but all it took was one line, and some great acting.
I’ve been prattling on for so long that I’ve not even talked
about the other characters yet! I really
enjoyed Liz 10’s performance (played by Sophie Okonedo – who was also companion
Alison Cheney in a Doctor Who webcast ‘Scream
of The Shalka’, which starred Richard E. Grant as The Doctor). I thought she really was convincing as the Queen who had to go through the agony
at finding out the moral dilemma she created, every 10 years or so. Which is
saying a lot, considering she was an all-action, plain-talking (and likeable)
descendent of the current Royal Family!
It was nice to see Amy at the heart of the action this time
around. Her quick-thinking at the end
saved the day, and quite possibly The Doctor’s sanity! I think plenty of people go overboard with
their criticisms when dissecting the character of Amelia Jessica Pond, but her
contribution to this episode definitely goes into her credit bank. The only real disappointing characterisation,
was the lack of screen time for The Demon Headmaster. Earlier on, what with his natural ability to
act really creepy, you could be
forgiven in thinking that he was behind the whole thing! I felt we just needed more of that throughout
the episode, which at barely 40 minutes – needed a bit more padding out! After previously watching Mr Hardiman playing
a very camp gentleman in a few episodes of ‘The
Worst Week of My Life’, it was a very welcome return to form for my
favourite Jack Straw look-a-like and the only man who scared me in 1996, apart
from Andreas Moller (he’s still a bastard).
What We Think Now:
It’s a bit better than I thought it was.
Although I don’t think those Laughing Clown booths (that they used to
have at fairgrounds) have anything to fear from The Smilers.
(Yes, I know that 1996 was the year that Doctor Who: The
Movie came out. I just can’t remember it being advertised!)
If you would like to contribute a 5-word review for
Victory of The Daleks, please @ us on Twitter, using the hashtag #idaleks, or
post on our Facebook Page!
In the
run-up to the new series, we’re going to do a Cher.
No, we’re not going to have a facelift that makes us look frightening to young children and animals, we’re
going to turn back time and find a way to review every episode of the Matt Smith Era so far.
We’re going to re-watch every episode and see if our original reactions to them
differ from now. First up is The Eleventh Hour, which obviously provided the title for this fanzine!
What we first thought: This is the best thing since
discovering that the off-licence up the road doesn’t ask you for ID.
I’ll
preface this by saying that I gushed like a Teenager at a Justin Bieber concert
when I first watched this. The general ‘even
though I’ve never seen him in a episode yet…’ negativity towards Matt Smith
from supposed fans, made me want this first episode to succeed so much that
they would crawl back into their holes and never hear from their
miserable gobs again. More importantly,
it needed to be good to capture the imagination of the fickle viewing public,
after the success of the David Tennant Era.
And you know what? I believe they pulled it off in some style - Matt’s
triumphant walk through the mournful face of Tennant, left us in no doubt that
this man IS The Doctor! I really love
this episode and I’m going to make no apology for this somewhat biased review.
It’s 2010
and the Doctor Who fandom is spilt.
There are those that are so distraught at the departure of David Tennant
(and to some extent, RTD) that they weren’t prepared to give Matt Smith and
Steven Moffat a chance, in turn not getting what the show is about. REGENERATION is the key word and like its
central character, Doctor Who has always changed and adapted. Then there were those who were excited
(perhaps a bit too excited) about this new era of Doctor Who, that expectations
went through the roof What Steven Moffat
had to do, was to start well from his clean slate and establish his Doctor Who
quickly.
Moffat is a
writer that likes to play with the imaginations of children and watching this
episode back has made me realise what a genius piece of writing it is. From the very first scenes when The Doctor
meets Amelia, you can see just by looking at the scene and listening to the
words used, that this has been made to engage a child and hook them into the
story. Lines like ‘You know when grown-ups tell you everything is going to be fine and you
know that they’re probably lying, to make you feel better’ will just hit
home with some kids (and possibly some adults too!)What’s more poetic is that Amelia and
this new Doctor are children. Many a
Keyboard Warrior may get angry at this, but Doctor Who is primarily made for
Children. Yes, it is described as a
family drama, but how can a family drama be a family drama with no children
watching? That’s how you get your
viewers – parents of kids will watch something if their child is interested in
it. That’s how Doctor Who has worked for
nearly 50 years and always will. Trying
to ‘adultise’ Doctor Who simply doesn’t work (see the 1996 TVM).
The story
has somewhat become a sideshow, what with me banging on about Doctor Who in
general, but after watching this again, I can understand a bit more about Amy’s
backstory. It’s very much in the vein of
‘Boxset Telly’, where TV shows are now made for the commercial market, so are
designed to be watched over-and-over again.
I don’t particularly subscribe to the view that you need to watch this
episode (or series) over-and-over again to understand it, as everything you
need to know is in plain sight. But I
think it adds another dimension to the characters if you go back, knowing what
you know. You can see how much planning
has gone into creating these people and their stories.
What more
can I say about Matt Smith? He sold me pretty much from his first scenes in the
TARDIS in The End of Time. You can see that child-like enthusiasm in his
face when he first meets Amelia, which is probably a major reason in her trusting
this strange man. I got a ‘Doctor
Reborn’ mantra from this first episode and everything about it seemed
to be starting from afresh. I’m not
talking about the theme or the titles, but the actual direction and lighting of
the episode. I remember watching it for
the first time and the picture just seemed so different. The bright
colours of the RTD were gone, with little Amelia all alone in her scary house -
and the picture just made the house look cold.
There are many ways which you can scare people without any lines or
action being played out, and this is one of them.
As
mentioned above, some of the lines in this episode are pure gold. Another one I particularly enjoyed was the ‘Am I People?’ comment from The Doctor to
Amelia, just before he left her. Here’s
a girl that has been let down throughout her short life by people and here
comes a strange man who she thinks the world of, barely an hour after meeting.
The acting is superb too – that resulting smile from Amelia and the look of
hope and happiness in her eyes when The Doctor is about to jump back in the
TARDIS...then he had to spoil it all by turning up years late! Despite being a bit upsetting, it’s still one
of favourite scenes – she’s sat there on her suitcase with a massive smile on
her face and we know that he’s not coming back.
The rest of
the story was an absolute breeze, as an hour and a bit passed extremely
quickly. The major compliants I hear about this episode are for the SFX. I think the usage of people being Prisoner Zero (or 0, if you prefer) helped our imaginations - instead of having the actual creature, made up out of ropey-CGI, roaming around all the time! Yet another thing I thought was
pure genius – was the fact that The Doctor and Amy already had a history before
they met. It’s something that’s never
been done before, and I think Doctor Who should always strive to try something
different. Here we have a girl whose
life has been affected by a strange man, who (in his timeline) met her as a
little girl about 10 minutes ago. That
plotline just opens up so many possibilities and at the same time – saves time
in inserting any tedious scenes for the companion to ‘familiarise’ themselves
with The Doctor, and thus mucking up the pace of the story. I’ve commented in the past that Moffat isn’t
a writer who writes meaningless lines, he finds uses for everything and is able
to move a story along at pace. I feel that The Eleventh Hour just proves that
assumption.
How this
will work out for the rest of the series? Well let’s find out!
What we think now: The Eleventh Hour was a crucial
point in modern Doctor Who history, if they got it wrong it could have been disastrous
for the show. But they got it so right
and in turn, adopted a back-to-basics approach which in itself, provides a solid
base to build from for the future.
We also put
the word out on Facebook and Twitter, asking for 5-word reviews of this
episode. Just to be awkward.
David MacGowan: “Giddy, naughty and a great start”
‘Spearhead From Space’ was one of the first classic Doctor
Who episodes I saw. I had one of those
free DVD’s that the paper was giving away and one of them had the first
episode. Not really expecting much, I
was drawn in and loved that first episode.
It also helped that I was immediately struck by the strong female
presence in the story, provided by Caroline John’s Liz Shaw.
Many people hold up Sarah Jane Smith as a rolemodel for
being the first ‘Strong Independent Women’ in Doctor Who. As a self-styled feminist, she had her
moments. But with the writers having her
screaming every few episodes, it’s a bit difficult to place that title on
her. Liz Shaw was the first attempt at
having a strong female character in the show. Sadly, in 1971 both parties
parted ways (Caroline was pregnant, and producer Barry Letts wanted a different
companion) and 42 years on, we’re left wondering what might have been if the
character had have been developed more.
In today’s show, we would do anything for a character to be cast that
wasn’t overawed by The Doctor and one who would often make fun of him. You could argue that she was the first
attempt at a ‘female Doctor’ in many ways – with her often using science to
solve things, which would trickle down to the young viewers watching.
I don’t think that there’s any doubt that her finest moment was that as a,
shall we say, a very different Liz Shaw in Inferno (which happened to be her
final story). It was the story that
allowed the actors to play something different and have some fun, and it’s
clear that certainly helped to make this one of the best Third Doctor stories. If there’s one story to remember Caroline
John by, put that one on! Over the
years, she appeared in many spin-offs and audios – most recently reprising the
role of Liz Shaw for Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles series.
Despite the end to her time on Doctor Who being so long ago,
Caroline was always a face on the convention scene and many people have fond
stories to tell about her. Words like ‘Classy Lady’ are often banded about when
fans talk about meeting her in person. And
as time goes on, I think it’s very important that we sit back and remember the
contributions of members of the Doctor Who family we have lost, because without
them, our little obsession may not be as special as we’d like to think.
What connects a blue man, a toilet and Steven Moffat's face?
Why, it's Issue 10 of Fish Fingers and Custard!
Now celebrating two years on the fanzine scene, we continue to bring you all the goings-on in the Doctor Who underground. Though, we're more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, than Rat.
In the latest Issue we have:
Our view on the casting of Jenna-Louise Coleman
Interview with Simon Fisher-Becker aka Dorium Maldovar
Six Appeal - what one Doctor means to a young boy
Season 18 - A Breath of Life, or A Strangulation?
Which Fan Group Are You?
Monster In The Bathroom - Our brand new comic!
And much more besides!
You can order this issue, which is made up out of: 44 pages, full-colour covers and many frustrations, by sending one of below payments to us via PayPal:
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