Imperium Seven - Day of the Darloks

[Griselda]

Imperium Seven

Yes, we know how to count, but Imperium Six is still in the works. We hope you will enjoy this one. It will run just a tad short of three weeks, so get started! :rockon:

[Maniac Marshall]

All done! :war:





Just Kidding.

Busy week this week. Gives me something to do next week though, so yea.

Why does this Imperium title remind me of Doctor Who?

-Maniac

[Sirian]

Why does this Imperium title remind me of Doctor Who?

Oooh. Now I'm truly impressed.

[Factoid]

Why does this Imperium title remind me of Doctor Who?

{Scene: A narrow grey passageway with a very smooth metallic-looking floor. Something resembling a chest-high garbage can :P approaches in a smooth glide.}

Dalek: Exterminate! Exterrrrminate!

{The Dalek moves onwards, seeking to kill all living creatures in the quest for galactic domination. The Dalek suddenly encounters its ultimate racial nemesis - a STAIRWAY.}

Dalek: Never mind! Neverrr mind!

{The Dalek backs away and turns, then glides back the way it came. Galactic domination will have to wait for another day and another passageway, one with... ramps.}



- Factoid (who at a very early age had the bejeebers scared out of him by the Cybermen.)

(Edit - sarcasm added in attempt to avoid personal extermination by enraged fans :P)

[Zed-F]

I always wondered why, if K-9 could solve the stairwell problem, the Daleks couldn't...

[Justus_II]

Now that brings back some memories! I had never really heard of Dr. Who before college, where one of my best friends was a huge fan. Had nearly every episode on tape (actually had a friend from Europe sending him tapes of new episodes, even had a BETA tape player to watch them on). I remember arguing endlessly over which was the 'best' Doctor, the one I liked was the one with the rainbow-colored scarf. (Patrick Baker, IIRC, it's been a long time).

[Sirian]

The Daleks solved the stairwell problem with levitation in the final Dalek show. Was that Revelation of the Daleks? I like to think that's the way it should have been all along. After all, Doctor Who had some really bad writing in many of the episodes. Let's not chain the show to every sorry bit of dialog and plotting ever inserted to fill time.

What I want to know is... How long before the Beeb brings back the show? :wub: Are they going to wait another twenty years??


- Sirian

[Sirian]

Tom Baker?

I think most fans most like the Doctor they got to know first. For me, that was Jon Pertwee, with Tom Baker second. However, after watching nearly all the shows (taped off Maryland Public Television in the late 80s and early 90s -- missing half of the first Doctor and most of the second) I have grown to like Sylvester McCoy the most. The writing on the show was best in the final run, I think, and so was the acting. Sadly, just as things were really getting rolling (in my view) they quit making the show. Go figure.

By the way, Day of the Daleks was the first show I saw with the Daleks. It's also probably the worst Dalek show ever made. Wow, was there some bad writing for the third doctor or what? :unsure: Of course, I think the worst writing in the history of mankind was done for the show Blake's 7.


- Sirian

[Maniac Marshall]

It's being brought back next year actually. Filming began about 10 weeks ago.

Official BBC site.

-Maniac
Zed-F:

always wondered why, if K-9 could solve the stairwell problem, the Daleks couldn't...

Sirian responded:

The Daleks solved the stairwell problem with levitation in the final Dalek show. Was that Revelation of the Daleks?

Maniac provides a link to the clip?! (Real player required. works best with a decent connection)

Floating Dalek in Rememberence of the Daleks.

@ Justus II - Sirian is correct. The "all teeth and curls" doctor with the 17 foot long striped scarf was indeed Tom Baker, the 4th incarnation of everyones favorite Time Lord.

There is no truth to the rumor that I was Justus' college room mate :D

-Maniac

Edit: I'll have more to say on these posts when I can find an odd minute or 2 . Still more to come if I can stay awake long enough.

[Maniac Marshall]

OK, I got busy and needed a lot of sleep. Today is my first day off since labor day, and only the 2nd day I've slept in my own bed all month so I'm sort of running on fumes atm.

I have grown to like Sylvester McCoy the most. The writing on the show was best in the final run, I think, and so was the acting. Sadly, just as things were really getting rolling (in my view) they quit making the show. Go figure.

Thats interesting. It's a position that would get you reviled throughout much of the Doctor Who community, where many of the fans still blame the shows cancelation on McCoy, often saying he is a terrible actor....

We here at the Maniac institute for advanced Whovian thinking very much liked McCoy's portrayal, though I wouldn't go so far as to make him my favorite.

I'm going to dissagree with you almost completely about the writing durring McCoys era though. His first 2 seasons were DREADFUL!!! You actually LIKED Delta and the Bannermen? The Happyness Patrol? Paradise Towers? Those were some of the WORST who ever written. Even McCoy's acting couldn't make these lemons watchable IMHO.

Now, if, by that comment, you refered to his third and final season (Battlefield, Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric, Survival) only, then I'd soften my stance. The first 3 of those stories were the best 3 stories of his era, BY FAR. Survival was somewhat dissappointing by that seasons standards, but was watchable.

Sadly, just as things were really getting rolling (in my view) they quit making the show. Go figure.

The truth of the situation at that point in the shows run is that ratings were terrible and the head of the Beeb at the time hated the show passionately and allways had.

Even the vastly improved quality of McCoy's final sesion didn't do much to increase viewership .

The decline really started durring Colin Bakers run in the title role. If you look back at his first season, it really isn't hard to see why. The way he was forced to protray the 6th incarnation, especially early on, turned off many long time viewers of the show. Here you had a doctor actually behaving quite violenly at points, something that you would never have seen out of his previous incarnations. Add to that the fact that many of the storylines seemed to go rather out of the way to be over the top with morbid details....
I can say I did not enjoy many of his stories, particularly the early ones, because they were just loaded with violence and gore to no real purpose. Viewership had declined sharply. The head of programing at the beeb, one Michael Grade ordered the show off the air for a time so they could "fix it". Most dedicated whovians were jumping off grain silos or other tall monoliths over this news, but personally I welcomed it if it would fix things. Sadly, when the show DID return, it returned in a gutted form, with barely over half the episodes per season it used to have. C. Bakers 2nd and final season was one expanding story arc, "The Trial of a Time Lord", and it was, in my opinion, rather dreadful. There were a lot of reasons for this, but I wont go into them. At this point, Mr. Grade wanted to axe the show, saying it had little redeeming value and terrible ratings.

Why were the ratings terrible? I put the blame squarely on the terrible writing, terrible script editing (by the young and, imho bad script editor), the feud between the script editor and the producer who didn't want to be there anymore (the Beeb wouldn't let him leave), and some of the support acting (Mel was one of the worst companions ever), all of which was consistantly bad week after week. The powers that be at the beeb however chose to blame Colin Bakers portrayal as the doctor. Mr Grade agreed to renew the show ONLY if they replaced the title actor.

History has proven that this was incorrect. A very accomplished actor both before and after who, Bakers acting was far from being the problem, and was actually one of the few redeeming aspects of the show. It's really sad, because personally I think Colin Baker was the single best doctor in the shows history when allowed to portray the character to his vision. Even though he was basically fired from the role he once said he hoped to retire in, a role he says he might still be filling today over 20 years later, he has been a great ambassador for the show over the years, even up to this day.

So, instead of addressing the real problems with the show, those problems were allowed to fester, eventually dooming the show because they were resolved too late.

By the way, Day of the Daleks was the first show I saw with the Daleks. It's also probably the worst Dalek show ever made.

I have to disagree with you here. Revelation, Rememberence, and Destiny were all worse hands down. I really liked Death to the Daleks the best of the Dalek shows.

Wow, was there some bad writing for the third doctor or what?

Eh, there was some boring, repetitive writing for that period yes. Nowhere near the horrible writing of Colin Bakers era, or of the first 2/3 of the McCoy era though. Of course, the golden era of wrting on the show IMHO was the early Tom Baker (Hinchcliffe as producer) era. Ah, how I miss the ever reliable Robert Holmes

Of course, I think the worst writing in the history of mankind was done for the show Blake's 7.

Hmm, lets just leave it at "I disagree with you there." I really, really enjoyed that show, especially the 2nd half of the show where Blake was gone. Then again, it's been a while since I've dusted off those old vcr tapes of that show, so its possible your right and it's simply that the acting of Paul Darrow (Avon) carried the show for me. At least you didn't diss Red Dwarf

In closing, I'd like to reccomend a couple sites to those interested in Doctor Who.

The first would be gallifreyone which is one of the best fansites for any show of any kind anywhere ever period.

The second would be Doctor Who Guide which is a fantastic resource of the history of dcotor who, both televised, novelized, and audioised (yes the show has continued on in books and audios durring the dark years. check it out)

And finally, I'd reccomend clicking that webcasts link on the official beeb site which ill link againOfficial Site. There you will find 3 adventures you can watch right now, even you 56kers unless you have really awful 56k. A 4th webcast, Death Comes to Time, featuring Sylvester Mc Coy, is no longer available (sorry Sirian)

The first one, Scream of the Shalka, is rather lame imho. It stars Richard E Grant as "the 9th doctor". BBCI had recieved permission to make a series of webcasts staring him as the doctor to carry on the series, but right after the first one aired, bbctv announced it had finally resolved rights issues and would be making a new series, effectively making this webcast a "one off elseworlds" story.

The second one, Shada, was written by Douglas Adams. Yes, THAT Douglas Adams. He was Script editor of Dcotor Who at the time (yes, really). It was originally written to be the final story of one of Tom Bakers season, but filming never got completed due to a strike at the BBC. It stars Paul McGann, the 8th doctor from the TV Movie. A lot of people absolutely loved this show.

Having seen what exists of the original show, staring Tom Baker, pieced togeather with dialog explaining what happened durring the never filmed gaps, I found it sort of dissappointing, though somewhat entertaining. The show was obviously wrtitten with Tom Bakers doctor in mind, and some of the gags just dont fit with McGann's doctor. That being said, I suspect that most anyone coming in w/o these precons will really enjoy it, and thus I reccomend it.

The third one, Real Time, stars Colin Baker and Maggie Stables (Evelyn, his companion from the Big Finish audios), as well as the Cybermen. If you only watch one of them, watch this one. This is just great Who imho. Yes, there is one serious plot hole if you look hard enough (then again, half the fun of who is finding those right?), but it's just superbly done imho. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!

OK, thats enough Who ranting for a while.

-(Doctor Who) Maniac