Doctor Who: The Ark with William Hartnell

Featuring William Hartnell as the first Doctor and packed with wealth of un-missable extras, Doctor Who: The Ark is now available on BBC DVD.

Materialising in what appears to be a jungle on Earth, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo soon realise that things are not what they seem: the sky is made of steel, and the jungle merely a colossal life chamber in a craft that has embarked on the most important expedition in the history of mankind.

It is ten million years in the future, and the Earth is soon to be engulfed by the Sun in a catastrophic explosion. A gigantic space ark has been launched, taking the last humans to a new life on the distant planet of Refusis, serving the Guardians of Earth are the Monoids, mute reptilian aliens.

But the Ark’s mission of deliverance is threatened by the arrival of the time travellers; Dodo inadvertently passes her cold to the Guardians – to them, it is a long-forgotten virus against which they have no defence. It is not long before people start to die and the TARDIS crew are on trial for their own lives.

Doctor Who: The Ark DVD

4 x 25 mins approx monochrome episodes with mono audio.

• Commentary – stereo. With actor Peter Purves and director Michael Imison, moderated by Toby Hadoke.

• All’s Well’s That Ends Wells (dur. 13’ 14”) – just how much were ‘The Ark’ and many other of Doctor Who’s adventures through time and space inspired by the work of writer H.G. Wells? With writers and historians Matthew Sweet, and Dominic Sandbrook, author and critic Kim Newman, literary editor Graham Sleight and the Open University’s Dr. Anthony Keen.

• One Hit Wonder (dur. 4’ 33”) – the Monoids only appeared in one Doctor Who story, possibly with good reason. What gives certain monsters an enduring popularity, destined to return over and over, whilst others are doomed to appear only once? With author Jacqueline Rayner, writers and historians Dominic Sandbrook and Matthew Sweet, and author and critic Kim Newman.

• Riverside Story (dur. 20’ 17”) – Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios played host to the creation of many Doctor Who stories in the sixties. Matthew Sweet takes actor Peter Purves back to the studio that once also contained the Celestial Toyroom, the Plains of Troy and the planet Refusis to talk about the creation of ‘The Ark’. Also featuring director Michael Imison.

• Photo Gallery (dur. 3’ 26”) – production, design and publicity photos from the story.

Buzzin Media Free Competition

PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED

Enter our free competition for the chance to win a copy of the Doctor Who: The Ark DVD .  Just answer this simple question:

Q: Who played the original TV Doctor Who?

a: William Hartnell
b: Tom Baker
c: Jon Pertwee

Submit your entries to comps@buzzinmedia.co.uk with the subject line: ‘The Ark’ (other subject lines will not be entered) with your full name, address & contact number.

This Buzzin Media Competition ends on 15th March, 2011.

The editor will randomly choose 3 winners. The editor’s choice is final.

All the misleading hype about this actually revealing who the next Doctor would be turned out to be just that – misleading hype!

On top of that the show wasn’t even that great….sorry but the Cybermen have had much scarier episodes and last years (sorry, 2007’s) Christmas special was so much better, it had it’s nail biting moments, a few scary bits, one-liner’s delivered with that cheeky David Tennant grin and…Kylie, everything that The Next Doctor didn’t and everything you would hope to see in a special.

Let’s hope the next one ‘Planet of the Dead’ showing at Easter on BBC One is MUCH better than this, especially as we only have David Tennant for 4 more shows.

Doctor Who Confidential – BBC One, Saturday 5.35pm

We didn’t have too long to wait after ‘The Next Doctor‘ to find out who the 11th Doctor would actually, really be….would it be Neil Morrissey, Ralf Little (fingers crossed because he would be brilliant) or even Alex Kingston?

It’s going to be….Matt Smith…unfortunately I haven’t watched anything he has been in so I will withhold any opinion I have until 2010 when I actually get to see him try and fill David Tennant’s shoes.

Big shoes to fill, Tennant has got to be my favourite Doctor yet but Mr Smith does have a unique look about him that makes be think he could be okay. Having a years notice gives us all time to warm to the idea I suppose.

What an excellent way to bow out of season 4 for Doctor Who and Mr Davies.  Our burning questions answered, a quick summary of previous shows and a happy ending for all – just the way I like it.

Unfortunately poor Donna is back on earth with all her fantastic time travelling memories erased from her mind and the Doctor is all alone again awaiting a new companion – how about his ‘daughter’?  I thought the Doctor-Donna hybrid was great, only Catherine Tate could have pulled that off and I would have liked to see a few more shows with Doctor-Donna and the Doctor before she was erased!

Rose also got her Donna-Doctor to love and live with until death doth part them, and did I sniff a bit of Torchwood recruitment going on when Jack walked off with Martha and Mickey?  Lets hope so, although Noel Clark is a big film director now – maybe Mickey is in his past.

Now all we have to do is wait for the Christmas special – the return of the Cybermen – as much as I love these great old enemies, writers, please can you create some new, original characters that are just as good?

This show sure is going out with a bang – just as Russell T Davies promised! Talk about gripping stuff, and what’s with the Doctor regenerating? Have they been pulling the wool over our eyes with promises that David Tennant will play the character until 2010? I hope not, I don’t think the show could take losing him as well!!

It was great watching all the characters in one show and even Harriet Jones popped up – I’m glad that character has been put to rest though, Harriet Jones MP has had her day!

I couldn’t help but hope that Tosh and Owen would somehow appear to join in the fun and I’m sure I’ve seen Jackie and Mickey embroiled in greatest character reunion ever, so I guess they will be helping to rescue everyone from Stavros’s evil plan for domination of the universe! I wonder if the Doctor’s daughter, Jenny, will join the call to action?

We have, of course, been left on the edge of our seat wondering who the Doctor will regenerate into, will Sarah Jane, Ianto and Gwen get exterminated and what exactly is the Auster Hagen Key?

To accomodate all this action, next week’s finale is showing at a slightly earlier time of 6.40pm and has been extended to a ’special’ 65 minutes long. The Doctor Who website is screening a new trailer – just click on the link to watch it.

DONT miss next week….!

What a brilliant episode – and the Doctor was only on the screen for a few minutes!  The tension is really building for the grande finale of this series, my children were so excited to see that the next episode is going to have all their favourite characters from Doctor Who & Torchwood to the Sarah Jane Adventures.

I really love the way Russell T Davies gives his fans little ‘pay-off’ like this and I thought it was great how Saturday’s show summarised the alien events up to date – including the Christmas special- so if you are a loyal fan you would know which show each attack related to.

We also see the return of BAD WOLF which has been a reoccurring theme  throughout the show – so now do we finally get to find out what it means?  And it wouldn’t be a finale without the return of our favourite alien invaders – the Daleks!  Go visit the Doctor Who website where you can view 2 new trailers for Saturday’s show.

It seems the Doctor meeting Donna was more than just a mere co-incidence and she may have a major role to play in saving the universe – does that mean the end of her character?

I can’t wait for next Saturday’s  show, BBC1, 7.10pm – I’m just as excited as the kids (maybe that’s just because Captain Jack’s back though!)

Did the budget run out for this one? When the knocking started we were on the edge of our seats in anticipation of what monster lurked outside – what a let down!

The scariest thing on the show was Lindsay Coulson and the only clip of interest was Rose banging on the TV moniter.

Perhaps it’s the calm before the storm and they’ve spent all the special effects budget on the final few episodes!

In this concluding episode of the two-parter ‘Forest of the Dead’, we have given a little ’spoiler’ about Doctor’s future. He and River Song are obviously very close in the future, she even knows his real name, could she be his wife or are we being deliberately misled down that path?

I wonder if this will ever be a storyline that is pursued?

One thing I do want to know is – when River Song called for the Doctor to come to the Library, why did this Doctor turn up and not ‘her Doctor’ who was obviously in the same time-line as her already?

This is the type of Doctor Who episode my children and I enjoy – the kind that is a little bit scarey and makes you wait a whole week to find out how the Doctor will save the day – just like the ‘old days!’.

This two-part  screening was written by Steven Moffat who has written two of the scariest episodes, The Empty Child and Blink.  It has recently been announced that Steven Moffat will succeed the excellent Russell T Davis as Executive Producer and Lead writer for Season 5 due to air in 2010!

So the hype about the Doctor having a daughter, and the fact that she was played by the real life daughter (Georgia Moffett) of 5th Doctor, Peter Davidson, was indeed just that – hype!

Jenny was replicated from a tissue sample the Doctor was forced to give when the Tardis landed on the warring planet Messaline. What I want to know is why didn’t they also take samples from Martha and Donna – are they so annoying we don’t need 2 of them?

Anyway I think Jenny would make a great assistant, you can see Georgia’s inherited her mother, Sandra Dickinson’s, bubbly personality, and I hope she conveniently finds the Doctor again when Donna gets the boot!