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[Captain Audio]

Oddly enough, while I never had a Jupiter 2 toy as a kid, I did have a Seaview toy.  It was seaworthy, and could propel itself thru water.  (Of course, unless you use it in a swimming pool, it's kind of limited on that level.) My Dad got me the full playset, which also came with 2 (or 3?) other smaller vehicles (none of which were the Flying Sub) and a pack of about 20 undersea soldiers.  I used to team them up with the soldiers from the HORRIBLE HAMILTON playset against the giant monsters from that.  ("More" is better.)

I had a very detailed model U-Boat when I was a kid, long before VTTBOTS came out.
We had access to a huge swimming pool so I carefully balanced the ballast and set the dive planes at just the right angle so that as the body of the sub slowly filled with water through pin hole leaks it glided through the water like a sail plane through air. It would make it all the way from the shallow end to the deep end in a straight line if not disturbed.

I later on built a Seaview model for a nephew who was too young to do it right, it turned out fine.

BTW I ran across an article stating that Australia had granted Walt Disney corp money to do a remake of 20,000 Leagues under the sea. I bet they screw it up.

[profh0011]

CASTLE OF TERROR  (1964)

Italian film whose cast & crew are all inexplicably credited as having "English" names.  The dubbing appears to have been done by the same people who've dubbed a lot of foreign cartoons, like SPEED RACER.  And it seems to me the one American in the cast was missing from the credits-- Barbara Steele!

Check out this dialogue between two women...

"Yes-- I do love him!"
"No-- you will never be happy with ANY man."
"You're only saying that because you're JEALOUS."

This film apparently had many, many different titles depending on which video version you find.  I was thinking last night, a more "sensationalistic" one could have been...

LESBIAN LOVERS OF BLOOD CASTLE

[Captain Audio]

Watched "Nightmare Castle" AKA "Castle of Fear" awhile back, torture porn but a good story.
"Black Sunday" was bit more enjoyable.

A more modern movie in the same general vein as "Castle of Fear" would be "Castle Freak" from 1995.

[profh0011]

It's been such a rough week-- especially yesterday-- I knew I was in the mood for a comedy tonight.

A week or so back, I'd watched both MY DARLING CLEMENTINE and GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL.  And there was "THE GUNFIGHTERS" sitting there waiting for me.  A western, and, a comedy.  Perfect!

I swear, this story's even better when I don't "have" to put up with the ones surrounding it.  It's now become one of the few DOCTOR WHO stories in my collection I have watched all on its own, and more than once.

Compared to the two earlier "classic" movies, both Earp and Holiday come across as so likable in this.  Even Holiday, despite his being so devious and unscrupulous, putting The Doctor in such danger of his life the way he did.  Of course, thanks to his "interfering" lady-friend, he winds up going in and saving the day, from hiding.

It's funny how in one scene, The Doctor goes from not having a clue what's going on, to suddenly having to deal with a very dangerous situation.  "What do we do NOW, young lady?"

I also got a kick out of it when, on orders from the crooks, Steven hands the Doctor a gun while he's in the jail cell.  And as he's twirling it, Wyatt walks up casually, not looking the least bit taken back or worried.  And The Doctor turns to him and says, "Would you mind holding onto this for me?  People keep giving me guns!"

It's interesting to see the contrast with Wyatt and Holiday from the first half of the story, to the last part, when they both suddenly have an angry vendetta-- Wyatt for the murder of his youngest brother Warren (not Jimmy?), and Holiday when he finds out Ringo has gotten his hands on Kate again.

Not only were there 2 Gerry Anderson actors in here (Shane Rimmer and David Graham), but 3 actors returned for later WHO stories.  Laurence Payne (Ringo) came back as "Dastari" in THE TWO DOCTORS;  David Graham was "Prof. Krenenski" in CITY OF DEATH;  and Lynda Baron, who was not seen on camera, but sang "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" for the entire length of the story, was "Captain Strack" in ENLIGHTENMENT.

I wish they'd done more comedies with William Hartnell.  He was really funny when the stories gave him a chance.

[Captain Audio]

I wish they'd done more comedies with William Hartnell.  He was really funny when the stories gave him a chance.

Though Dr Who? can be dead serious at times, the comic element, from Droll to Dark, gives it a special flavor.
Which reminds me, I've noticed a similarity in Tom Baker's Dr and John Lithgow's portrayal of the Alien leader in 3rd Rock from the Sun.
Both seem to be most interested in doing a good job as a comic, perhaps because serious actors recognize that its more difficult to make an audience laugh than to make them cry. Both seem to have been a bit self conscious at first, trying too hard, a sort of learning curve is evident.

[narfstar]

I have often said the movie makes the actor not the other way around. We learn to associate a certain part with a certain actor and think they made it. But that is only after the fact. In reality any  number of competent actors could have done the role first and become the icon. No actor is worth the kind of money they make. Comedy is sometimes the exception. There is a special talent to being a good comedian. Over the top comedy is easy, just like over acting. Some comedians are genious while others are over the top hacks. Some are over the top because those movies seem to make money. Some can do both good or over the top while others are just hacks. I sometimes wish I had been around during the silent movie days. I could have been a star. The melodramatic acting that was considered great is so easy to do.

[jimmm kelly]

Hm, but then there's Buster Keaton, the Great Stone Face. Very few could have done what Buster Keaton did.

One of my film studies profs made the argument that there are certain actors who are established in the mind of the audience. Someone like John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart. They bring with them a history that establishes their character and a director can cut through all the exposition, because the audience immediately knows who this guy is.

So for some movies you want that. Other movies, you don't want the audience associating the actor with his other roles, so name actors can be a burden--unless they're someone like Gary Oldman, who can disappear into a part.

Then again, a director might play against audience expectations and subvert them, as Sergio Leone did in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, casting Henry Fonda as Frank.

[profh0011]

On DOCTOR WHO, it seems William Hartnell was playing the type of character he was already associated with (see CARRY ON SERGEANT). On the other hand, Patrick Troughton had always been a "character" actor, a chameleon who disappeared into his various roles.  I never even realized I'd seen him in several different movies until I first learned he'd been on WHO as The Doctor.  When I realized he'd played the wizard Milantheus in SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, I immediately thought his Doctor was probably like that.  While it did seem I was right, over the years, I've come to feel that Milantheus was, if anything, closer to the First Doctor than he was to the Second!  (Especially the fact that he had a young daughter as his assistant.)

Jon Pertwee was an odd case.  After the surprising success of Troughton, they deliberately cast Pertwee because they wanted to continue with a "humorous" version of The Doctor.  You can actually see this in "Spearhead From Space".  But then new producer Barry Letts took over with "The Silurians", and the entire tone of the show changed COMPLETELY, to go along with the total change in format from the previous story.  And so you had a "comedy" actor playing the part DEADLY SERIOUS (half the humor comes from the fact that The Doctor is too damn serious for his own good... while The Master is far more likable and charming-- if you ignore all those murders...).

Tom Baker went the other way.  Between films like THE VAULT OF HORROR and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, he'd been playing villains.  Yet right out of the box, in "Robot", he's "doing" Patrick Troughton!  When I found out that Barry Letts' original intention was for The Master to be the "other half" of a Doctor who'd been SPLIT into two people, Baker's casting took on a whole different meaning for me.  Just imagine if Letts had been able to follow through on his plan... Baker's Doctor might have been the first time we saw the "real" Doctor in years-- or perhaps, EVER--  depending on exactly WHEN he was split.  Someone I know suggested it COULD have happened in between "The War Games" and "Spearhead"-- and been done deliberately BY The Time Lords to "teach him a lesson".  It's notable that both The Doctor AND The Master are angry as hell AT The Time Lords.  Maybe for the SAME reason?

It amazes me how some things I continue to look at and interpret differently, as years keep going by.

[jimmm kelly]

With the latest reveal in the DOCTOR WHO series, I've hatched a theory (which will doubtless never pan out) that at the point of each regeneration it's possible for some (often evil) counterpart to split from the Doctor. The Valeyard, as I remember it, was supposed to be an alternate Doctor who splits between 12 and 13. There apparently could have been an anti-Doc between 8 and 9, as well.

My theory is that the regenerative energy is capable for a short time of, not only changing the Doctor's form, but producing these offshoots. Perhaps sometimes these guys look like the Doctor (both Hartnell and Troughton had evil look alikes), while other times they look very different.

10's clone is sort of the same deal, since he's spawned from the hand that was hacked off just after the 9th regeneration.

This also kind of explains why Romana could try on different forms during her regeneration.

Potentially there might be 12 alternate Doctors.

[paw broon]

"On DOCTOR WHO, it seems William Hartnell was playing the type of character he was already associated with (see CARRY ON SERGEANT)." profh0011
Except that you might not have seen him in Brighton Rock (and a couple of others whose titles I forget)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039220/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2
Chilling piece of work.
jk, haven't seen the last episode so can't comment (I get fed up sometimes with the seriousness of it all and often enjoy the start of episodes and turn off when it gets too cranked up emotionally) but, your theory is absolutely intriguing and I had never considered the Romana angle.
Also, you write about "It amazes me how some things I continue to look at and interpret differently, as years keep going by."
and I find that I don't feel differently about Tom baker than when watching the show live.  I always thought he over-acted and he's never been my favourite Doctor BUT, Some of his adventures are among my all-time favourite stories.  At the time, I remember going to school on Mon. mornings and talking over the Doctor Who from Sat. evening and I'm sure Troughton was not popular at the start. The only Doctor we knew was Hartnell and he was gone - tragedy.  But quite quickly, this odd, quirky, knowing character, became a bit of a winner.  And when T.B. started, some folk thought he was useless - a sort of Harpo Marx with a funny get-up.

[profh0011]

After Peter Cushing and then Jon Pertwee, my first reaction on seeing a photo of Tom Baker was, "Him? That LOONY?" However, one episode into "Robot", I got to like him.  (It took me until "Day of the Daleks" before I finally started to warm up to Pertwee!)

Oddly enough, I still have mixed feelings about Baker's era.  I rank him as probably my 3rd favorite Doctor, but his era has what I feel is the best writing, pacing, story structure, etc.  I just dug out the 16th season to watch. Something I only noticed recently-- and I feel it's not there in his earlier seasons-- is that when Romana shows up, all of a sudden Tom Baker starts to remind me a lot of William Hartnell.  ("That's ridiculous for somebody as old as you are!")  For the first time, I can really believe that he's playing the SAME character, only much younger-looking.

I've long felt that, to understand what happened with Romana in "Destiny of the Daleks", all you have to do is watch "Planet of the Spiders".  She was doing the SAME thing Kam'po did with Cho-Je. "projecting" a future version of herself (several in her case), before actually regenerating. The Doctor did this as well in "Logopolis", except, not exactly being a "normal" Time Lord (for whatever reason), he didn't seem to be aware of it, or in any way in control of it.

[profh0011]

Romana was the first of Tom Baker's girls I took an instant liking to, and her early scenes with Tom Baker are among my all-time favorites in the entire history of the series.

    "I did graduate from the Academy with a triple-first."
    "I suppose we're supposed to be impressed by that, too."
    "Well it is better that scraping by at 51 per cent on the second attempt."
    "That information is CLASSIFIED!!!"

    The Doctor is supposed to be this brilliant "pioneer" among his own people (according to William Hartnell).  This seems to fly in the face of that.  Who's telling the truth?

    "You're sulking."
    "I am not sulking."
    "That's ridiculous for somebody as old as you are."
    "I am NOT-- old!"
    "Seven hundred and forty-nine?"
    "Seven hundred and forty-six!"
    "You've lost count somewhere."
    "Well I ought to know my own age!"
    "Yes, but I expect after the first few centuries things start to get a big FOGGY."

    It's not just her attitude, but her upper-crust accent that does it.  She cracks me up.

    I remember a few years ago watching this again, after a few scenes, it hit me what i was seeing...  I yelled out at the TV, "It's Hermoine Grainger-- all grown up!"  (The girl from the HARRY POTTER series.)

[paw broon]

Fascinating and I realise I have to go back and watch these shows again.  I also took to Romana right away but Zoe was the first assistant that I took an instant liking to.
This is an extract from the BBC site about their first meeting:-
"Zoe introduced herself to the Doctor as an

[narfstar]

"on his scepticism, stating her reasoning couldn

[paw broon]

What is NEA?  I get what you say and I feel the same way about some things.  We go to art galleries a lot, most recently the Peploe exhibition at Edinburgh GMA 1
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourist-series-sj-peploe/highlights-23444
and it was a marvellous experience to see these pictures in sympathetic surroundings.  We also go to more modern shows and one of the best last year was finding the Mondrian works at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, Netherlands.  Now, I don't think you're going to like this but have a look at his evolution from the Windmill to Boogie Woogie.
http://artchive.com/artchive/M/mondrian.html#images

But you will like this, a tasty wee Vermeer. Incredible in the flesh, as it were. (It scrolls through three but it's the view of Delft I'd like you to have a swatch at)
http://www.gemeentemuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/highlights-mauritshuis

How about this self portrait of the main man?  How spectacular is that?
http://www.gemeentemuseum.nl/en/organisation/news/five-masterpieces-return-to-the-hague

[josemas]

What is NEA? 

National Endowment for the Arts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts

http://www.nea.gov/

Best

Joe

[profh0011]

Paw Broon:
"Zoe was the first assistant that I took an instant liking to."

Let's see, the order in which I saw the companions...

Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbins, Susan (Roberta Tovey), Louise (Jill Curzon); then Barbara (Jennie Linden) and Ian (Roy Castle).  Yeah, I saw the 2nd one first...

For TV, it was Liz Shaw, then Jo Grant. I liked Liz straight off, Jo took longer to grow on me. They didn't run anything after "Day of the Daleks" here, so the next ones I saw were Sarah-Jane Smith & Harry Sullivan, then Leela, then K-9, then, a couple years later, Romana.  (We got Baker's 1st 4 years in May'79; I forget exactly when we got his last 3.)

Of course Zoe's been in my "top 5" for a LOT of years now... she's just so adorable!

[paw broon]

Thanks Joe.  What a lot to investigate.  I notice there is a Jazz strand.  In some ways, I think it is important for the cultural side of life to be emphasised as it's important for society - if you believe in such a thing as society, that is.  Coming from a different culture and society, I think there should be some cash spent on giving people the opportunity to see and experience other things that they wont necessarily come across in everyday life.  It's where we draw the line, given the current economic problems that is the question.
Some of the stuff I see in The Tate and other places does make me wonder what is going on but, it makes me think and that is important.
Back to Doctor Who.

[jimmm kelly]

When I was staying in Vienna around this time last year, the TV I had in my room only got a couple of English-speaking channels. So one night I happened to watch an episode of DOCTOR WHO, which was the first Martha Jones episode. I got into it because of Freema Agyeman who I recognized from L&O:UK. I also saw her next DW episode.

So that was one reason why I got into watching DW, after I returned home. And it's also why Martha is one of my favourite companions.

By the by, another night in Vienna I saw an episode of an old British series, but I missed the beginning so I don't know what it was called. But it seemed to have been made in the 80s or the 90s. It was about a bunch of people who worked in a London pub or inn (I think it was London, maybe in the East End) and it was a period piece (Edwardian possibly).

That episode was about the young guy who works in the pub. He takes up with a floozy who keeps stringing him along, making him believe she loves him, but all the time using him. Meanwhile another woman in the pub likes this guy, but he's oblivious.

I've tried many search terms on the internet to find this series, but I've come up empty.

[paw broon]

You got me with this one. It's the period piece part that's got me.  There was a series with Nicholas Lyndhurst:-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106014/
But the 2 periods involved 1990's and 1940's.
Eastenders is a soap set in the East End and a lot of it is in a pub but it can't be that.
The film, "Saloon Bar", with Gordon Harker isn't Edwardian:-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033016/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

No, I'm stumped.

[jimmm kelly]

You got me with this one. It's the period piece part that's got me.  There was a series with Nicholas Lyndhurst:-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106014/
But the 2 periods involved 1990's and 1940's.
Eastenders is a soap set in the East End and a lot of it is in a pub but it can't be that.
The film, "Saloon Bar", with Gordon Harker isn't Edwardian:-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033016/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

No, I'm stumped.

Thanks for the effort. It's definitely not those two. It was clearly an episodic series and anchored in its own time period. And I got the feeling that it was about this whole ensemble of characters, but each episode must have directed its focus on a different character.

As far as the time period, I'm totally guessing. I think that it was meant to be set before one of the two wars, but I'm foggy on which one. However it was certainly in the earlier part of the 20th century.

I didn't recognize any of the actors, but they were all good. And the writing was also good.

I've gone through a lot of imdb listings in trying to find it, but no luck. It's the kind of series that could've been shown on PBS, but maybe it never gained an audience.

[profh0011]

Oh, by the way, I know there's a distinction between "travelling companions" and others, but it kinda blurs with Jon Pertwee's era, since he spent so much time on Earth.  Basically, MY favorite supportiong character was The Brigadier. So, of course, when I first saw Tom Baker, my favorite stories right off were the 2 with The Brig.  It didn't seem right for UNIT to appear in 2 further stories, but without him.

For a while the show seemed to be slowly stripping itself of the UNIT era, one piece at a time.  The last piece to go was Sarah.  It's no wonder it took me awhile to warm up to Leela.  Although, over the years, she has CONTINUED to grow on me. I love how, for a "savage", she's so well-spoken.  "Do not worry, Doctor, I will protect you."   

[jimmm kelly]

One thing I don't like is how they got rid of some companions. I like it when a companion leaves on their own terms. But the departure of many companions was too abrupt.

Sarah seemed to leave on her own terms--although it may have been just a miscommunication. But there were a number of females who, having met some guy for all of five minutes, decide that this is the guy for them and they say adios to the Doctor.

This happened with Susan, Vicki, Jo, and Leela. With Jo, I felt like she really loves the Doctor, but she realizes that it will never work out. In her last story with him, they keep crossing signals. But she meets this scientist, who's like a substitute Doctor, and he's more her own age and human. So she decides to fill the void that can't be filled by the Doctor, by marrying this other guy.

But even after Jo is gone, the memory of her remains. She inhabits the last Pertwee story, as she sends back the blue crystal which he gave her as a wedding gift--the blue crystal that he stole from Metebelis Three, which partly caused the misunderstanding he had with Jo in the first place. And that becomes the source of his ultimate downfall.

[narfstar]

I think when they realize that they will never win over the love of The Doctor they rush to what is available.

[profh0011]

I got the feeling Leela figured out very early-on it wouldn't work out.  But she wanted off that rathole planet so much, she made the effort anyway. (Ever notice she was wearing make-up at the end of "The Face Of Evil"?)  A lot of people knock her eventual relationship with Andred, but it makes sense to me.  He was the closest thing in The Citadel to a "warrior", and had already shown her great patience and respect. I can easily imagine her splitting her time inside and outside The Citadel, and encouraging her husband to do the same.