In February I was fortunate to be present at Big Finish day 6.  The prospect was an intriguing one, but the one thing that hadn’t crossed my mind was the thought of exclusive announcements.  During one of the main panels discussing Big Finish as a company, with a Q and A session included, it was announced that there would be a sequel to the unreleased Dark Eyes 4.  The sequel was to be entitled “Doom Coalition” but no other details were revealed.

Fast forward to post-Dark Eyes 4 and Doom Coalition 1 is now released.  Listening to the trailer I wasn’t entirely sure what to think, other than that seeing Liv Chenka and Paul McGann’s Doctor would most likely be worth the few months of waiting.  The plot seemed to be uncertain from the brief sample we had, in comparison to its predecessor where you could at least make educated guesses as to what might transpire.

To avoid spoilers, I will simply give my impression of the four stories and how they interweave in a similar fashion to the review of Dark Eyes 4.

1. The Eleven

For those who read the cast list, you might be forgiven for thinking that Sylvester McCoy’s seventh Doctor might be limited to an appearance that doesn’t add much to the character.  However, it actually sets up the whole of the box set with a powerful confrontation between The Doctor’s seventh incarnation and an original villain, known only as The Eleven.  This powerful Time Lord criminal describes himself as having “an affliction”,  demonstrated by the seamless switching between multiple personalities, apparently from his various regenerations.  For the first story in this collection, the voice acting, sound design and music are all of the quality standards that are expected by Big Finish, meaning you will have little difficulty in conjuring up any of the settings, people or situations created.  Of particular note is the aforementioned Eleven, who in spite of the fact he is played by two separate people, there is no obvious break in consistency.

The ending of this episode, whilst potentially seeming anticlimactic, sets itself up well to continue into the next story.  In spite of the action packed ending, the links may not be anywhere near as clear cut as the structure might have you believe.

2. The Red Lady

Two men enter a room containing a collection of artefacts all left by an extremely focused individual, though the focus is not initially obvious.  This introduction serves to create the intrigue necessary to carry the plot forward, with the references to the culture of the time in which The Doctor and Liv find themselves also being of interest.  Here is where the references and prior knowledge of the Dark Eyes saga, in particular Dark Eyes 4, will be of assistance in unravelling what might seem at first to be a         confusing set of unintelligible references within the first 10 minutes.  However, those who don’t know the prequels very well or at all will be pleased to learn that future references are subtle and underhand, with the cast handling the dialog, including the comedic moments, with the utmost deftness.  The plot thickens as Liv and The Doctor investigate suspicious activities surrounding the collection, with the fact that the locations are few and far between making for an almost claustrophobic and fitting sense of urgency.  The horror themes of the latter half of this episode really shine through the actors’ delivery and the Red Lady’s presence is ominous enough to create a sense of dread at what might transpire.  Unfortunately, whilst I understand the reason for the vocal effect employed to mask the message near the end of the episode, it is far too distorted for it to be even remotely intelligible apart from the references from the cast.  This only serves to lessen the sense of intrigue that it attempts to create.

3. The Galileo Trap

Florence in 1639 is conjured up with surprising brilliance and the “alien behemoth” from the synopsis of this episode is also startlingly deadly in its presentation.  The plot of this episode does take a while to come together, with at least 2 interlinking threads that eventually convene into a well-conceived and mysterious link to The Eleven.  The cast, new members and old alike, handle their parts well, with the alien voices and delivery being very much a key area of the episode’s prowess.

4. The Satanic Mill

To use a time old phrase from Doctor Who’s history, “the moment has been prepared for”.  However, whilst the pieces are in place for The Doctor’s confrontation with The Eleven, they do not come together until near the end of the story.  The voice acting continues to be of the highest standards, with the emotionally charged deliveries only seeking to add to the events leading to the conclusion of this first entry in the Doom Coalition series.  However, the fate of The Eleven is left amongst other questions that will surely be answered in the sequel.

In conclusion, Doom coalition opens up a number of new areas to explore with the companions and cast who join McGann’s doctor in this 4 story set.  With the sound design and non-invasive score being well thought out, it leaves me as a fan of the Dark Eyes Saga wondering just how far the well-known Time Lord’s eighth incarnation will go to stop The Eleven’s machinations and save not just earth, but most likely the universe as well. 

The third boxset in the Dark Eyes series is something of a departure from the first two releases. Rather surprisingly Nick Briggs has taken a back seat from being involved in this release and some fans may have been relieved that the four episodes of Dark Eyes 3 are a Dalek-free zone. Instead, these episodes focus instead on the mysterious origins of the Eminence and its Fifty Year War against humanity plus a goodly helping of Alex Macqueen’s delightfully camp yet utterly sinister incarnation of the Master. In Briggs’ absence, all four episodes are written by Big Finish stalwart Matt Fitton and whilst there may not always be the same flair of originality which made the first Dark Eyes such as success this is a consistently solid sequence of stories which sows together various elements neatly in preparation for the fourth and final instalment of the saga.

The opening episode, The Death of Hope, picks up fairly directly from the cliffhanger coda to Dark Eyes 2 which saw Molly abruptly kidnapped by the Master and his accomplice Dr Sally Armstrong. The Doctor’s quest to save his companion finds him united with the Coordinator Narvin of the Celestial Intervention Agency. Sean Carlsen reprises this character who has previously only appeared in the spin-off series Gallifrey and it is fun to hear a character who has been at times both an enemy and an ally to Romana and Leela finally cross paths with the Doctor. This story makes clever use of the narrative device of the Doctor and Narvin witnessing a matrix projection of the Master’s activities, in which he appears to be offering salvation to a planet under threat of invasion by the Eminence. It certainly gives Alex Macqueen’s Master and Natalie Burt as Dr Armstrong a chance to shine as the main protagonists for this episode.

The second episode pitches the Doctor and his newest companion, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka firmly back into the action on the planet Ramossa where tensions are rife between human colonists and the indigenous insect-like Ramossans. Particularly notable is an unrecognisable Sacha Dhawan (An Adventure in Space and Time) as Ramossan General Jaldam. The final scenes feature Paul McGann’s Doctor at his best. Believing himself to have been outmanoeuvred by both the Master and the Time Lords and learning with some dismay of his companion Liv’s terminal illness,  the Doctor resolves to take drastic action.

Masterplan finally delivers on the promise of this boxset’s unofficial subtitle “Doctor vs Master” as the two Time Lords finally come face to face in a scenario where they are given some enjoyable verbal sparring which will call to mind their future encounters in the TV series guises of Tennant and Simm. Meanwhile, Liv is working under-cover as a research assistant to Professor Markus Schriver, the mentally unstable scientist destined to create the Eminence (nicely played with a lighter contrast to his sinister Eminence voice by David Sibley). Here she is confronted by the Master’s companion Sally Armstrong in a nice mirroring of the stories main confrontation between the Doctor and the Master. Considering Sally was originally a potential companion to the Doctor in Dark Eyes, the outcome of this story will be disappointing to some listeners.

The boxset concludes with a suitably large-scale finale. The Rule of the Eminence sees the Master attempt to take control of the human race using the Eminence’s controlling gas combined with Molly’s progenitor particles. Whilst this story is reminiscent of Last of the Time Lords, it does have enough originality to stand on its own. Having only appeared peripherally in the first three episodes, it is a joy to hear Ruth Bradley as Molly, playing such a central role in the action. Knowing that there is a further final Dark Eyes box set to follow, Molly’s apparent exit in this story is a surprise but it seems Big Finish made good plot expediency of Ruth Bradley’s limited availability for recording in what has proved to be her final audio appearance. This listener is a fan of the character of Liv Chenka, so her continuing as a regular companion into Dark Eyes 4 and the forthcoming Doom Coalition series is welcome. However the magical cure bestowed on her in this story to enable this to happen was rather convenient and could have warranted further development. Overall, this is a worthy conclusion to this boxset which makes particularly good use of the Macqueen incarnation of the Master (who sadly only features in one of the four episodes of Dark Eyes 4).  Hopefully Macqueen’s Master will be have another chance to spar against the Doctor in the not too distant future.

It seems a fitting addendum to mention that the fifth CD in this set, featuring the usual round of interviews with members of the cast and crew, reminds listeners that this set of stories was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the untimely death of Paul Spragg in May 2014. Paul was a much loved member of the Big Finish production staff who worked on numerous releases across many audio ranges over the preceding five years. He continues to be missed both by those who had the pleasure of working with him and by many  fans who either met him or just heard him on Big Finish podcasts and extras. This set features well-deserved and at times deeply poignant tributes to him, led by actors Paul McGann and Nicola Walker. 

 

This review will not be the usual attempt to summarise an entire story; such a task is difficult without attempting to create a linear timeline of events.  Therefore, here are my first impressions and conclusions on Dark Eyes 4 to allow you to judge for yourself.  Please note, I will make reference to Dark Eyes 1, 2 and 3, but will try to keep spoilers to a minimum.

4.1 A life in the day
The plot of this initial episode keeps you guessing throughout, with the cast performing admirably, dropping subtle clues to the situation.  It’s hard to see how this whole adventure fits into the rest of the story, but it works as a standalone adventure in its own right.  The action sequences are well handled, with the transitions between multiple locations being smooth and not interrupting the flow of the story.

4.2 The Monster of Montmartre

Those familiar with Dark Eyes’ intricate plotline will be able to find one important link to the rest of the saga even in the opening to this story.  However, things take on much higher stakes for The Doctor and Liv as the mysteries surrounding Paris’ latest new attraction unfolds.  The cast again performs well, with McGann and Briggs emotion-fuelled conversations as glimpsed in the trailer being worthy of note.  The score of the last few action packed scenes builds to a crescendo to encompass a final reveal.  Whilst it was expected, due to the cast list, trailers and the events of the series overall, it was well executed and did not seem clichéd.

4.3 Master of the Daleks

The opening of this story is humorous for reasons that I will not spoil.  The dialog between Liv and The Master is also comedic at points, whilst showing this Time Lord’s confidence as to the grasp of the situation.  References to the events of Dark Eyes 3, which are not entirely elaborated on (possibly so as not to confuse people getting into the story) are made here, with humour still being used in The Master’s dialog.  There are also new series references, which whilst possibly not directly intended, make for good fan service for those familiar with the revival era.  The Daleks are voiced with their usual levels of ruthlessness by Briggs, with the Dalek time controller’s softly spoken tones harkening back to the manipulative schemes of Davros. 

4.4 The Eye of Darkness.

The most noticeable thing about this story is the opening sequence.  Rather, the fact that it doesn’t have one.  The unidentified announcer in the first scene post-introduction is reminiscent of the Drudger from Dalek Empire or The Sirens of time.  Again, the events of Dark Eyes 3 are referenced, with the actions of a certain Professor Markus Schriver being of particular note.  Nick Briggs makes a cameo as a medical assistant, similar to Stan Lee in the Marvel films – if you weren’t listening for it you might not notice it.  The splitting up of characters works well, with events taking a turn for the worse, but signified in a rather unexpected way.  Briggs again plays the role of the time controller with skill, portraying the maniacal desperation and pain as this leader tries to get what he wants; domination of all of time.  The Doctor and Schriver’s wordplay being cut short by the least likely of arrivals is surprising, tinged with a sense that this is definitely not the last large-scale event to occur before the story ends.  This theory is confirmed as events draw to a close with a twist that, whilst being a shocking one, in its own unique way was not wholly unexpected.

Conclusions

The score throughout the entire boxset was well produced, not rising too far above the actors’ dialogue.  The sound design was, as has been the case with the past 3 interlinking Dark Eyes box sets, of a cinematic quality.  The casts of all four stories performed well, with no need for visual aids to convey the emotions that bring these characters to life.

It is still unclear how the opening Story, “A Life in the Day”, ties in to the following episodes, although I do have a theory.  However, I will refrain from elucidating on this as it could spoil important elements of plot.  Regardless of this relatively trivial fact, I would suggest anyone wanting to gain the full experience to start with Dark Eyes 1, 2 and 3 first in order to understand the plot and see the linking references as they appear.  However, in saying that, Doctor Who is one of those rare instances where episodes or story arcs could, hypothetically, be listened to or viewed in an incorrect order and have events still make some degree of sense.  Therefore, for those who are feeling adventurous it may be possible to listen to this well put together collection of stories first, returning to the remainder of the saga afterwards to see the relevance of prior events.  However, I would advise the former approach (listening to all the sets in order) for coherence’s sake.

This is a fitting end to what has been a saga full of memorable moments.  In spite of the events of all four box sets, one question remains: what’s next for The Doctor? According to the announcement at Big Finish Day 6, we’ll find the answer to that question and possibly others in Doctor Who - Doom Coalition. 

Following on the success of the 2012 release Dark Eyes, which was awarded Best Online Only Drama in the 2014 BBC Audio Drama awards; it seemed inevitable that the popular pairing of the eighth Doctor and new companion Molly O’Sullivan would be back for more adventures. The original four-part box set which was written and produced by Nicholas Briggs was originally conceived to encapsulate a whole era of Doctor Who, as if Briggs were show-runner for the eighth Doctor. As such whilst the story of Molly’s adventures seemed to have been neatly rounded off with her resuming her old life as nurse in the Great War following the Doctor’s defeat of the Dalek Time Controller and its ally Kotris, there are always new dangers to be fought. Dark Eyes 2 sees the beginning of a new story-arc which is promised to continue over to further box set releases – Dark Eyes 3 & 4 – due to be released later this year and in early 2015. This time Briggs has shared the writing duties with Big Finish stalwarts Alan Barnes and Matt Fitton who have taken on responsibility for planning out the new arc.

The new set opens with Briggs’ contribution, The Traitor, which finds the Doctor on the Dalek-occupied planet of Nixyce VII where he is reunited with med-tech Liv Chenka, played once again by Nicola Walker. Liv first appeared in the 2011 seventh Doctor release Robophobia but she is naturally sceptical of Paul McGann’s Doctor's claim to be the same Doctor she encountered previously. Her role as an apparent collaborator with the Daleks will remind long-time Big Finish listeners of that the “Angel of Mercy” Susan Mendes in the spin-off series Dalek Empire and once again Briggs evokes a similar atmosphere of harsh life under Dalek-rule. Walker and McGann are given some great material to work with as their characters clash due to the Doctor’s ambiguous role in events.

The second story, The White Room by Alan Barnes, finally brings about the welcome reunion of McGann’s Doctor with Ruth Bradley as Molly. This is possibly the weakest of the four episodes although it still manages to be a fun romp with time-travel elements although the reveal of which recurring aliens from previous Big Finish releases are responsible may leave some listeners slightly underwhelmed. However this still sets the scene nicely for the adventures to come.

The remaining two stories are both written by Matt Fitton and in these the box set gets down to business and back to the more serious tone established by The Traitor. Minor spoilers follow.

Time’s Horizon sees the Doctor and Molly arrive on a space-ship in the distant future where the crew have just been revived from centuries of cryosleep. Amongst them is Liv Chenka who we learn managed to narrowly escape from Nixyce VII with her life and is therefore not very pleased to see the Doctor. For the Doctor however, in a twist worthy of Steven Moffat, the events of Nixyce VII have not yet happened so he has no recollection and faces the added complication of ensuring Liv doesn’t tell him too much. This story sees the return of another Big Finish recurring enemy, the sinister force known as the Eminence, played with relish by David Sibley. Ironically this release pre-dates their first chronological appearance opposite the fourth Doctor in the June 2014 release Destroy the Infinite although in typical Big Finish timey-wimey-ness, The Eminence first appeared in last year’s sixth Doctor adventure The Seeds of War. However this story does not require any prior knowledge to be able to follow.

The set concludes with the much anticipated reunion of the eighth Doctor with his TV Movie adversary, The Master. Alex Macqueen first appeared in the role in the 2012 box set UNIT: Dominion in which his true identity was revealed after he successfully masqueraded as a future incarnation of the Doctor. Big Finish have previously remained tight-lipped about this incarnation’s position in the Master’s time-line but a couple of throwaway lines including Macqueen describing McGann’s Doctor as “a sight for sore eyes” hints at an answer to satisfy most fans. Macqueen has made clear in interviews that he takes his performance from the scripts and doesn’t base his portrayal on any of the previous TV incarnations. However it is clear from the scripting that his slightly camp and brilliantly sinister Master sits comfortably between the calculated menace of Delgado and Beevers, and the unhinged villainy of Ainley and Simm. The Eyes of the Master sees the two Time Lords reunited in their familiar battleground of 1970s London. The story is a worthy conclusion to the set with some great scenes although we are promised a full on face-off between the Doctor and the Master in Dark Eyes 3 this November.

Overall, Dark Eyes 2 is a worthy continuation of the Eighth Doctor’s adventures which left this listener yearning for the next instalment. Paul McGann continues to live up to the promise of being “probably not the one you were expecting”.

It should be said, Steven Moffat has had a lot of cleaning to do. Whether you think it was justified or not, Russell T Davies had an intensely cavalier approach to Doctor Who canon. The most common valid complaint against him was that he simply mis-characterised existing characters. In reality, what Davies did was simplified the characters to their base elements, then boiled away all but one, which he turned up to eleven. He made them into caricatures of their former selves. With The Master and Davros, it was their insanity. Everything else was lost and he was reduced to that element of his personality. With The Doctor, he removed almost everything else, took the danger, darkness, and snark, and turned it up to 12.

To many, myself included, this characterisation felt dishonest to the original. In fact, the most common complaint against David Tennant's Doctor, from those who have seen significant quantities of Classic Who, was that he simply didn't “feel like” The Doctor for explicitly these reasons.

Now, I'm sure at this point you're wondering what this has to do with The Night of The Doctor. The connection is simple. Steven Moffat attempted to explain this drastic, and jarring, change in his personality. Simply chanting “Time War,” referring to an off-screen plot device rather than showing actual character growth is lazy and unsatisfying, so Moffat actually came up with an on-screen reason for it. The elixir that Eight drinks, much like the crack in time that erased the ill-conceived (and appallingly designed) Cyberking from history, spackling over these cracks in the canon. It explained the personality change – The Doctor had to become this darker, more aggressive man to fight this Time War. He had to literally become a different person. It stands to reason that in the next regenerations, this would gradually wear-off and he'd become more like he was. While I can hardly explain why Ten was infinitely less Doctor-like than Nine, it fits perfectly that Eleven, possibly after seeing how far his “War” persona took him as Ten, forced himself to regenerate in such a way that brought him more in-line with how he used to be. The fact that Eleven feels many times more like The Doctors of the Classic series actually makes a good degree of sense with this in mind. It will be interesting to see how Capaldi takes on the character, keeping this theory in consideration.

So Moffat had this goal in his script already. But he also aimed to seek a gap in the show's existing canon – to provide a regeneration for Eight. While it's hardly the best regeneration in the show's history, it is definitely better than some of the worse ones (Six, Seven, Ten). One couldn't provide a satisfying regeneration for Eight without a lot of build-up and, for what it's worth, Moffat does try to provide that by referencing, and making canonical, his many years of Big Finish audios. This isn't as effective as it could possibly be, but Moffat made Big Finish canonical and I am quite pleased at that fact (as, I imagine, he is as well. Being an immense fan of their work himself).

The question now is where Eight goes from here. There are petitions online to get him his own spin-off series. If this happens, it will be curious to see where they approach it and who is put in charge. I, for one, and firmly in the camp supporting a spin-off, as I believe Paul McGann's physicality can lend a lot to the series, but only on the condition that they do not attempt to recast existing Big Finish companions. Just as Karen Gillan was almost rejected for not being “pretty enough,” I fear India Fisher may get recast for not being a stick. What's more likely, however, is that Eight will get an all-new companion developed by the head-writer of the show. I would be thrilled to see this, provided they don't go and attempt to inject another canonical romance into the series. It's weird and we already have enough wars being fought in the fandom over Rose/River/no-one as-is. We don't need any more.

For the previous screenings in the British Film Institute’s monthly Doctor Who 50th anniversary events, there has been some degree of choice for the organisation in which story it selects to celebrate the era of each particular Doctor. While it’s true that every era of the show has a small gaggle of stories held up as classics by a large portion of fandom, there have still always been options. Not so, however, for Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. The man who once described himself as “the George Lazenby of the Time Lords” is represented by only a single entry in the televised history of Doctor Who – the 1996 TV Movie, which brought the programme back from the dead after seven years, but failed to lead to the new US network series that the team behind it had been hoping for.

That said, McGann’s sole outing on-screen wasn’t the initial focus of this event, which – unlike the others in the series that I have attended – began with a discussion panel before the showing, which kicked off at 10am, with much apology from host Justin Johnson that we’d all had to get up to early on a Saturday to be there! The first panel was a discussion and celebration of something the sheer level of which may be unique to Doctor Who – the plethora of fan-originated professional spin-off media that carried the flame of the series during the long years the TV show was off-air, both before and after McGann’s sole outing.

Dick Fiddy, Johnson’s co-host at all of these BFI events, expertly and deftly guided a panel consisting of Seventh Doctor script editor Andrew Cartmel, Big Finish’s Nick Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery and Gary Russell, BBC Books novel editor Justin Richards and non-fiction author and former Doctor Who Magazine co-editor Marcus Hearn. Cartmel more seemed to be there because he wasn’t able to attend the Seventh Doctor event back in August, and unlike the others on the panel didn’t come up through fandom and the fanzine world, but he did write for both the novel ranges of the 1990s and for Big Finish, and had interesting things to say about what were being somewhat jokingly referred to as “the wilderness years.”

While you might perhaps think that such a panel could be a little dry, the conversation was free-flowing and, for me, fascinating, and it was interesting to hear the opinions on display about the years when Doctor Who was very much a non-mainstream, cult property, being made by fans, for fans in terms of books and audio dramas. Some of the panel even admitted that they never really thought Doctor Who would ever return to television, although of course all were delighted when it did.

The panel was enjoyable and informative, perhaps the most so among all those I’ve seen at the BFI, and I was surprised to find it had gone on for as long as 45 minutes. If anything was missing it was perhaps any real discussion of Virgin Books’ output during the 1990s, although Russell did acknowledge what an important contribution they had made in originating the careers of writers who went on through BBC Books, Big Finish and in some cases onto the TV series itself. But it was an organic discussion, you can’t plan to include each and every thing, and there was only so much time available.

It was a small surprise that the TV Movie wasn’t then formally introduced – after the panel had finished and the chairs were removed from the stage, the lights went down… Then briefly up again, then down again, then the movie started – hopefully not catching anybody out who’d taken the opportunity to nip to the toilet!

I hadn’t watched the film for eight years – the last time I did so being just before the series returned back in 2005. But it was still very familiar, as I’d watched it repeatedly when it originally came out in the 1990s, when I was 12 years old and the return of Doctor Who, even sadly briefly, was one of the most exciting things I could ever remember having happened. I think fandom in general is a lot more relaxed about the TV movie these days. Before it was made there was anxiety and paranoia that it would be a heavily “Americanised” version of the show, and after it had come and gone much wailing and gnashing of teeth about its failings and the fact it didn’t lead to a full series. Now, with Doctor Who having been back on television for several years as a great success, we don’t have to be quite to worried about what it did or didn’t do, and we can just enjoy it for what it is. Flawed, indeed, but still with some great moments of humour and charm.

Indeed, for a production that was being pulled in so many different directions – by the BBC, by the Fox Network who were broadcasting it in the US, by Universal who were producing it, by Philip Segal as the Doctor Who-loving producer behind it – perhaps the most surprising thing about it is just how good it is. If it had been as big a mess as the process of getting it made was, then goodness only knows what we’d have seen on-screen.

Talking of being on-screen, while still strictly in standard definition format (no high definition version exists, nor is one ever likely to unless someone tracks down the original film elements and rebuilds it all from scratch) the fact it was made on 35 mm film means it scrubs up very nicely, possibly the best of the any of the three BFI showings I have attended. It was also the full original US edit, not the slightly cut BBC One version, meaning we got to see just exactly what happened to Chang Lee’s mates (they didn’t make it, in case you didn't know!) and also hear the Seventh Doctor’s rather undignified final scream.

Following a very brief break (during which I did manage, with many others, to make a lightning dash to the toilet, before causing a minor inconvenience to Andrew Cartmel and the others sitting in my row as I made my way back to my seat!), we were onto the panel discussing the actual film itself. Philip Segal wasn’t in attendance, and there was no note read out from him as there had been from other high-profile figures who’ve been unable to attend previous screenings – I’m sure the BFI asked him along, of course, but doubtless living in the US made it difficult. However, someone who also lives across the Atlantic, and got a huge round of applause when it was announced she’d made the trip specially, is Daphne Ashbrook. Indeed, the actress seemed rather overwhelmed by the huge round of applause she received, perhaps even bigger than that given to her co-star in the film – the Eighth Doctor himself, Paul McGann.

Ashbrook and McGann were joined by the film’s director, Geoffrey Sax, for another enjoyable and convivial session, answering questions from Justin Johnson and, later, the audience – including me! I was brave enough to finally pluck up the courage to put a question at one of these events, and I’m glad I did as asking Sax whether he’d ever been invited to come back to Doctor Who by Julie Gardner (with whom he worked on the ITV Othello in 2001) or any other of the post-2005 production team prompted the revelation that he’d actually been invited by Gardner to direct the very first block of filming for Christopher Eccleston’s series back in 2005. He also said that after working with Matt Smith on the BBC drama Christopher and his Kind a couple of years ago, Smith had secured him an invitation to direct one of the Christmas specials. However, he was busy on both occasions, so has still to return to Doctor Who. As, of course, has Paul McGann, and I was surprised that nobody asked him the big question about whether he has even a cameo role in the forthcoming 50th anniversary special. The special was mentioned – with McGann suggesting that speculation about who is going to be in it even beats “Who’s going to be the next Doctor?” speculation these days – and someone asked him about a Tweet he’d recently made talking about Matt Smith and voiceover work, but nobody put the question itself outright – which I thought showed remarkable restraint!

Much of the discussion during the panel would have been familiar to anyone who has read the making-of book by Segal and Gary Russell, or seen the documentary on the DVD re-release of the movie, which Ashbrook herself spoke of recently having seen and been astonished by just how much effort it took to get the thing made. Ashbrook indeed seems to have been on something of a mission to discover Doctor Who in her years since appearing in it, when she had no knowledge of the show at all – she was even able to name-check Patrick Troughton when discussing favourite Doctors, and said how she still misses Amy and Rory from the current series! Her best story, however, was of returning in 2010 to the house in Vancouver which was used as the location of Grace’s apartment in the film. The same couple who’d owned it back in 1996 still lived there, and gave her a copy of a photo taken with her and McGann back when the film was being made.

McGann himself was most fascinating when revealing some of the tentative discussions he’d had with Segal about how the Doctor and the series might have developed had the movie been more successful Stateside. He was very clear that the appearance of the Eighth Doctor was not what he’d wanted, and he’d wanted a look and a costume much more akin to what Eccleston eventually got – a look McGann jokingly referred to as “the bin man!” He also confirmed that, had Russell T Davies offered him the chance to star in the 2005 series instead of Eccleston, he’d certainly have come back as the Doctor for that run.

Overall, it was nice to see a group still so pleased and proud of their association with Doctor Who, despite its brevity and its not leading to a full series. McGann remains a Doctor cheated out of exploring his full potential as the character, on screen at least, but I’m pleased he was here for his day in the sun at the BFI. These monthly celebrations continue to be hugely enjoyable, and I’m very glad I’ve been able to attend some of them – it seems such a shame they’re coming to an end soon, as the 50th anniversary reaches its climax. Can’t we just carry on and keep having one every month ad infinitum…? Please, BFI…?