Doctor Who: Dreams of Empire

I had received this book for Christmas and only got around to finishing it recently, so I wanted to share some thoughts on it while it was still fresh in my mind.

In summary, the plot involves the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria landing on an asteroid where the remnants of the Haddron Empire are located. Certain factions are pitted against each other, and one has robots employed to do a lot of destruction in order to retrieve a certain figure who is being held there. There is a lot of political intrigue that the Doctor and his companions end up being embroiled in and it’s interesting to see how they figure into it. If I had to guess, it seems the story is set after The Ice Warriors; the Doctor makes some comment about them having been “froze out”, which I took to be a reference to that serial. If that’s not the case then it is definitely set after The Tomb of the Cybermen, as mention is made of Victoria’s new shorter dress, and Toberman from that serial is brought up by Jamie.

In the foreword the author describes his inspiration for the novel (something about having watched a documentary or miniseries – can’t remember which – on the Roman Empire), as well as his affection for the Second Doctor. He mentions how it might be hard to get his persona through the written word because he’s so expressive with his facial expressions and gestures. Despite that, I thought he did a very good portrayal of the Doctor. Jamie and Victoria were also very well-written.

The Doctor and his companions don’t show up right away; first there is some background on the Empire/Republic and its major players to set the stage for what our heroes are about to face. The characters are all quite interesting and although the politics is lightly touched upon, it makes for some interesting background information as well.

Not long after the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria show up, they come across the body of a dead man and, natch, are accused of having killed him. They eventually earn the trust of Trayx, the man who for all intents and purposes is in charge here.

There is also a chess metaphor set up in the story, which features heavily. Two men, Kesar (whose face is hidden behind a bronze mask after having been badly injured/burned beyond recognition in a battle) and Kruger, are seen at various times engaged in a chess game.

After a while they figure out all is not what it seems in more ways than one and have to unravel this mystery. There is a lot of action with battles taking place between robots and humans. There is also a pretty neat twist regarding Kesar not being the man he was thought to be all along.

As I mentioned earlier, the Doctor and his friends were very well written; although they don’t feature very heavily, the author seems to have gotten their personalities down quite well. There’s a funny moment where the Doctor is explaining to Jamie something related to the chess match, and bringing up some trivia regarding Leo Tolstoy and chess games. Jamie’s response is something to the effect of: “Doctor, I don’t care.” LOL.

It was a very engaging story that kept me wanting more with every turn of the page. I wasn’t sure how interested I’d be in it given all the political intrigue, but it really held my interest.

Doctor Who: Harvest of Time

I’ve finally got a reason to update this blog. I was given the novel “Doctor Who: The Harvest of Time” as a Christmas gift and finally got a chance to finish reading it.

This book written by Alastair Reynolds is an adventure featuring the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT (the Brigadier, Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton make appearances). In summary, there are strange goings-on in the vicinity of an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. People are being attacked by little metal crab-like creatures called Sild who attach themselves to their victims, putting them under their control. Meanwhile, shady government types are working with an enigmatic fellow who turns out to be – you guessed it – the Master. The Sild eventually target the Master, and the Doctor ends up having to work with him in order to stop the Sild from taking over Earth.

Jo and UNIT didn’t feature too heavily in this one, but whenever they did feature I thought they were completely in character. I could just picture the actors’ mannerisms and hear them saying the lines. The Doctor’s characterization was also well done, as was the Master’s. The author portrayed their banter/sniping back and forth at one another as they’re forced to work together. We also got some glimpses into their history together, and less antagonistic interaction at times that was well done.

I also loved the nod to Jamie McCrimmon in this one. Towards the beginning, the Doctor and Jo meet a character by the name of Edwina “Eddie” McCrimmon, who is the middle-aged daughter of the man who was formerly in charge of the rig. Someone else associated with the rig mentions “McCrimmon” to the Doctor, who replies something to the effect of “I knew a McCrimmon once. Awfully decent fellow.” It’s never said whether this character could have been a descendant of Jamie, but I still appreciated the nod to him here. 🙂 Edwina is a very good, well-rounded character, proving she’s more than able to hold her own throughout all the dangerous predicaments in which she gets herself involved. There was a cool twist later on involving her, although the author seems to telegraph it and it wasn’t as much of a surprise as I’d thought… still, it was pretty well done.

The Praxilions, the aliens to which we get a quick introduction at the very beginning (and which we see much more of in the second half of the book), are pretty interesting characters, as is the history of their planet.

I also liked the nod to the Masters’ other incarnations while he and the Doctor are working together aboard the Consolidator. He sees them all on display and the descriptions bring to mind not only his decaying self from the 4th Doctor’s time (The Deadly Assassin especially), but also the Saxon!Master from the 10th’s era and the more recent Missy.

The only nitpicks I have about this book are that, one, it tends to drag quite a bit in the second half. The action is well-paced in the first half, but once the Doctor and Master are working together, it’s as if the author takes the situation and zooms in on it, slowing down time as he’s doing so (not sure if “time dilation” would be a proper description for this?). It’s almost as if he suddenly realizes it and then quickly rushes to the end of the book. The second nitpick is that the environmental “message” seems a bit heavy-handed. I know it does fit well within this era of Doctor Who (see episodes like “Doctor Who and the Silurians” and “The Green Death”), but the way the author has Edwina giving her press conference at the end and saying the things she does, it’s done in a quite heavy-handed way as if he just wanted to get his agenda out there. I think a more subtle approach would have worked, but I think it might be a casualty of the fact that he’d slowed things down so much earlier and perhaps realized he quickly had to wrap it up. I also found that when she told the Doctor and Jo that her father was actually very agreeable to her new direction with the company a bit hard to believe, given the glimpses of his character we were given earlier. I won’t say any more as I don’t want to make this political in the least. I did enjoy the book; I just couldn’t help being a bit disappointed by these two items.

That concludes my review. I’m about to start reading the Second Doctor book “The Final Sanction” and I’ll be sure to post my thoughts when I’m finished with it.

Doctor Who Tales of Terror – review

I received this book for Christmas and just recently finished it, so I wanted to write up a review.

This book is a collection of 12 Halloween-themed stories – one for each Doctor (this was published before the 13th’s time). I was surprised to find out that it’s more of a children’s book, but the stories were so well done I can’t see why adults would enjoy them as well. I’ll include a short synopsis and possibly some things I liked about each story. There are also illustrations throughout, one for each story. They usually depict either the Doctor and his companions, or some supporting characters.

Murder in the Dark: This one features the 1st Doctor, Steven and Dodo encountering a spooky house that seems to be all decked out for a Halloween party. Inside there are kids all dressed up in Halloween costumes playing various games. Steven and Dodo end up getting involved, however the games soon turn deadly. I won’t give much away, but it turns out that the Celestial Toymaker is involved, challenging them to one more game.

2. Something at the Door: This story involves the 2nd Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie. It seems to take place right after Jamie joins them in the TARDIS after The Highlanders. Ben and Polly are giving him a tour of the TARDIS when they happen upon a strange room they’ve never seen before. Inside they find a Ouija board and Polly insists on playing with it, much to the consternation of both Ben and Jamie. They take it into the actual control room and play with it. All hell breaks loose (upsetting the Doctor of course) and they destroy the board, but it’s not over yet. Someone ends up possessed by an evil being lurking out in the time vortex. That’s about all I’ll say.

3. The Monster in the Woods: This story features the 3rd Doctor and Jo. It centers mainly on three young siblings who have met a “friend” which they call Starman in the woods and have brought him different objects as gifts. Starman turns out to be an injured Dalek who had long ago crash landed in the area, and needs the “gifts” as parts for his recovery. The Doctor and Jo soon get involved and the Doctor decides to take the Dalek back to UNIT HQ to help. Things don’t go exactly as planned, however.

4. Toil and Trouble: This one involves the 4th Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry. As the name might suggest, it features a race of aliens who take on the form of three old hags who have Sarah Jane under their control, having a voodoo doll of her and all. It all starts when she is exploring one of the rooms on the TARDIS, going through souvenirs the Doctor had collected. The Doctor and Harry realize something is wrong and try to save her. Not only that but they’re also dealing with some reapers lurking in the Time Vortex.

5. Mark of the Medusa: This story features the 5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. Kamelion also features. They visit a space station, home to a friend of the Doctor’s who invites them to a party he’s hosting. The space station also houses a huge museum, with works of art and artifacts which were stolen from various periods of history on Earth. Someone sinister ends up on the loose inside, and you can probably guess from the title what it is. There seems to be a throwback to Tegan’s ordeal in Kinda and Snakedance, although it turns out she’s not the one controlling Medusa. I won’t reveal exactly who actually is, but it’s pretty interesting.

6. Trick or Treat: This one involves the 6th Doctor, no companions. He’s visited in the TARDIS by a group of young boys wearing Halloween costumes, going trick or treating. It turns out these boys seem a bit familiar in a very creative way. I won’t give it away, but one thing I did enjoy was the way they played off the 6th Doctor – barbs traded and all. The author who wrote this one had also written the first story, and the two are tied together very neatly… it’s almost as if this one is a sequel. I enjoyed the way she had done this.

7. Living Image: This one involves the 7th Doctor and Ace. They land in London during the 19th century and meet a painter who is haunted by his mother’s death, her spirit literally “nagging” him as he attempts to paint. It turns out supernatural entities are impersonating his mother, feeding off his grief and demanding him to keep painting. It gets worse as they try to come through his canvas, which has literally become a portal.

8. Organism 96: This story features the 8th Doctor with no companions, however there is a young lady featuring heavily in it who could almost be considered a companion. It takes place on a cruise ship where a mysterious passenger has been rescued and taken aboard. The passenger is an innocent looking old lady who seems pleasant enough. She charms many of the other passengers. Shortly thereafter, strange deaths begin occurring. The Doctor who happens to be a passenger as well realizes something is off with the old lady, but hardly anyone will believe him. I won’t give away what happens, but it’s a very interesting tale.

9. The Patchwork Pierrot: This one involves the 9th Doctor with no companions. It takes place at a traveling circus in America (Nebraska, to be exact). The Doctor lands here and is excited to check it out. He meets several young employees who mention seeing a creepy figure called a Pierrot – basically a doll with no face – stalking the grounds at night. The Doctor and Mona – one of the young workers – end up spotting it one night and getting into a tussle. The thing takes Mona hostage. The Doctor finds them and it turns out this thing is a familiar old foe of his – I wont give away which one. 🙂

10. Blood Will Out: This story features the 10th Doctor and Donna. It’s a creepy tale involving monsters known as The Family of Blood trying to break through mirrors in a fun house mirror maze. It turns out the Doctor has a bit of history with this “family”, so you can imagine they would be out for revenge. I won’t say much more except that the Doctor and Donna end up chained in a dark tunnel. All seems lost until the Doctor “Houdini’s” himself out of it and takes on this group of monsters, finally banishing them. Very dark and interesting tale.

11. The Mist of Sorrow: This one features the 11th Doctor. He doesn’t feature too prominently here. It mainly centers on a family (parents and three kids) on holiday driving in their car only to stumble upon a huge gathering of weeping angels and a strange mist. They’re pretty much held hostage by the angels until their radio crackles to life, and a voice gives them instructions on how to beat them. The voice is, you would imagine, the Doctor’s. They do make it out and the family gets to check out the Doctor’s TARDIS (much to the excitement of one of the boys, who seems to be a budding Doctor fanboy).

12. Baby Sleepy Face: This story features the 12th Doctor with no companions. In a bit of a throwback to the 3rd Doctor’s era, the Autons are back and causing trouble in a factory making dolls. The main characters here are a young set of twins, a boy and girl, whose father had worked at this factory earlier. They decide to check it out one night and are in for more than they’d ever thought possible. The Doctor shows up to help save the day.

To sum up, this was a really nice collection of stories. I can’t say I enjoyed any one author over the others. They all seemed to portray the characters we’re so familiar with quite well. In particular I liked the characterization of the 1st Doctor, the 2nd Doctor’s companions, the 6th Doctor and the 12th. In fact the 12th had some great lines that I could just hear Peter Capaldi saying. There’s a scene where he has a showdown with a giant doll, who announces “I’m Baby Sleepy Face.” The Doctor retorts “Yeah? Well I’m Doctor Angry Face,” just before he slams the TARDIS doors shut. It was very well done. Again, I wasn’t expecting this to be a children’s book, but it was written in such a way that I think all ages could appreciate it.

Doctor Who Audio Recording – Volunteers Needed!

A friend of mine has written a superb novel called “Forgotten Suns”, starring the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. He is planning to record an audio version and is looking for a person (or persons) to voice Jamie and Zoe.

If you think you may be interested, please see this page for more information. Even if you have no interest, please give a heads up to anyone who might be.

Thanks in advance!

Doctor Who: Scratchman review

I finally got a chance to sit down and write a review of this book. It had taken me a bit longer than I’d expected to finish it (not the fault of the book at all; I’d had lots of things going on in between – mainly dealing with illness and being away on vacation), but I did want to share my thoughts on it.

I enjoyed it very much. I guess most people know that it originated from a screenplay written by Tom Baker and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) for a possible Doctor Who film back when they were both on Doctor Who. I did get that impression from it while reading and the portrayals of the three main characters (the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry) were perfect, exactly as I’d expected them to be. Within the story are references to serials from Tom Baker’s first series as the Doctor, as well as a few from the second series, and it would seem to me that this takes place sometime after The Android Invasion, since events from that story are alluded to.

Just as a brief synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a remote island (somewhere off of Scotland, it would seem). The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are ready for a picnic and some fun when they notice things seem a bit off. The area is quite desolate and it turns out people have been turned into scarecrows with the help of some nasty fertilizer (which coincidentally seems to be made up of ground up human bones). They encounter some rather shaken humans and try to protect/defend them as much as possible, but they sadly end up being turned into scarecrows and other similar beings who attack the remaining humans (including Sarah and Harry). The Doctor discovers a tear in the fabric of this universe and a portal leading to another dimension ruled by Scratchman. He must travel there to find his friends and save their own dimension. Interspersed throughout are scenes of the Doctor coming before the High Council of the Time Lords as a result of what’s happened in this story and discussing fear with them. He discusses his own fear(s) and ultimately gets them to admit their greatest fear: dying. It’s very well done.

Scratchman is basically the Devil (coming from the nickname “Ol’ Scratch”). The land he rules is literally like Hell. In fact, the cabbie who gives him a lift is named Charon (and is an amusing character who makes a few cracks about the Doctor’s previous incarnations). Scratchman has a rather crude castle floating in the sky. He’s dressed in a business suit and has a fiery globe for a head. He’s also got a large group of yes-men who look exactly like him. Scratchman is quite charming and has some interesting interaction with the Doctor. His portrayal kind of reminded me of Roger Delgado’s Master.

What I also found pretty neat was the inclusion of the Thirteenth Doctor. She meets the Fourth and in a way gives him some encouragement. I thought it was a nice touch. His three former incarnations also appear, in scarecrow form actually. They seemed to be there mostly for comic relief, but they were a bit instrumental to the plot as well, especially as far as Scratchman’s fate is concerned. Another interesting bit featured Sarah in the TARDIS attempting to evade the scarecrows that have gotten inside. There’s a room in the TARDIS called “The Jigsaw Room” which has a floor laid out as jigsaw pieces she must run across. Parts of the floor show different stages of her life and there are references to later events in her life, including some from The Sarah Jane Adventures. I thought this was nicely done as well.

Things do resolve themselves in the end. Sadly, the villagers who were turned/killed were unable to be saved, but the Doctor, Sarah and Harry are back together, and the Doctor has another small, poignant encounter with his 13th incarnation. The Doctor pens a small “Afterword”, with Sarah adding her own little bit at the end. Both bits were very amusing and totally in character. Tom Baker did a wonderful job (and he does give a nice, short acknowledgement to Ian Marter in the end as well). The book really held my interest. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The Wheel of Ice – A Doctor Who Novel

This was yet another book I’d received for Christmas, but due to the backlog of books I had yet to read, I didn’t get to finish it until recently.

I’d decided to read this one because not only are the Second Doctor and his companions among my favorites (as I’ve mentioned countless times before, lol), but from the little blurbs and various reviews I’d seen, it sounded interesting.

In a nutshell, the TARDIS ends up taking the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to the rings of Saturn. There are big chunks of debris flying at them and they’re saved by a teenage girl named Phee Laws, who happens to be the daughter of Jo (who is the mayor of a settlement on the Wheel). A moon called Mnemosyne is being mined for a mineral called bernalium, directed by a female tyrant head of a corporation known as Bootstrap. People get attacked by these creepy “blue doll” monsters and repeated trips to this moon are made in order to put a stop to it all. The Doctor of course is at the heart of this, trying to understand and influence the “blue dolls”, as well as Arkive, the failing ancient artificial intelligence that is controlling them.

It doesn’t specify when exactly in the Who universe this story takes place, but given the references to the Cybermen invasion of London having occurred in the past, plus the references to T-Mat, it’s definitely post-The Seeds Of Death (actually, in the beginning of the book it’s mentioned that Jamie is wearing the same black lace-up Jacobite shirt he wore in that serial, plus the physical description of the Doctor – ragged sideburns, for one – seems to be a callback to the way he looked then as well). Other reviewers have suggested it takes place directly before The War Games. Whatever the case, it’s definitely in the late Series 6 time frame.

There are some other interesting characters, especially Sam, the 19-year-old son of Jo Laws. He ends up developing a bit of a rapport with Jamie. There’s a scene where the Doctor and companions are taking up residence at Jo’s house, with Zoe sharing a room with Phee and Jamie with Sam. At first, Sam scoffs at Jamie, calling him “Granddad” (which insults Jamie, who insists he’s not much older than him), but he soon offers Jamie to come along with him and his friends, riding scooters in space and “skiing” on another moon, Titan.

Jo also has a daughter named Casey, who is about 2 or 3 years old. It’s basically through her that the blue dolls are discovered. There is a nice scene towards the end of the book where she and Zoe are taking cover in an old ship. Little Casey is frightened the way the ship is being jostled about due to flying debris from an explosion and Zoe, who’s obviously not had much experience with children, does her best to comfort the toddler.

Another interesting character is MMAC, a large mechanic of a robot programmed to believe he is a Scotsman from Glasgow (in fact, upon first meeting them, he and Jamie have an interesting exchange … Jamie takes issue with the fact he’s a “Jessie” from Glasgow who most likely would have fought with the English during the Jacobite Uprising, LOL). Even though his memories are artificial – and it’s a bit sad when he discovers this – he’s very kind and helpful, coming through to save our protagonists in quite a few ways.

The characters that really didn’t do anything for me were Jo Laws’ ex-husband, whose interaction with Sam in particular seemed a bit forced (although I will give him credit for helping them save the day in the end); and Florian Hart, the head of the corporation in charge of mining the moon for bernalium. She starts as a relatively tame antagonist but as the story wears on – and especially near the end – she turns into a power-hungry tyrant. In doing so, she actually becomes a bit cartoonish and one-dimensional, and I was rooting for her defeat so we wouldn’t have to hear anymore about her.

Things do get resolved in the end and I won’t go into detail on that. I’ll just mention there’s a celebratory parade on the Wheel in which Jamie takes part, proudly playing the bagpipes. As you’d expect, the Doctor has them all quietly slip away while speeches and the like are being given, and they’re off in the TARDIS for their next adventure.

The characterizations of Team TARDIS were very well done, in my opinion. The Doctor’s portrayal seemed to start off a bit shaky, but got much better after the first chapter or two, and later on when he’s confronting the blue dolls/blue army men and Arkive, I could just hear Troughton as the Second Doctor delivering the words on the pages. Zoe and Jamie were very well done, too, although I’ve mentioned before that it’s an occasional pet peeve of mine when authors make him sound more Scots Highlander than he sounded in the TV show. Baxter does this here and there, with the occasional “yon” or “ken” but it wasn’t very distracting and apart from that, he got Jamie’s characterization very well.

That’s about all I wanted to say about this one. If you haven’t read it before, I would recommend it. The storyline was interesting and I liked the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe’s involvement in it.

A Bit of a Pet Peeve

I’ll write up my thoughts on “The Wheel of Ice” soon, but there’s one thing I noticed in the book that I wanted to address in general.

I’ve noticed that in some of the Doctor Who novels and fanfiction during the Second Doctor’s time, writers tend to make Jamie sound a bit more Scots than he did in the show. They’ll have him saying words like “yon” or “ken” (as in “Doctor, there’s a noise coming from yon shrubbery!” and “Look, Doctor, she’s not joking, ye ken.”).

It doesn’t bother me a lot, but we’ve never actually heard him use these words in the show, even in his very first stories “The Highlanders” and “The Underwater Menace” (if I’m wrong, please let me know … I do remember him saying “dinna fash” and “whist” several times, but no “yon” or “ken”). When I write any fanfics involving Jamie, I like to make him sound as closely to the way he talked in the show as possible. I know not everyone does that, and there are writers who don’t employ any of the “Scots-speak” at all.

Maybe it’s just me but I’ve found it a bit of a pet peeve. It is quaint but to me not overly realistic of the way he talked in the show.

“The Roundheads” – A Doctor Who novel

I received this classic Doctor Who novel by Mark Gatiss as a gift last Christmas and only got around to finishing it now (I have a real backlog of books … what can I say?).

I haven’t read many Doctor Who novels as it is, and the last ones I had read were both Nu Who stories starring the 9th and 10th Doctors. The Second Doctor and his companions are among my favorites in Classic Who, so I decided to give this a read. This isn’t so much of a long, extensive, detailed review as it is mainly my general thoughts on it.

Basically, the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie end up in London in December, 1648 during the war between Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads and the Cavaliers who supported the King Stuart. This story is set in between The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones. I have to say I was impressed. Gatiss does very well with the characterizations of the 2nd Doctor and his companions. Their interactions with one another and the other characters are much what I’d expect. There is a scene I enjoy very much where the Doctor and Jamie are held prisoner in the Tower of London. A watchman and jailer are interrogating them and the Doctor, thinking quickly, decides to tell them that Jamie is a seer who can tell how their situation is going to end up. He refers to him as “The McCrimmon” of Culloden and begs the “great McCrimmon” to tell them how this war will end up for them. Jamie goes along with it, appearing as if he’s in a trance and moaning, wiggling his fingers, the whole act. Their captors fall for it and the Doctor exclaims “The McCrimmon knows all!” I enjoyed their interaction which is right on par during this point in Jamie’s travels with the Doctor.

Ben and Polly of course end up getting separated from them. Polly befriends a young woman whose father is heavily caught up in this business. She then befriends a young Cavalier named Whyte, is recruited to help him and is crushed when she has to betray him in the end. Ben himself ends up at sea on the ship of a Polish captain headed for Amsterdam. He meets an interesting character named Sal Winter, an assertive female captain with a false nose who’s out for revenge against the Polish captain.

There’s a running thread of the Doctor not wishing to change history as you’d expect, and he tries to stick to that as much as possible, even when it appears they might not get much of a chance to pull it off. Even though he and his team are off in their own separate threads, they all come together in the end to set things right. I enjoyed reading this book. It really held my interest and as I mentioned, the characterizations were very good. I know this book isn’t new by any means (it was published in the early 2000s), but if you haven’t read it yet I’d quite recommend it.

Just got this book

I only got a chance to thumb through it, but I like what I’ve seen so far. Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor was my first introduction to Doctor Who when I was about 3-4 years old back in the very early 80s. From what I’ve seen I like his writing style. I’ll write an actual review of this book as soon as I’m done with it, but for now I’ve got a backlog of books I’ve yet to read (including a Christmas themed one!).

Anyway, I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to update this blog. Real life has been insanely busy, especially where work is concerned. Now that the dust has settled a bit I’m going to try to update more often, plus edit the posts I’ve imported from Tumblr (need to make my image sizes smaller so I can reclaim some space here).

Many years ago I bought this book about popular TV shows called “Cult
TV.” It was published back in the mid eighties. They have a section on
Doctor Who. I hadn’t touched this book in years…recently found it
again and started reading. Some amusing things about the Doctors, as
well as some odd errors…

“The Doctors:

1. William Hartnell: “With me to lead them, we can’t possibly lose.” Very arrogant, snappy. Convinced of his own brilliance; he knows he’s the best. LOOK FOR: The way he’ll instantly take over a situation, imposing his will on it.

2. Patrick Troughton: “When I say run, run like a rabbit.” Acts feeble and stupid to disarm his opponents. If a situation gets dangerous, he runs. Apparently crazy – but that’s just a facade. LOOK FOR: He gets his way while seeming to do nothing at all. Disarms villains with a few “innocent” remarks.

3. Jon Pertwee: “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.” James Bond dandy type, with action, fight sequences, gadgets, gimmickry, etc. Very fatherly; where Bond would get the girl, he protects her. Whips up any type of gadget on the spur of the moment. LOOK FOR: His Venusian aikido (his fighting technique), lots of gadgets.

4. Tom Baker: “You may be a doctor, but I am THE doctor. The definitive article, you might say.” Childish, Bohemian, with a long, flowing scarf, a battered hat, a mop of curls, and big, bulging eyes. Has violent mood swings – very serious one moment, joking the next. Very unpredictable. LOOK FOR: Witty dialogue, threats to the universe.

5. Peter Davison: “Call yourself a Time Lord? A broken clock keeps better time than you do!” Very vulnerable. Wears cricket outfits, with a sprig of celery in his lapel. He’s the youngest of the Doctors – nervous and apparently not in control of the situation (but of course he is).

6. Colin Baker: Incredibly egoistic. An appalling dresser – no taste in clothes or style. Biting, pompous and incredibly brilliant – and he knows it.

A couple amusing (or not) errors I found:

“Liz: What are you a Doctor of?” Doctor: Practically everything, my dear.” They attribute this quote to the 1st Doctor, not the 3rd. Hmm, trying to picture Hartnell’s Doctor saying he’s a citizen of the universe and a gentleman to boot. 😉

In the list of the Doctor’s companions, it includes “Fraser Hines as Jamie McCrimmon, a 15th-century Scottish piper.” Wow, so Jamie’s actually from the 1400s then? LOL…

Just wanted to share these amusing findings…