Tag Archives: Turlough

Turlough the Classical Anti-hero

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Roger Pocock

Companion Tropes 24 It’s not by accident that I’ve followed Nardole last week with Turlough this week for the Companion Tropes series, because the tropes that best define them are subsets of the “anti-hero”.  Our concept of an anti-hero has … Continue reading →

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Doctor Who Annual (1984)

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Roger Pocock

“Get back, Doctor!” One step closer and I trigger the bomb!” That’s not a bad opening line for the first story in a Doctor Who annual, is it, but before we get to all that it’s worth mentioning that this … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Fifth Doctor

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Roger Pocock

When I wrote about the Fourth Doctor cliffhanger endings, I mentioned how the variety and inventiveness of the cliffhangers had been a diminishing process since the 1960s.  That doesn’t just continue for the Fifth Doctor era, it falls off a … Continue reading →

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Resurrection of the Daleks

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Here’s a house.  Here’s a door.  Windows: one, two, three, four.  Ready to knock?  Turn the lock.  It’s Play School!  What window are we going to go through today?  Oh look, it’s the brutal violence and death window. Sometimes less … Continue reading →

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Frontios

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Once upon a time there was a writer called Christopher H Bidmead, who thought Doctor Who should be grounded in real science.  When he became script editor he tried to squeeze Doctor Who into that pigeonhole, and even when he … Continue reading →

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Planet of Fire

Posted on June 1, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Peter Grimwade had a lot to accomplish with this story.  It is one of those shopping list briefs that plague the Davison era: write out Turlough, introduce Peri, reintroduce Kamelion and then write him out, fill in Turlough’s background, resolving … Continue reading →

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Warriors of the Deep

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Season 21: the worst series of Doctor Who ever made starts here.  It will have its moment of brilliance very soon, but it will be fleeting and then it’s downhill all the way, and the problems have little to do … Continue reading →

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Enlightenment

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Long after the viewer has forgotten the details of a television story, the very best will leave a powerful image in the mind.  It is always something unique and special, something that a child will recall as an adult.  Many … Continue reading →

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Terminus

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Roger Pocock

When I first watched Terminus I hated it.  Subsequently I have re-watched it a few times, with a kind of nagging feeling that there is a good story in there somewhere and I must be missing something, but I still … Continue reading →

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Mawdryn Undead

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Sometimes things just don’t go according to plan.  There are some Doctor Who stories that are so overshadowed by what might have been that it becomes difficult not to watch them without a sense of disappointment.  In the 20th anniversary … Continue reading →

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The Awakening

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Evil lurking in a church.  A may queen for sacrifice.  According to Eric Pringle, this was entirely coincidental and he had never actually seen The Daemons.  This makes sense, as the ideas flow together naturally and were hardly original to … Continue reading →

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The King’s Demons

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Roger Pocock

There was a rumour that persisted for many years that this story was supposed to feature the Monk.  No evidence has ever been found to support the idea, so it is almost certainly incorrect, but you can see why people … Continue reading →

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Audience Identification: Fifth Doctor

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Roger Pocock

This week, I began working on a review for The Visitation when inspiration struck for a weekend article; possibly a series looking at each Doctor’s “Audience Identification Figures”. It came from a piece of dialog between Adric and the Doctor, … Continue reading →

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