I had thought that the next Who fan film I'd look at would be the second, third and fourth Barbara Benedetti ones from Seattle International Films. Having covered her debut 'The Wrath of Eukor' a while back (see HERE) and enjoyed it, I was looking forward to at some point wrapping up her tetralogy. First 'The Masters of Luxor' cropped up (HERE if you're interested) and now just when I was thinking of getting back to the further adventures of the very first female incarnation pf our favourite titular Time Lord, I become aware of both The Unmade Season's 'Doctor Who Reboot' (which already seems to have been taken down from Youtube thanks to a copyright strike - thanks to the machinations of Arran Knight a.k.a. Force Dalek - maybe I did a wrong flip of the coin when deciding which one I'd watch first? Then again I enjoyed the hell out of this so no regrets) and this project in the space of just a couple of days. Still, shouldn't grumble: with the mainline show having another hiatus (by my reckoning its third, after the interregna of 1985-86, 1989-96, and 1996-2005) at the mo, it's nice to be spoiled for choice for new Who content all of a sudden. Hopefully I'll be able too t'other by hoisting the special antenna and sailing the seven seas at some point. Arr.
Opening with a late 1970s BBC logo (just like the one on the 'Shada' Blu-ray.so I assume an authentic 1979 vintage one; I was busy being born that year and my very earliest memory of seeing Doctor Who is from 1982: Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor standing in a forest [a real one, not a studio set so I'm certain this is a memory of 'The Visitation' rather than 'Kinda'. I knew that On Safari wasn't Biggins in a real jungle!] with Adric - more on whom anon) complete with ersatz continuity announcement, bearing out the project's promise of being an "attempt to create a fan film with the feel of the 70s/80s classic series". Methinks we can consider that a box checked straight away. Straight away we get Daleks, and not just any Daleks, my favourite kind of Daleks that aren't Spider Daleks: Peter Cushing movie Daleks - the red one was always my favourite Dalek of all time - which sort of makes sense of the spelling of 'Dr Who' rather than 'Doctor Who' in the title (a la Cushing's 1965 Dr Who and the Daleks), with their taller statures and larger headlamps and also Cushing-style Robomen straight outta Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Taking on the pepperpots is our unofficial new Doctor (co-director, producer and production designer Phillip Roy) who comes across like David Collings playing a rumpled '70s or early '80s TV police detective, like Gene Hunt (I know technically he's from '90s TV in a real world Doylean sense, but I try to never mix my Doylean with my Watsonian. Don't make me invoke "timey wimey", you bastards) or Eddie Shoestring or Jim Bergerac in a pretty cool leather coat over shirt 'n' tie ensemble.
After a quick pre-titles defeat of the Daleks which involves the Doctor sprinting down a corridor pursued by an explosion - very reminiscent of the Christopher Eccleston "Do you wanna come with me?" trailer that heralded the canonical show's return to television in 2005, we get our title sequence replete with new theme tune rendition courtesy of Phillip Roy and Stephen Ford before meeting our lovely new companion Jennie (Mandy Rose) who is engaging in some surreptitious sneaking around a fitness supplement warehouse at night trying to discover the source of the disappearance of her brother where she has a very 'Rose'-like first encounter with the Time Lord; a 'meet-terror' if you will as they're soon chased by android henchman and brought before Mr Taylor (Brian Smith). The oleaginous Taylor and his T-800 style D82 robot guards are in the thrall of the green faced and beclawed Mr Scorpion (Lucas Edwards, mugging madly and very entertainingly) who is preparing for "the harvest" (no relation to the Big Finish audio of the same name, Big Finish in my estimation being as about canon as fan films [don't come at me with "officially licenced" and all that]) - I don't know about spoiling anything major, suffice to say if you've seen the Twilight Zone episode 'To Serve Man' you'll get the idea - these protein shakes might be building humanity up for something sinister.
Making their escape, the feisty - as all companions are referred to these days, I assume it's the law - Jennie joins the Doctor in his trusty TARDIS, complete with a very nice rebuild of the late '70s early '80s console room (the one that lasts up until 'The King's Demons', when it was replaced by my own personal favourite from 'The Five Doctors'). Their quest to defeat Scorpion's evil plan takes them to the Excelsior system (presumably discovered by Stan Lee, true believers!) in the Third Quadrant where they must brave an alien jungle (I can still tell a set, even without Biggins) crawling with serpents, scorpions and spiders and crawl through cavers and vents - surely a rite of passage for every Doctor and companion team? - to take on the sinister taloned menace. Most horrifying of all, they must face their greatest fears: for Jennie a horde of horror film imagery including The Shining style spooky twins and Romero zombies, while the Doctor is confronted by a shambling undead Adric voiced by Matthew Waterhouse himself.
Aside from a random Phoenix Nights-style vignette in a working men's club, and a Watcher style man in a bowler hat following the Doctor around who's point and purpose I must have missed (a reference to Nick Briggs in 'In Memory Alone' perhaps?) it all held my interest and engagement through its 90 minute runtime, most of those spent with a huge grin of enjoyment on my face. We close with the James Bondian caption: "The Doctor will return in Dr Who and the Doomsday Weapon". If, like myself, you would be interested in seeing the further adventures of this Doctor and Jennie Jen-Jen and not let that promise hang in the air forever unfulfilled like my unrequited lust for Elphaba or Buckaroo Banzai vs. the World Crime League, then you too can help fund it via Dr Who and the Doomsday Weapon - go on, chuck 'em a couple of quid and help one of my ambitions come true.
(Time) Lord knows it would be the first time.
