The Five Doctors

Yesterday afternoon I was watching the Doctor Who story "The Five Doctors", which was first broadcast in 1983 as a 90 minute TV movie to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary. In the story, a mysterious figure is taking the Doctor's past incarnations out of time and space and taking them to a dangerous area of the Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey, known as the "Death Zone", which is dominated by a giant tower. The five Doctors, helped by a selection of their old companions, and hindered by a selection of old enemies, including a Dalek, the Cybermen and the Master, need to find their way to the tower to discover who brought them there and why. It is a fun episode, actually, although it does occasionally get bogged down by the need to include as many references and characters from past Doctor Who stories as possible. I remember seeing it when it was first broadcast.

In the evening I watched the Doctor Who story "The Curse of Fenric" which was first broadcast in 1989. In the story, the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) arrive at a top secret Naval Base in England during the Second World War, where a new type of computing machine is being developed to decode enemy ciphers. However, a squad of soldiers plan to steal the device, but the Doctor is far more interested in the local legends of an ancient Viking curse in the surrounding ocean. It is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories, and I remember seeing it when it was first broadcast. It is one of the darker and most complex stories, dealing with some fairly big themes, alongside Norse mythology, aliens and vampires.

I was also working on the ghost story that I started through the week. It's not really very scary, though. It's about someone who is researching a book on local myths and legends who goes to a small town, which he soon discovers is completely dominated by a powerful supernatual force.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch, which was tacos today, and the latest issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived, which this month featured fifty film critics choices of the best film of 2008.