Brilliant ad-libs

[John Hoare]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2004/01/01/13706.shtml

Terrance Dicks, on Jon Pertwee in a Doctor Who stage production:

It was absolutely chaos you know. On the first night the TARDIS console broke loose and rolled across the stage. Jon, like a good old trouper, said ‘Come back here at once.’

Topic

[Seb Patrick]

Was that about The Ultimate Adventure? I saw that, in Liverpool (not that incident, but the show). It was simultaneously brilliant and terrible.

[John Hoare]

Yeah, that’s the one.

Was it recorded in any way at the time?

[Seb Patrick]

I don’t think so, but there is a website about it with lots of photos and stuff : http://www.theultimateadventure.co.uk.

Terrance Dicks often phones up our department. I should try and speak to him at some point to tell him I saw TUI as a six-year-old…

[John Hoare]

I should try and speak to him at some point to tell him I saw TUI as a six-year-old?

Bah. Our house was DOCTOR WHO FREE when I was growing up. I have no idea why, as I would have loved it. Bastard parents.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Bah. Our house was DOCTOR WHO FREE when I was growing up. I have no idea why, as I would have loved it. Bastard parents.

Snap.

My mum was a big Tom Baker fan as a kid, but she chose to make me watch Star Trek instead of Doctor Who. She hated Sylvester McCoy, though, and since for some reason I only watched shows she liked, I never saw it.

[Anonymous]

I have the vaguest of memories of McCoy, but also memories of him not being very good.

Then my long term girlfriend left me for William Hartnell’s grandson. The cow.

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

Seb’s link goes in my Doctor Who links folder in my bookmarks, and this incident:

It was absolutely chaos you know. On the first night the TARDIS console broke loose and rolled across the stage. Jon, like a good old trouper, said ?Come back here at once.?

is further evidence that Jon Pertwee is mayor emeritus of Awesometown.

I haven’t yet seen much of McCoy’s work as the Doctor (I did see a PBS special from ages back that followed the production of one of his stories. He came off as quite personable and energetic in interviews, and he wore glasses off-camera), but not long ago I saw a clip of him playing the Fool in a production of King Lear and he was pretty good in it.

[John Hoare]

From what I’ve seen of McCoy – and I admit that I’ve only seen Remembrance and Ghost Light – I like him as the Doctor… but he gets away with it more on charm than acting ability.

I’m more than willing to change my mind when I see more of his stuff, though. I desperately want Fenric, as I’ve heard great things about it.

[Seb Patrick]

Fenric is great, and so is The Happiness Patrol if you can ignore the fact that what’s clearly supposed to be an outdoor colony is so obviously in a cramped studio. One of the best McCoy moments of all is his speech to the gunman that story, though. Survival also has plenty to recommend it, although it’s a bit flawed, which indeed makes season 26 a rather good one with the exception of Battlefield (which puts it just ahead of 25, which has the brilliant Remembrance, the decent THP, the average Greatest Show in the Galaxy and the utterly diabolical Silver Nemesis).

[Dave]

I think McCoy is very much underrated as the Doctor but I’ve never thought of him as charming.

The Curse of Fenric will be worth the wait.

[John Hoare]

I didn’t mean charming as such – when I say charm, I more mean just being really likable.

[Ian Symes]

No-one’s ever called him charming before. They’ve said “McCoy, you’re a complete git”, but never “charming”.

[Seb Patrick]

They’ve also said “Any old fucker with an Equity card”…

[Dave]

They being Mark Gatiss and David Walliams. Reportedly McCoy ran into Steve Pemberton not long after the sketch in question was shown and said of Gatiss “Tell him, he can smell my fart”

Quite a comeback.

Unfortunately the line (fucker not fart) is cut from the clip on the DVD of one of the first 3 stories. I’d love to see it unadulterated.

[Ian Symes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Y4gWxiPHo

Also features the first ever instance of The Sounds of Drums!

[Seb Patrick]

While The Pitch of Fear is by far the best of the Who night sketches, my favourite bit of any of them is in The Web of Caves when Gatiss pops his head out of the TARDIS door and says “Where have you brought me to this time, old girl…?”

[Danny Stephenson]

Am I not the only one who thinks that Mark Gatiss would make an awesome Doctor Who?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Danny Stephenson]

Am I not the only one who thinks that Mark Gatiss would make an awesome Doctor Who?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Pete Part Three]

No, you seem to be in agreement with yourself.

[Ben Paddon]

While The Pitch of Fear is by far the best of the Who night sketches, my favourite bit of any of them is in The Web of Caves when Gatiss pops his head out of the TARDIS door and says ?Where have you brought me to this time, old girl???

That’s my favourite of the sketches, as it happens. I’m rather fond of the moment when he sticks his head out of the TARDIS to speak to Mark Walliams and his new little friend and then turns back to look into ther TARDIS and says, rather irately, “It’s for me.”

(Incidentally, wrapping the word “me” in em tags rather boggles my eyes a tad.)

[Danny Stephenson]

> Mark Walliams

Are we talking about David Walliams, or Mark Williams?

I’m totally confused….

[Dave]

David

[Ben Paddon]

Yep. I sort of mentally fused Mark Gatiss and David Walliams together into one entity, for some reason.

[Danny Stephenson]

the ULTIMATE Doctor Who fan…

[Ian Symes]

But only a half-talented one.

[Dave]

Which half?

[Ian Symes]

The Gatiss half, of course.

[Ben Paddon]

David Walliams has his occasional moments. I thought some of Rock Profile was good, and the last episode of Little Britain Series 3 was actually rather good (probably because they were actually trying to do something different with their characters on that occasion. Mostly though, their work is pants.

[Pete Part Three]

David Walliams only seems to be able to do 5 different voices, whereas Matt Lucas seems to have much more in his repertoire.

[Ian Symes]

Five? I count… two, if I’m being generous.

[Seb Patrick]

He’s really good in Cruise of the Gods, which is the most underrated and underseen thing to have been on British telly in the last five years or so.

[Danny Stephenson]

David Walliams is awesome in ‘Spaced’ as well. ONE of ONLY TWO things i can watch him in, the other being The Pitch Of Fear, which I can honestly say, as a person with only a marginally passing interest in Who, I found genuinely hilarious!

[Ben Paddon]

I can’t believe some of the shit I used to do with you!

[Anonymous]

>He?s really good in Cruise of the Gods, which is the most underrated and underseen thing to have been on British telly in the last five years or so.

Yes! At last someone else knows of the genius that is Cruise of the Gods!

“It’s ok! She hasn’t come into contact with any potato.”

[Danny Stephenson]

Pud-Ding!!

[Anonymous]

Sounds a little hard to swallow…

[Andrew]

> Yes! At last someone else knows of the genius that is Cruise of the Gods!

I, too, am a child of Castor.

[Dave]

Pollux!

[Jonsmad]

I rate cruise of the gods. And Jack Jones is singing at my local theatre soon, I was thinking of going along to see if he’d sign the dvd. And yeah Walliams is good in it and his character liked John Pertwee a lot too, didnt he.

[Andrew]

I need to go back and look for Russell Brand in ‘Gods’. He apparently had a decent role but was ‘let go’, though the IMDb suggests he still appears somewhere.

[Pete Part Three]

I remember bits of it very well which must be a good thing since I haven’t seen it since it was shown about five years ago. Must be worth a download.

[Dave]

>I need to go back and look for Russell Brand in ?Gods?. He apparently had a decent role but was ?let go?

He’s in it, he has lines (and not just the kind snorted off a toilet cistern), he’s been quite frank about why he was let go

[Author]

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