Doctor Who Club of Australia

Davros · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 131 Location: Skaro

You Whoies really know your stuff ....here's another one for you. Two different actors played Davros (that I know of) in the show, one did die but I'm not sure of their names ...any idea?

thanks

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 3901

Greg · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:57 pm Post subject:

Terry Malloy has gone on to play Davros in Big Finish's audio plays, having appeared in Davros, The Juggernauts, The Next Life (a cameo) and soon to be in Terror Firma - plus, he recently appeared in the fan-produced charity-fund-raising stage play The Trial of Davros.

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 3901

Part 3:
The Doctor does not realise how ironic the situation is when he says "Master Plans".
The winds were well done.
We finally see the Melkur's real face.
The Melkur statue is clearly a TARDIS.
Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton and Anthony Ainley definitely worked well together in this episode.
I actually noticed here that the Production Assistant was Alan Wareing. Since Tom's time is nearly at an end, Wareing would later direct Survival the last transmitted story of the classic series. In fact with Traken also being Ainley's first appearance in the series, he made his final appearance in Survival.
Sheila Ruskin performed well as Kassia.

the wheel · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 164

this is really good

those melkur are groovy

great cliffhanger

Dougy · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:38 am Post subject:

Yes, definatly the best story since the "techno" age of the Doctor Wink

I'm really enjoying this one!

Linx · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 59 Location: Perth

Unfortunately, this one's still not doing anything for me.
The eye effects are terrible!
Oh well.

Darth Sidious · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 105

Only a 'fair' rating for me, very average story IMO.
The story just seems so slow and the trakenites don't elicit much sympathy/empathy from me, apart from ironically Tremas.
Nyssa in her first story is pretty wooden and it was a mistake letting her stay on as a companion IMO.
Not one of those stories I'm likely to watch too many times over the years.

Greg · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:

Liam · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 85 Location: Sydney

Dougy · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:07 pm Post subject:

Haveing not seen this previously, I was hopeing alot more would of been made of the Master. It was like at the end they thought "oh, bugger, we haven't given the Master a body yet. Quick do somethign aobut that, will you." and just shoved it in there.

the ending ruined the whole thing for me. Sad

Kerr Avon · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 478

conversely I like the fact that such a major occurance in Doctor Who lore happens after the Doctor has moved on, believing he had dealt with his latest adversary.

Guest · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:38 am Post subject:

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 3901

Part 4:
The chair dematerialises with the Melkur?
Love the Doctor's two heads bit.
Melkur is revealed to be the Master. Since Geoffrey Beevers had previously been Private Johnson in Ambassadors of Death in the Pertwee era, I have this fun theory that the Master must have killed Johnson when he took over his body.
The Master's TARDIS is again seen as a grandfather clock just like it was in his previous story The Deadly Assassin (albeit played by Peter Pratt back then).
Not only does the Master take over Tremas' body marking the beginning of Ainley's tenure in the role but his clothes changed as well. Tremas is the anagram of the Master. This would not be the only time that the Master takes over someone's else body as a remnant of him took over a medic played by Eric Roberts in the 1996 TV Movie.
Nyssa does not leave with the Doctor and Adric as she was originally intended for this story only.
It is a pity that Fourth Doctor and Adric stories (sans anybody else and even counting Nyssa's appearance in Traken even though she is not officially a companion yet) were seen on television. There have also been lots of non-TV stories featuring this Doctor/companion team.
Just as people have been talking about Melkur being the Master even before this was shown on the current ABC rerun nobody seems to notice writer Johnny Byrne in the first of three stories he written for Doctor Who with Traken definitely his best and his past credentials as a former Space 1999 script editor a series which had City of Death's Catherine Schell as a regular in its second season. Byrne's subsequent two stories Arc of Infinity which featured Colin Baker's debut on the programme as a different character & Warriors of the Deep both starring Peter Davison.Byrne's Doctor Who stories featured Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker but the final Space:1999 episode The Dorcons written by Byrne guest stars Patrick Troughton. While Troughton does share on-screen time with Catherine, frustratingly he does not with either of Space :1999's main stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.
I think this is Ainley's best performance in the series but sadly he passed away last year but sometime before his death recorded a DVD commentary for this story along with Byrne, Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton. Although not scheduled for the forseeable future, the commentary will be included in the Traken DVD when it is eventually released.
Following on from the E-Space trilogy, Traken is the first in another trilogy which according to the Doctor Who Reference Guide is called Return of the Master.
As Dwayne has just mentioned The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa would later (or earlier if you like) visit Traken thousands of years in the past in the Big Finish audio Primeval where it is revealed that the Fifth Doctor is technically the first Keeper of Traken.
Although Traken is the first time that Nyssa had met the Fourth Doctor, it is revealed in the novel Asylum that the Fourth Doctor had earlier met a much older Nyssa after her travels with the FIfth Doctor.

Quiz update: Just read the answers for Medium Quiz 14 and the answer for "3. Can you name either of the people who sabotage the Source in The Keeper of Traken in order to destory the Master's TARDIS?" is "Adric, Nyssa".

Just as Tom's time is soon coming to an end on a related note just read in the SFX Doctor Who special an interview with Lis Sladen originally published in October 1995.

the wheel · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 164

this was a great story!

really exciting despite the sometimes average effects

Darth Sidious · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 105

Kerr Avon · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 478

at the time these stories were originally broadcast I certainly favoured Tegan but since then Nyssa has benefited from her appearance in a number of Big Finish audios so she is the companion I am most interested in this time 'round. can't comment on how I feel about her now until I've seen a few more re-runs.

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 3901

I recently read the DVD notes on Part 1 of The Keeper of Traken on the New Beginnings set. An interesting info that caught my attention was that for the character Kassia there was a shortlist of 12 actresses. Without mentioning any names it says that it included two Avengers girls, a future member of Parliament and two future Dames.

The Avengers girls were Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Linda Thorson and Joanna Lumley. It will be interesting if the two on the shortlist happened to be Honor and Joanna who although neither got the part of Kassia did however had Doctor Who roles later on. Honor was in the third segment of The Trial of A Time Lord story Terror of the Vervoids and Joanna became the 13th Doctor in The Curse of the Fatal Death.

I am guessing the future MP to be Glenda Jackson. This is because I remember reading somewhere that Tom and Glenda had a chat about her appearing in Doctor Who (which she never did).

I can only make a guess, but by no means certain, that one of the future Dames on that list was Judi Dench. She is the only one that I can think of.

Sulp Niar · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject:

Rather bizarrely, I watched Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The World is Not Enough yesterday - and three of the ladies you mention appear in them!

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 3901

Wow that is a bizarre coincidence.

Update with my reading of the DVD notes:
The notes in Part 2 says that Keeper of Traken has similarities with Traken writer Johnny Byrne's Space 1999 episode The Metamorph including that the father and daughter characters in that episode were essentially the basis for the father and daughter characters of Tremas and Nyssa in Traken. However the notes said that the Space 1999 characters were key non-regular characters. That is only half correct, the daughter character Maya was set out as a regular character especially since Catherine Schell who played her was credited from that episode, the season 2 opener in the opening title sequence along with the leading actors, the husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.

Perhaps there was a confusion between Maya and Nyssa since Nyssa was the one who was originally intended for a one-off appearance before formally becoming a regular in Doctor Who.