On what would've been Jon Pertwee's 96th Birthday, Christopher Morley reverses the polarity of the neutron flow and pays tribute to the Third Doctor.
If you're a fan of 'classic' Who,
you might well have noticed that the Twelfth Doctor appears to have
taken fashion tips from his Third incarnation. But look beyond the
dandyish threads and the younger of the two was perhaps more of a
man of action than either of his two predecessors - which made his
exile on Earth all the more interesting, however much he initially
hated his punishment from the Time Lords (see The WarGames, his previous self's last
stand - sentence passed for repeated breaches of a staunch
non-intervention policy).
After he fell
from the TARDIS at the beginning of Spearhead From Space,
an air of mystery abounded. Just when and how had the Second Doctor
changed his appearance? Of course, if you're a Season 6B theorist you
probably believe that he didn't necessarily do so straight away
following the passage of the 'exiled to Earth' verdict - to explore
this further see the novels World Game &
Players and indeed the later
serial The Two Doctors.
All of which have Two working as a Celestial Intervention Agent on
behalf of the very people who'd doomed him to a quick facelift.
Which certainly
explains how he's managed to get his hands on technology his
recorder-happy past self could only have dreamed of once he's turned
into a bit of a fop - frilly shirts the order of the day.
Unfortunately he can't get off Mother Earth as his knowledge of
TARDIS operation has been taken from him (though he does of course
get it back as part of a general reprieve for helping to stop
antimatter swallowing the physical universe alongside his first two
incarnations in The Three Doctors).
Taking the
closest thing he'd ever have to a real job - scientific adviser to
UNIT under the command of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, whom he'd first met as a Colonel in The Web Of Fear,
and again after promotion in The Invasion. The Doctor quickly develops a nose for adrenaline-rush adventure almost from
the off when he's called upon to help stop the Autons after picking
out his outfit and singing a spot of opera in the shower. It's fair
to say the pace rarely lets up from there. And there are a number of
notable firsts....
A lady companion
who's a brainbox in her own right (Liz Shaw, then Sarah-Jane Smith),
a recurring Time Lord foe (The Master), a wider role for UNIT, the
Autons, the Silurians, the Sontarans. These are but a selection - oh
yes, and all in glorious Technicolour to boot! Throw in the first
use of 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey' years before it became 'cool'/Steven Moffatt's favourite little game (Day Of The Daleks,
Inferno) and we've
got ourselves quite something here.
Mike Myers must
have been watching too - Venusian Aikido bearing more than just a
passing resemblance to the 'judo chop' from Austin Powers.
If you need a little reminder of just what the Third Doctor was
capable of in fighting mode...
If you were able to watch that without giggling, well done! The next video makes for an interesting comparison piece & ups the laughter count.
It's even there - sort of- in the adventures of one James Bond...take a look at the opening act of Octopussy...
HAI!!!!
If you were able to watch that without giggling, well done! The next video makes for an interesting comparison piece & ups the laughter count.
It's even there - sort of- in the adventures of one James Bond...take a look at the opening act of Octopussy...
HAI!!!!
Speaking as we
are of famous fans, let's turn our attention to one Steven Spielberg.
The man behind Jurassic Park
once said that 'the world would be a poorer place without Doctor
Who'. Wise words indeed there
from Steve - wonder if he might have treated himself to a repeat
viewing of Invasion Of The Dinosaurs
as 'research' at the time?
It's certainly
tempting to imagine him sat behind the camera in his best shirt &
an Inverness cape while the Masterly composer John Williams (who may
or may not have listened to Dudley Simpson's superb musical score for
the same adventure) works on the audio accompaniment to images of
some poor chap getting eaten fresh off the loo by a Tyrannosaurus
Rex. Don't remember the same fate befalling anyone who got on the
wrong side of Operation Golden Age, though....
That air of
thrills & spills stays exactly on the needle, it is probably
what most remember of the Third's age alongside the fashion
statements and 'reverse the polarity of the neutron flow'.
We also can't possibly go on without talking about the gadgets. More than any other Doctor, perhaps, the Dandy one fancied himself as a bit of a gentleman inventor.
We also can't possibly go on without talking about the gadgets. More than any other Doctor, perhaps, the Dandy one fancied himself as a bit of a gentleman inventor.
Witness Bessie,
the Edwardian roadster he tinkered with (which had a semi-recurring
role across its driver's era from Doctor Who & The
Silurians to his last hurrah in
Planet Of The Spiders,
making cameo appearances alongside his Fourth & Seventh selves in
Robot &
Battlefield respectively), and the Whomobile - a specially commissioned hovercraft owned by Jon
Pertwee himself and used in the aforementioned Invasion
Of The Dinosaurs & Planet
Of The Spiders.
All of which won
him fans, not least in the form of writer Mark Gatiss
(whose novel Last Of The Gaderene
is something of a labour of love/hero-worship, recently reprinted as
part of a 50th
anniversary reissue campaign), and the current pilot of the TARDIS, Peter Capaldi.
On what would've been the great man's 96th Birthday, raise a glass with us to Jon Pertwee. An actor who, in his five years as the Time Lord, made a huge impact on the world of Doctor Who, and one whose legacy lives on in the show today.
On what would've been the great man's 96th Birthday, raise a glass with us to Jon Pertwee. An actor who, in his five years as the Time Lord, made a huge impact on the world of Doctor Who, and one whose legacy lives on in the show today.
"A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting."The Third Doctor ('The Time Warrior')
