Regular readers of the Tour know that we hold the seventh season back in 1970 in very high esteem.  And as different as Jon Pertwee was to Patrick Troughton, it was the introduction of Liz Shaw instead of a more typical 60's companion which really put a more mature sheen on the program and set a template future companions would in some ways emulate.

Use Caroline John's passing as an excuse to visit/revisit these stories and see for yourself what a truly crucial and groundbreaking season it was (especially in the case of Inferno).  Spearhead from Space is the "most" unique story in classic Who.  The Silurians was gritty and ambitious in scope.  The Ambassadors of Death was weird, slow, and wonderful.  Inferno is simply a top-ten all time story.

Thanx Caroline.

Sure Mission to the Unknown has the distinction of being the only recognized single-episode story in the classic canon, but this one is the only episode to have been put out on leap day itself, so technically we honor it's 12th anniversary today.

Marco Polo is often cited as one of the most desired stories which are incomplete (or in this case completely missing) in the BBC Archives.  Looking at the Tour's gallery for the story it's easy to see why.  It looked simply sumptuous and, having listened to the audio for the story a few years back, would have been a great example of early Doctor Who at it's best.

• The Doctor is to gain a new companion called Liz. Sources suggest she’s a scientist.
• The Silurians make an appearance.
• UNIT, who we encountered in the new series in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, employ the Doctor as a scientific adviser.
• Becoming stranded on Earth, the Doctor gets a car called Bessie.
• There’s an astronaut or two in this series, as well.
• As for boring into the Earth, somebody’s got further than they did in Wales in Series 5…

Can't claim this is original having found it on tumblr.  Don't know about you, but I was more than halfway through it before I caught the joke (Must have been a long day.  Sure it was.).  It's in part a measure of how long this gap is between seasons that any, ANY scrap of information, is dissected six ways to Sunday.

Still it's an excuse to think a bit about a truly crucial and groundbreaking season (especially in the case of Inferno).  Spearhead from Space is the "most" unique story in classic Who.  The Silurians was gritty and ambitious in scope.  The Ambassadors of Death was weird, slow, and wonderful.  And Inferno is simply a top-ten all time story.  During this long gap, take an afternoon and indulge in one of these beauties.

We've made mention on these pages before about neglected gems, stories which, through no fault of their own, get outshone by more celebrated neighboring tales (we often cite Planet of Fire as an example of this). 

The Android Invasion is part of a string of great stories which begin with Terror of the Zygons and runs all the way The Talons of Weng Chiang so it's kind of easy, especially directly following The Pyramids of Mars, to overlook this little gem.  Terry Nation has only two non-Dalek stories in his Doctor Who resume, the other being The Keys of Marinus for William Hartnell, but this story boasts some of the best Tom/Lis interaction in their time together.

Watching this story once again, as has been remarked upon here before, is like an afternoon with an old friend.  We'll be posting some stills and a set of vastly improved caps from this story in the near future, but if you've got a fellow fan who's somewhat dismissive of the classic series, preferring the new to the old, you could do a lot worse in stating your case than sitting down for The Android Invasion.

     "I've no idea," Steven replied, "Let's hope we never land there again." He heard a tinkling sound and looked up to see the Doctor carrying a silver tray with three crystal wine glasses, brimful. "we so rarely get a chance to celebrate," remarked the Doctor at their unspoken questions.

     "Celebrate?" the mystified Steven asked.

     "Don't you remember? In the Police Station – it was Christmas."

     "So it was," smiled Steven, taking the proffered glass.

     "Here's a toast. A Happy Christmas to all of us," said the Doctor, bending a benign smile on his young companions. Then he raised his glass high, saluting a host of Absent Friends and turned away.

     "And incidentally – a happy Christmas, to all of you at home."

In England the theater tradition of Christmas pantomimes was a well understood and accepted form of entertainment. Thus virtually all links to the story up to that point were forgotten for a week to indulge in the 'Christmas spirit' as it were. In other words nothing less than a full-blown pantomime and send-up as the Doctor and his companions–Steven and Sara–ricocheted from one ridiculous situation to another. As it was viewers at the time didn't mind the diversion–although the episode was never sold into syndication overseas. Even so the most infamous feature in this episode was William Hartnell's closing speech–directly to the audience! Although this closing exists in the scripts that exist today, both script editor Donald Tosh and director Douglas Camfield insisted it was not in the shooting script! Camfield was reportedly so incensed that, according to Heather Hartnell, he gave Hartnell the original print shortly after it was broadcast and in subsequent years the Hartnell family would then gather together after Christmas dinner to watch The Feast of Steven all over again.  Ho! Ho! WHO!

Read more about Doctor Who's original Christmas Celebration, The Feast of Steven here.

"Doctor Who in the summer? All that running down tunnels, with torches, and the sunlight streaming through your windows and bleaching out the screen? All those barbecues and children playing outside, while on the telly there are green monsters seething in their CGI-enhanced lairs? It's just not right is it? Be honest.

"For me, as a kid, when the afternoon got darker and there was a thrill of cold in the air, I knew that even though summer was over, the TARDIS was coming back! So yes, that's part of the plan, that's part of the reason for this little delay. But it's not the whole story."

Okay it may not be, and granted this appears to have everything to do with long term economics than short term ratings, but for long-term fans there just has to be a little shiver that the spectre of the 18-month hiatus (in reality more of a 9-month hiatus just like what we're about to go through) and Michael Grade in this announcement.  But here's a more realistic appraisal.

Doctor Who has been, and IS, a fall-winter series, just as Moffat has asserted.  If you don't believe it just check out our calendar to see how seasons historically have either started in September or January.  The March-April time frame is strictly a modern Who phenomenon. 

It was our hope when Moffat took over that this shifting to Autumn that this would happen in 2010.  The fact that it's happening two years later means in essence that a hidden gap year (a full 12 months) has been slipped into our Who history.  But we get it.

At least it's not 1986 all over again.

Use the RSS tab in the header to subscribe and please replace any other (non-calendar) feeds from the site you may have been using.  We're coming out of our dormant period soon for the annual holiday run-up so this should help getting the word out when site updates occur.