Apr 142012
 

Consider the curious case of one Richard E Grant, what we here at THT Omniversal have called our Mystery Guest.  Banished to an obscure corner of the western spiral arm of the Tour, he sits there uncomplaining.  Happy for any attention that can be drawn his way.  Now that the dust has settled from the last major Tour update, attention can be paid to some of the lonelier parts of the Tour.

Now for those who don't know… as part of it's online ambitions with Doctor Who, BBCi produced late in 2003 as part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations a new online story starring Richard E Grant as some future incarnation of the Doctor in Scream of the Shalka. This BBC sanctioned event made him Tour-worthy, and by extension was touted for the new Doctor Who series starting in 2005.   Along with the Big Finish audios, this production served as a vital bridge for fans during the closing stretch of the wilderness years.  He also appeared in the 1999 comic relief special The Curse of the Fatal Death, penned by The Moff himself.

Now we've spiffed up the section bringing it into normal Tour look and compliance, whilst doubling the overall size of the section.  The improvement  is only about 150 images, relatively tiny by modern Tour standards, but still it's worthy to remember this part of Who history.

 Posted by at 1:32 pm
Apr 072012
 

After months of percolation the first real site-wide update for 2012 hits, and it's also the largest site-wide update in Tour history, adding over 6000 images to raise the overall image count over 145,000 whilst improving many, many others.  One emphasis to get the Tour through this gap period between seasons is to improve the breadth and quality of the screencaps within Tour confines.

Many of the earliest caps included for the Tour were either unsorted or of relatively poor quality, and the goal until the fall return of the show is to improve this.  We're particularly proud of the revision to the 1996 TVM, which finally got everything ordered and improved the quality as well.  Other stories included in this update which also had updates are The Daemons, Colony in Space, The Android Invasion, and The Robots of Death

While we have quite a few other stories on tap to cap, as it were, we're also in the market for cap submissions.  If you (and you know who you are) have caps which fill or improve Tour content, let us know.

Other Tour notables with this update, William Russell Who Not Who! images have been broken out into their own section and the nascent Jenna-Louise Coleman Who Not Who! images has been updated yet again.  That spans the entire run of the series doesn't it?

As always you can see which stories got updated by going to The Masterlist.

 Posted by at 8:20 am
Apr 032012
 

Getting ready to unleash a massive overall site update on the collective hive-mind of the interwebs. One of the joys of managing a collection of this size is in the finding of great photos.  Consider these a preview of coming attractions.

The Tour glitterati really like the McGann/Ashbrook picture.  Having just finished re-capping the 1996 TVM for inclusion in the next update, this picture just hit our sweet spot.

 

 Posted by at 3:21 pm
Mar 222012
 

Spring is that season of renewal it's often said, and so it is this year with Doctor Who.  Nowadays the arrival (or announcement) of a new companion is greeted with almost as much fervor as that of a new Doctor. 

And why not?  It isn't as though it happens very often, and since RTD used to change out the companion at season's end during his run, there was an unintended sense of closure to that story and then onto the next chapter for the Doctor.

But the Moff as a student of Who history knows that, especially during the sixties, companions were changed as often as socks (Katarina of Sara Kingdom anyone?).  It's with this in mind that we welcome Jenna-Louise Coleman to the fold, and here at THT Towers we introduce her to the mania in the only way we know how.  We've scoured the goodness of the interwebs to produce an initial gallery of images for her, some of the introductory announcement but others from various other sources.  Lots of "red carpet" type situations of course but 200 or so images is a nice start.

 Posted by at 7:15 pm
Mar 052012
 

Welsh actually.  Still it is with a heavy sigh to learn that Philip Madoc has died, aged 77.  Strange how some actors cast such a long shodow over a program such as Doctor Who.  The art of acting for many of the best character actors is to suggest menace rather than show it out-right.  In that regard Philip Madoc was masterful.

He could project such a wonderfully lugubrious quality running straight through from the smuggler Brockley in Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD to the War Lord in The War Games and then to his greatest  triumph as Solon in The Brain of Morbius. 

Of course his career carried over to many other series and appearances.  I remember his comedic appearance  in "The Avengers" episode The Correct Way to Kill or as a slimy publisher in A Very British Coup.

What a magnificent head.

 Posted by at 8:00 pm
Feb 292012
 

Today we celebrate the 12th Anniversary of possibly the most unusual episode of Doctor Who in the program's history.  12th Anniversary you say?  The math simply doesn't work in the context of nu-Who doesn't it?  On February 29th, 1964 episode 2 of the William Hartnell historical Marco Polo entitled "The Singing Sands" was broadcast for the first and only time on BBC1. 

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.

 Posted by at 1:00 am