Year: 2006

Why Liz Shaw had to go

31 October 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Without wishing to start a new almost-war, I thought this little snippet from the Backlash… sorry, BBC Doctor Who web site was of interest:

Another element of the seventh season with which both Letts and Dicks had been dissatisfied was Liz Shaw. This was on the basis that the independent, self-confident scientist had little need to rely on the Doctor for explanations and so, in their eyes, failed to fulfil the basic dramatic functions of aiding plot exposition and acting as a point of audience identification. Letts therefore decided against renewing actress Caroline John’s contract for a further season and the two men set about devising a new companion for the Doctor.

Anyway, here’s a little clip of Liz Shaw in action from my third most favourite story, The Ambassadors of Death. The clip is actually an example of the current restoration work being done by Ian Levine and co, so the quality of the first half is rubbish. And I don’t mean the story.

Science Fiction Britannia

31 October 2006 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Science Fiction Britannia



There’s a great big sci-fi season coming to BBC4 in early November. As well as interviews with Iain M Banks and Terry Pratchett, there’s a dramatisation of John Wyndham’s Random Quest, a three-part documentary on UK sci-fi writers and all sorts of goodies from the archives (allegedly).

There’s also going to be a series called The Cult Of… that focuses on cult British sci-fi series: Blake’s 7, Adam Adamant, Doomwatch, Star Cops, The Survivors and Tripods. I can understand all those obsessions except Tripods – Star Cops and Doomwatch were brilliant, Blake’s 7 had its moments as did The Survivors, and Adam Adamant was fun. But Tripods? Lines from the books such as “And then they went into a village and stole some bread” turned into an entire episode? Dismal. Have you noticed that loving Doctor Who is no longer considered a cult pursuit by the Beeb, though? Interesting.

To coincide with the season, BBC4 will be opening up (from today) a web site called My Science Fiction Life, where you can deposit your memories of sci-fi shows and books, some of which might be used in a “new TV programme”. They don’t mention whether that’ll be The Cult Of… or not.