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Well you all know by now that the first season of the new Doctor Who series is out on DVD. They can be bought disk by disk or in a box set at the ABC shop.
Also the first disk of the David Tennant series (Season 2) is now available. Which help alot as I missed last weeks episode "New Earth" but got to watch it today on DVD.
I am currently watching the 1976 serial The Hand of Fear starring Tom Baker and it featured Lis Sladen's last regular appearance as Sarah in the classic series. The DVD notes for Part 2 is something I like to comment on. It mentioned Bob Baker and Dave Martin having written The Three Doctors. The Three Doctors was mentioned because script editor Robert Holmes vetoed aliens called Omegans being in the original, completely different and unmade version of Hand of Fear since there was a character called Omega in The Three Doctors. Before I comment further on the notes I should point out that along with the two writers, The Three Doctors also shares with Hand of Fear, a same guest star Rex Robinson and director Lennie Mayne.
Yet when it came to Robinson having work with director Mayne before the notes did not mentioned The Three Doctors. It simply says that Robinson had worked with Mayne before including two Doctor Who serials in 1972 (The Three Doctors) and 1974 (Monster of Peladon). While this is not inaccurate the way the information was presented on-screen was not consistent. Since the notes have mentioned The Three Doctors having been written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin why not just mention the story again in regards to Robinson and Mayne? It would seem The Three Doctors would not have been mentioned at all had the Omegans not been in the original Hand of Fear.
Also in the notes for Part 2, it mentioned that among the actors who was considered for Professor Watson one of them later became a star on a major American TV series. It did not say who it is.
So at Gallifrey I asked this particular question and Who expert Andrew Pixley has responded saying that he is pretty sure that person is Patrick Stewart. Just as I thought.
I am currently watching the 1976 serial The Hand of Fear starring Tom Baker and it featured Lis Sladen's last regular appearance as Sarah in the classic series. The DVD notes for Part 2 is something I like to comment on. It mentioned Bob Baker and Dave Martin having written The Three Doctors. The Three Doctors was mentioned because script editor Robert Holmes vetoed aliens called Omegans being in the original, completely different and unmade version of Hand of Fear since there was a character called Omega in The Three Doctors. Before I comment further on the notes I should point out that along with the two writers, The Three Doctors also shares with Hand of Fear, a same guest star Rex Robinson and director Lennie Mayne.
Yet when it came to Robinson having work with director Mayne before the notes did not mentioned The Three Doctors. It simply says that Robinson had worked with Mayne before including two Doctor Who serials in 1972 (The Three Doctors) and 1974 (Monster of Peladon). While this is not inaccurate the way the information was presented on-screen was not consistent. Since the notes have mentioned The Three Doctors having been written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin why not just mention the story again in regards to Robinson and Mayne? It would seem The Three Doctors would not have been mentioned at all had the Omegans not been in the original Hand of Fear.
As well as Rex Robinson, another person who had appeared in The Three Doctors was Stephen Thorne who was Omega in that story. Here he plays Kastrian Eldrad.
Well I finished reading the notes for Part 4 and perhaps not surprising it did not mention Stephen Thorne playing Omega in The Three Doctors even though the character and that story was mentioned in the notes during Part 2.
On reading the DVD notes for the Third Doctor serial Inferno Episode 2, I read that Olaf Pooley (Professor Stahlman) had appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. I looked up the IMDb (because it has been a long time since I have seen Voyager) and the episode he was in was in season 1's Blink of An Eye playing Cleric.
Also another thing about the DVD notes is that it overlooked an obvious goof as I will now do a Fact of Fiction-type analysis on this:
When Liz left the hut she asked the Doctor to open the door which he does by using the sonic screwdriver. Later on when Liz came back to the hut with the Brigadier she opened the door by using the sonic screwdriver herself. Question is how did she have the sonic screwdriver since the Doctor still had it when she left. If it was her own sonic screwdriver why did she had to ask the Doctor to open it in the first place?
Then Script Editor Terrance Dicks for one must have noticed this because he wrote in the novelisation that "the Brigadier and Liz ran up to the open door of the hut". However he did not actually write whether the Doctor left the door open or that Liz had opened the door herself.
I recently finished watching Can You Hear The Earth Scream? on the Inferno DVD and it showed clips of the other season 7 stories along with Inferno and when the clip of Spearhead From Space came on I was shocked that the on-screen caption said that it was written by Malcolm Hulke! It was actually written by future script editor Robert Holmes. Wonder how Bob Holmes and Hulke both deceased would have reacted if they were still alive to see this?
I recently read the DVD notes on Part 1 of the Tom Baker story 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.
Update with my reading of the Keeper of Traken 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.
I finished watching on DVD Part 1 of the 1974/5 serial Robot and was quite surprised that producer Barry Letts was in the commentary as his contribution for it has not been noted on the DVD sleeve.
Robot marked the formal debut of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and starts with the aftermath of the Doctor's regeneration from Jon Pertwee to Tom. In the scene when the Doctor says that he was the Doctor the genuine article, the DVD notes states the definition for the word "article". I find it curious why the notes included the definition for "article" since it did not explain the difference between a sick bay and infirmary when the Doctor and Harry (a physician) quibbled on the correct way to refer to the medical room that the Doctor was supposed to be in, as he recovering from his latest regeneration.
Being Tom's formal debut as the Doctor, the notes revealed that the episode had ratings of 10.8 million which is almost the same of 10.84 million for Chris Eccleston's debut as the Ninth Doctor in Rose.
Since Tom lasted seven seasons as the Doctor we can only hope the 10.84 million ratings for Rose is good indication that the current series as a whole would last seven seasons altogether if not longer.
Well you all know by now that the first season of the new Doctor Who series is out on DVD. They can be bought disk by disk or in a box set at the ABC shop.
I've actually gotten into the habit of purchasing all my Doctor Who DVDs from Amazon.co.uk. (And this isn't an ad for them).
I saved $40 on, (even when shipping and credit card fees are added in), "The Key To Time" boxset, got it months ahead of it's local release, got one of the 15,000 numbered limited editions, (with the special opening box), and all delivered to my door 7 days after the UK release date. (5 if you don't count the weekend).
I don't always save money, occassionally a title from the UK will cost more, (it;s happened once in the last 7 years), but over time it all evens out. And with the aussie dollar at a record high, nows a very good time to buy.
And in the case of "Doctor Who: The Movie" (1996) it's unlikely every to see a local release on DVD.
"Planet Of Evil" arrived at the door last friday. (19/10/2007).
Total cost, including shipping & fees, AUD$32.00, delivered to my door.
It's quiet good, (well it's hard to wax lyrical about a 30 year old tv serial that you've seen a dozen times already), with some interesting documentaries, (at least these don't go over the same points we've all heard 1000 times before), and the picture quality is very good.
Standout has to be the "Coming Soon" trailer for "Destiny Of The Daleks"
Picture quality looks extremely good, lots of colour, but honestly, it's cut like a 100 million dollar action movie with music to match. And lets face it, DOTD ain't quiet that. Still nice to see an effort being made.
Recently finished the first episode of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's first story Castrovalva on DVD which is part of the New Beginnings release.
In the DVD notes for the episode it said that the Head of Security (played by Dallas Cavell) was originally going to be a woman played by the star of a BBC police series but she was not available. The notes does not mention the name of the actress nor the show but I am guessing that the actress is Stephanie Turner and the show Juliet Bravo. Juliet Bravo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Interestingly the Doctor Who Unbound Big Finish audio Deadline written by Rob Shearman, claimed that in a world in which Doctor Who the TV series never existed, people who are Doctor Who fans in our world, became Juliet Bravo fans in that alternative world.
In the commentary for the episode, when the subject of spoilers came up, writer Christopher H Bidmead (who at the time the story was made, had just left the post of script editor for the series) said to his fellow commentators that they shouldn't worry about spoilers on the assumption that the viewer would already have seen the whole story before listening to the commentary.
Not meaning to slight Bidmead but the way I view the classic episodes on DVD is to watch an episode, then listen to the commentary on the episode, then I watch the next episode, then listen to the commentary on that episode and so on.
It is as another script editor Terrance Dicks said for the commentary for the season 10 closer The Green Death, that an entire serial was not meant to be seen all in one viewing as there were gaps in time between broadcasts of the individual episodes.
What I am saying about DVD viewing of the classic series is that there are people who have a gap in time between viewing episodes rather than see the whole story all in one go.
Update on my reading of the Castrovalva DVD notes:
In the part 2 notes it says that Peter Davison and producer John Nathan-Turner had disagreements on how Davison should play the Doctor. One idea that Davison came up with but vetoed by Nathan-Turner was for the Doctor to fix any problems with everyday objects he happened to have in his pockets. This makes the Doctor sounds like MacGyver some three years before that show came on.
Also it mentioned that director Fiona Cumming had directed two episodes of Blake's 7 [Rumours of Death & Sarchophagus] and it described it as being Doctor Who's science fiction "rival". Although the word "rival" was in inverted commas, I definitely do not think of Blake's 7 as being a rival but more of an ally. Another thing is that Blake's 7 like Doctor Who was shown on the BBC. Had Blake's 7 been shown on ITV, then I could accept it being described as Doctor Who's "rival".
Of the two Blake's 7 episodes that Cumming directed it was Sarchophagus which got her the commission for Castrovalva. The notes says that she was so impressed with Sarchophagus that she sent Nathan-Turner the tape of the episode hoping that he will get its writer Tanith Lee to write for Doctor Who. He didn't, opting to have Cumming to direct on Doctor Who instead.
Tanith Lee is a science fiction/fantasy/horror novelist and I had suggested twice in the past that she should write for Doctor Who. The first was some years ago that she should write a Big Finish audio at a time before anyone knew that Doctor Who would return on television.
The second time was for her to write on the current television series.
As for as I am aware opportunites to write for Who has not yet arrived on Ms Lee's door. Hopefully this will happen in future whether it be for Doctor Who itself or a spin-off in whatever form whether it be for television, audio or book.
Finished reading the DVD notes for Robot Part 2, Fourth Doctor Tom Baker's debut story:
The notes says that Barry Letts (who had ended his tenure as producer on Robot) had been producer at the start of the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee era. That is not entirely correct as he took over from the second Pertwee story The Silurians. In fact the DVD notes does state, later in the episode, that was the serial that Letts began his tenure as Producer.
The notes also quotes from then script editor Robert Holmes in an interview with DWM in which he said that his predeccessor Terrance Dicks, who had written Robot, had told him about the tradition of the departing script editor writing the first story of the next season. Given what is stated about this so-called tradition, the notes then mention that past script editors David Whitaker, Dennis Spooner, Gerry Davis and Derrick Sherwin had written the next story after they had left the post of script editor. It would seem there is a confusion between the departing script editor writing the next season opener and departing script editor writing the next story.
This is because of those four script editors only Gerry Davis wrote the first story of the next season after he left the script editor's job. While David Whitaker and Dennis Spooner did write the next story after leaving the script editor's job neither of their stories began a new season. As to Derrick Sherwin he left as Script Editor to become Producer overseeing Second Doctor Patrick Troughton's formal swansong the season 6 closer The War Games, a story which he did not write. The error with Derrick Sherwin may be due to confusion over his capacity in the show as he continued as Producer for just one more serial the season 7 opener the Pertwee debut Spearhead from Space. Sherwin did not write Spearhead from Space but the story which sees the Doctor becoming UNIT's scientific adviser was a set-up that was made by Sherwin when he introduced UNIT in the story The Invasion which he wrote for the previous season.
Finished reading the DVD notes for Survival Part 3, the final episode of the classic series:
A working title for Survival is Cat-Flap. It has been said that Survival served as a template for the current TV series with the domestic situation. Well a cat-flap was seen in Rose and it even has Rose complaining to Jackie about stray cats getting through the cat-flap.
Reveals that Shreela and Squeak later turned up in the New Adventures novel Cat's Cradle: Warhead by script editor Andrew Cartmel (one of the vast majority of New Adventures book that I have not read).
It is such a shame that both died in this novel.
Playing the little girl Squeak in her first acting job was Adele Silva. The notes reveal that these days she can be found in magazines like Maxim and FHM. Oh my she certainly has grown up since then.
Perhaps an oversight but the notes did not mention Geoffrey Beevers when it mentioned all the actors who played the Master prior to Anthony Ainley. After Peter Pratt played the Master in The Deadly Assassin the notes mentioned Ainley had then taken over the role. In fact Beevers came after Pratt and before Ainley.
The notes mentioned that Lisa Bowerman (Karra) is well known to Doctor Who fans as being the voice of Professor Bernice (Benny) Summerfield in the Big Finish audios. I did not expect this fact to be included but it was nice that it did.
The notes say that the woman whom the Doctor talks to, towards the end of the episode was played by Kathleen Bidmead. The credits however says Michelle Martin. It is two different people and it is a case of cast confusion as Bidmead did appear in the serial briefly at the beginning in Part 1 not at the end in Part 3.
The notes mentioned about a funeral pyre included in the script by saying it is very Return of the Jedi. Very baffled on why this Star Wars reference was included in Part 3 when the notes did not say anything about a plumber nicknamed Darth Vader who got mentioned in Part 1 by Ace. I would think that the Star Wars reference in the notes would have been better placed about the said plumber in Part 1 rather than about the funeral pyre in Part 3. A funeral pyre is something that occurred in history way long before the Star Wars films came along.
The notes said that the classic series ended with 694 episodes. It is actually 695.
The final line delivered by Sylvester McCoy was recorded, the notes said, on November 23 1989 the day after the original transmission of Part 1. It is too bad it did not mention as well that November 23 1989 was the 26th anniversary of Doctor Who. After all it did bring things full circle.
Speaking of that particular date I noticed that the time index when the credits rolled in was at 23:11 which incidentally is the numerical term for November 23.
In the DVD notes for Robot Part 3 it says that before Tom Baker was cast as the Fourth Doctor, producer Barry Letts had interviewed other potential Fourth Doctor candidates. They included:
Ron Moody
David Warner
Richard Hearne
Graham Crowden
Bernard Cribbins
Michael Bentine
Jim Dale
Fulton Mackay
Of these actors Ron Moody, according to Lis Sladen in the commentary for Ark In Space, later regretted not accepting the part of the Fourth Doctor. Moody semi-rectified this decision when he appeared in the Eighth Doctor Big Finish audio story Other Lives released in December 2005.
David Warner eventually got to play the Doctor albeit a version from an alternate universe in the Doctor Who Unbound audio series from Big Finish. In the lead up to the current TV series Warner was mentioned for consideration for the Doctor but that eventually went to Chris Eccleston.
Graham Crowden did eventually got to appear in Doctor Who alongside the man who got the part of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker in The Horns of Nimon.
Bernard Cribbins was in the second Dalek movie Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD back in 1966. The movie was based on the second Dalek serial Daleks Invasion of Earth and existed in a seperate continuity from the TV series.
Cribbins finally appeared in TV Who in the current version.
Fulton Mackay had earlier appeared in Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee serial The Silurians.
Survival DVD:
In the Endgame documentary on disc 2 Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy said that he liked the Chris Eccleston and David Tennant Doctors. In regards to the latter the subtitles correlated to his remarks as being read "new tenant in the TARDIS". It is quite obvious that Sylvester was having a wordplay on David Tennant's name and the subtitles should really been read as "new Tennant in the TARDIS".
Some interesting things came out from the DVD commentary and on-screen notes of the season 22 serial Timelash during Part 1.
The notes:
For the part of Gazak it was originally offered to an actor who had appeared in a 1984 episode of Juliet Bravo as a policeman's son which was directed by Graeme Harper (also a Doctor Who director including for the current TV series). The name of the actor was not revealed and the only information I can come up with is that according to
IMDb there were two Juliet Bravo episodes that Harper had directed titled Strike the Father & Alibi. For whatever reason the actor did not get the part and it went to Steven Mackintosh.
A BAFTA-nominated actress (name not revealed in the notes) from the mini-series The Jewel In The Crown (1984) was offered the role of Vena but turned it down. The role was ultimately given to Jeananne Crowley.
There was a funny technical mistake in which the notes were presented on-screen. It mentioned that Eric Deacon (Mykros) later became a writer by saying he had written "episodes of episodes" of TV shows.
As I say a funny mistake.
Tracy Louise Ward (Katz) is now the Marchioness of Worchester. Had to look up what Marchioness means (as I had not seen that word before) and it means that she is married to a Marquess.
The commentary:
The commentary featured Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri) and Paul Darrow (villain Tekker). Paul Darrow is well known as Avon in Blake's 7 and before Timelash he and Baker had worked together before when Baker guest starred on Blake's 7 in the episode City at the Edge of the World (they basically played reverse roles to
their Timelash characters). In the commentary Darrow mentioned another Timelash guest star Dicken Ashworth (Sezon) had also appeared in Blake's 7 (in the episode Power) which led to him remarking how everybody ended up being on Blake's 7. Nicola Bryant responded that she hadn't appeared on Blake's 7 and Darrow said that if he had any say in it she would be there in a shot!
Timelash DVD notes:
In the DVD notes for Part 2, it quoted director Pennant Roberts saying to Denis Carey (the Old Man) "I have every hope we will finish this one". The notes says it was in reference to the last Doctor Who they did which was aborted due to the strike. The notes did not mention the name of this particular serial. (It's Shada written by Douglas Adams).
It briefly mentioned Roberts having directed on Blake's 7. The notes for Part 1 mentioned Paul Darrow had been Avon on Blake's 7 but when it came to mentioning Roberts directing on that show it did not remind viewers about Darrow being in it.
It would have shown that Darrow and Roberts had worked together before Timelash and it is inconsistent with the fact that it mentioned Roberts having worked with other members of the Timelash cast before on other things.
The notes also did not mention about Colin Baker and Darrow working together before when Baker was a guest star on Blake's 7. However Baker and Darrow does mention it in the commentary so not a total remiss.
The notes mentioned that Timelash was Roberts fifth and last Doctor Who serial. Timelash was the fifth to be shown but was Roberts' sixth overall due to the fact that the aforementioned Shada was not broadcast.
The notes mentioned that BBC management had decided not to renew the
series for the planned 1986 series. However it did not mention that it was actually on an 18 month hiatus resulting in Doctor Who being returned for a new season in the latter instead of the former half of 1986. The omission of the fact about the hiatus would give a misleading impression, to people relatively new to Doctor Who who are reading the notes, that the classic series ended in 1985 instead of 1989.
Finally the notes mentioned that Timelash (which is a 2 x 45 minute serial) was also sold around the world as a four part edit revealing where Part 3 ended but not Part 1. Probably because Part 1 was not really a cliffhanger as it was just the Doctor and Peri in the TARDIS just before they stepped out into Karfel.
In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly documentary in the Timelash DVD, narrator Terry Malloy (Davros in the 1980s Dalek stories) said that Timelash has been compared unfavourably with the story that came before it The Two Doctors & the one that came after Revelation of the Daleks.
Personally I find Timelash to be better than The Two Doctors. Timelash at least attempted something new while The Two Doctors was about bringing back past elements (most notably the Second Doctor) which I don't think translated well on-screen.
In the DVD notes for Time-Flight Part 2, when the Doctor tosses a coin but ignores the coin's decision, it says that it was one of the trademarks of the Peter Davison Doctor. I don't remember him doing that in any other story and surely it was something that was done by the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton.
There was a Doctor Who reference in the Robin Hood season 1 DVD release. Executive Producer Foz Allan in the special feature Designing the Hood said that for CGI to work on Robin Hood the audience must not notice it as it is not science fiction, it's not Doctor Who.
In the DVD notes for Time-Flight Part 3 it says that among Nigel Stock's roles prior to Time-Flight he appeared in the series Quiller in which he played a pompous manager directing the search for a missing plane. Ironically as Professor Hayter in Time-Flight, Nigel Stock was a passenger on another missing plane.
The notes also said that Andrew Morgan was first approached to direct Time-Flight but was not impressed with the script and passed on it. He instead directed the series Squadron which was also about aviation. The notes however did not mention that Morgan did eventually directed on Doctor Who for two stories for Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy. The first for the Seventh Doctor debut story Time and The Rani and the 25th anniversary season opener Remembrance of the Daleks.
When Nyssa reacted to hearing the Master's name, the notes said that she was reacting to the Master having murdered her father and destroying her homeworld. I thought it would have been more effective to the audience's understanding of Nyssa's character had it also mentioned that not only had the Master killed Nyssa's father (Tremas) but also taken over his body as well. Since it is not something that would ever occur in reality, it is hard to imagine how anyone would feel if he or she were to see his or her father's body inhabited by the being who killed him. Not only would be a constant reminder of his death but also the manner of how he died.
Finished Part 1 of Arc of Infinity on DVD. It states that Max Harvey (Cardinal Zorac) died in January 2006. Interestingly when DWM reported on his death via the Beyond The TARDIS page by Dominic May it was some 15 months after his death. DWM states the report of his death came from IMDb. This means that either Dominic May or someone else stumbled upon his passing when browsing through the IMDb almost year and a half after Harvey died. Shame that it took this amount of time for his passing to be noticed.
Before he became the Sixth Doctor, Arc of Infinity provided Colin Baker's debut on Doctor Who as Maxil. In a somewhat cheeky manner, the DVD notes says that Maxil was his most significant contribution to the world of Doctor Who, with the Sixth Doctor coming in second. There are two reasons for this the notes says - his costume as Maxil is better the Sixth Doctor's and the other reason is Maxil's hat.
During the episode in a scene in the TARDIS the recall circuit was used summoning the Doctor back to Gallifrey in which the Doctor says to Nyssa that the recall circuit was used twice before in the history of the High Council of the Time Lords. As the notes correctly pointed out the Doctor really refers to the his own (televised) personal history with the High Council. Since the Doctor is preoccupied with his travels he can't really take into account every single time that the recall circuit has been used in situations that did not involve him at all.
i've bought all my star trek ds9 and 4/7 of voyager from half.com.... when you can get a set for $33 USD and still see it's brand new, then i suppose it's a good deal. also i'm keeping my eye on the dr. who sets that are on there now.
this helpful hint was brought to you today by the letters D and P.
Finished with my DVD viewing of Evolution of the Daleks this morning. The commentary was by David Tennant, Nick Briggs and visual effects supervisor Barney Curnow. Very funny when Briggs introduced himself as Tom Baker! Later on when Tennant mentioned that Miranda Raison (Tallulah) is in Spooks, Curnow says that he likes the way that Tennant in his Scots voice says Spooks!
The DVD notes for Arc of Infinity Part 3 profiled Michael Gough's career. It mentioned that he was born in 1917 but neglected to mention the exact date of his birth that year and that is November 23 which is the same date that Doctor Who was born exactly 46 years later.
It mentioned him playing Alfred in the Batman movies back in the last decade. However it did not get the wording right about his involvement in those Batman movies. It said that he played Alfred in the first four Batman movies between 1989 and 1997.
I am not going to go through the entire history of Batman in the movies here but the 1989 movie which began a Batman film series was not the first Batman movie ever. As to him being Alfred in the first four Batman movies in the aforementioned period those four movies is actually all that makes up of that series.
The Batman film series which began with Batman Begins and the sequel The Dark Knight (currently in cinemas) is a separate series from the one Gough was in. It is a case of the mistake of meshing these two Batman film series together.
A correct way of writing Gough's involvement in Batman movies would have been something like this:
"He played Alfred, the butler in a series of Batman movies between 1989 and 1997."
Error with previous post - it's Arc of Infinity Part 2 not 3.
Arc of Infinity Part 3 DVD notes:
Arc of Infinity was not the only story that was considered to open season 20. Other storylines includes one from Rod Beacham entitled Poison (funnily enough The Poison Sky is on tonight on ABC1) and one from Bill Lyons (story is unnamed in the notes). Funnily enough both had written for the final season of Blake's 7. Rod Beacham had written the episode Assassin and Bill Lyons wrote the next episode Games.
Neither Beacham nor Lyons' stories for Doctor Who were ever made but they did appear in the programme itself a lot of years earlier. Beacham had played Corporal Lane in the Second Doctor story The Web of Fear and Lyons played the guard on Denes in the previous Second Doctor story The Enemy of the World. Quite a remarkable coincidence that two consecutive stories/episodes of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 happened to involved each of them along with their written Doctor Who stories being considered to open the 20th season.
The notes list other actors who were considered but did not get the characters in the story-
Among those considered for Lord President Borusa was Geoffrey Bayldon. It would have been quite interesting if he had been cast as Borusa and got to play alongside Elspet Gray (Chancellor Thalia) since they were both in Catweazle with Bayldon playing the title character. Having the President and Chancellor who used to be in another TV series would have been something.
Also considered was Peter Cushing who was the Doctor in the two 1960s Dalek movies. If he had been cast it would have been appropriate if one particular person considered for Thalia had been cast for the character instead of Elspet Gray. That person was Jennie Linden who was Peter Cushing's co-star in the first of the two Dalek movies playing Barbara. As I have said about Bayldon and Gray it would have been something to have seen Cushing and Linden together again in Doctor Who as President and Chancellor.
Among those considered for the Castellan was Patrick Stewart and the notes mentioned him being the future captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart had earlier been considered for the part of Professor Watson in the season 14 story The Hand of Fear. In contrast to the Arc of Infinity notes, The Hand of Fear notes did not mention Stewart's name at all when the Professor Watson character was being cast. It just simply says that an actor considered for the part later became a star of an American TV series.
Actors considered for the part of Robin included Jason Carter. Carter later became Marcus Cole in Babylon 5.
For Maxil, eventually played by subsequent Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, included a pre-James Bond Pierce Brosnan.
Omega was originally played in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctor by Stephen Thorne. In Arc of Infinity he was played by Ian Collier who had previously appeared in Doctor Who as a different character in The Time Monster which preceded The Three Doctors in transmission (again with the coincidence with consecutive stories).
From reading the notes it would appear that Stephen Thorne may not have been approached at all in reprising the character as his name was not mentioned at all for the casting process. Among other characters considered to replace Thorne as Omega was Martin Jarvis. Jarvis previously appeared in Doctor Who in The Web Planet (1965), The Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and would return in 1985 as the Governor of Varos in Vengeance on Varos. In recent years he made another appearance on Doctor Who but on audio and with his wife Rosalind Ayres in 2003's Jubilee which became the basis for the TV episode Dalek. Again with the theme of coincidence I saw Jarvis a couple of days ago in the Stargate Atlantis episode The Seer playing the episode title character and tomorrow August 4 is his 67th birthday.
Arc of Infinity Part 3 DVD notes addendum:
As well as being on the list of potential Borusas, Geoffrey Bayldon and Peter Cushing have one thing in common - they both played an alternative version of the First Doctor. Bayldon, who had been in Doctor Who, years earlier in the season 17 story Creature from the Pit and has said to been the first person ever to have been asked to play the Doctor, finally got to play the Doctor in Big Finish's Doctor Who Unbound audio series.
If Cushing or Bayldon had been cast as Borusa playing alongside Peter Davison as the Doctor and Colin Baker as Maxil, the story would had three actors who had played the Doctor at different points in time.
42:
On three occasions in this episode Martha talks to her mum Francine on their respective mobile phones despite the fact that Francine took the calls at home. Doesn't anyone use the home phone when they are at home!
On the audio description for the episode on the season 33 set the narrator at one time made the mistake of mentioning Freema Agyeman's first name to describe what Martha was doing. A confusion between actor and character!
