Dr. Who : The Daleks

This second Dr. Who story is perhaps the most iconic because it introduced an enemy that is still threatening the Doctor nearly 50 years later, The Daleks.

The Doctor’s character has eased slightly from An Unearthly Child as he gets used to having other people aboard the TARDIS. There are still tensions though as neither Ian and Barbara completely trust the Doctor and they know he is the only one who can operate the TARDIS. It does seem slightly odd that Susan is also a Time Lord and does not seem to know the full secrets of how to operate the ship.

We see the Doctor’s mischievous and risk-taking sides as he purposely drains the mercury from the fluid link so that the travellers have to go to the city when previously only the Doctor wanted to go.

We see the first glimpse of something non-human at the end of Episode 1, the sucker stick of a Dalek.

When the Daleks paralyse Ian’s legs in Episode 2, this must be one of the few times that the Daleks have ever shown mercy. Normally he would have been exterminated without delay.

As if the peril of being held prisoner by mechanical alien monsters wasn’t enough, they are all suffering with radiation sickness because they didn’t know the air was polluted. Helpfully they were given some medicine for it by the natives of the planet, Thals, and then left it in the TARDIS.

In Episode 4, we see the Daleks ruthless attitude to life that is different to themselves by promising to work with the Thals but then lure them into an Ambush.

Nothing is ever easy and after they escape, realise that the fluid link is still in the Dalek city. By provoking the Thals to realise that they do have things to fight for, they enlist their help to go back into the city to recover the link.

The journey takes 2.5 days and from school teachers, Ian & Barbara have now become, through necessity, trekkers across mountains, plains and any other obstacle they encounter.

When they get to the city, they defeat the Daleks and turn off their power supply. That’ll be the end of them then……….

The travellers say their goodbyes to the Thals and the TARIDS takes them away from Skaro. Then disaster strikes and the TARDIS is racked by explosions and smoke fills the control room.

The Daleks is a great story that rattles along even for 7 episodes. The main characters are filling out and are beginning to gel as the TARDIS crew. The Doctor is getting used to Ian and Barbara and the help they have given and Ian and Barbara have sampled the kind of life that they will face as members of the TARDIS crew.

Next Episode : The Edge of Destruction.

Genesis 32 to 37

Joseph. The story of his life is one of the most famous in all the pages of the Bible. Dismissed by his family as young and arrogant, his brothers going as far as pretending to kill him, but then selling him to slave traders.

Sometimes we have families who do not understand our faith and redicule and deride our beliefs. It may not always be family, it may be friends or work colleagues. The problem is that i don’t think there is one single way to put our point of view across in every situation that we encounter.

One of the best ways, I think, is to do what God commanded us, and that is to live a life that honors him and in which we try to live up to Jesus’ perfect life. We will not always succeed, but with an open communication line to God any time, day or night, we can always turn to Him to guide us in every situation.

To have God to turn to, and know for certain that He is listening, is one of the most wonderful things about having a faith in Him. Something for us to cherish daily as we go through our life.

Dr. Who : An Unearthly Child

Episode 1 : An Unearthly Child

So it all begins on a foggy London street and a Police Box stading almost out of place in a junk yard.

As the introductory episode to a series that has gone on for nearly 50 years, it is great. Carole Ann Ford as Susan looking alien and other worldly. William Russell as Ian and Jaqueline Hill as Barbara, two school teachers inquisitive about the pupil who they can’t figure out. Finally William Hartnell as the Doctor.At first appearance he is frosty, rude, angry, unfriendly and finally takes Ian and Barbara against their will on a trip in the TARDIS.

The episode ends with the TARDIS appearing on a barren landscape and the silhouette of a figure appearing watching the blue box.

Episode 2 : The Cave of Skulls

For the first time in the series, the Doctor is captured. The other travellers try to rescue him but they all end up being captured so that they can show the secret of fire to the primitive people dwelling in this prehistoric Earth.

The jungle looks quite realistic in this episode with the travellers coming to terms with their situation nicely realised and acted.

Episode 3 : The Forest of Fear

The travellers escape from the cave and spend the whole episode trying to find their way back to the TARDIS. The travellers are now looking dirty and ragged after their adventure so far and the trials they have undergone.

When they eventually get to the place the TARDIS landed, the cave dwellers have beaten them to it and are lying in wait.

Episode 4 : The Firemaker

The travellers agree to show how to make fire to the man who wants to be leader of the tribe. They agree only to be double crossed and held captive. By putting skulls on top of fire torches, they finally get away and make their way back to the TARDIS.

They take off and have got away but then the Doctor reveals that he cannot take them back to their own time as he’s not sure how to. The TARDIS lands and the scanner shows a petrified forest.

Summary

An Unearthly Child is an effective opening story for Doctor Who. There are many good elements in it and for 1963 audiences, a vey different idea that travel in time and space is possible and thatit is possible to visit any time and any place that you can desire. The four main characters are interesting, believable people.

Next Episode : The Dead Planet

The best Sci-Fi series ever.

My earliest memory of Dr. Who is drawing a picture of the Sea Devils coming out of the sea in ‘The Sea Devils’.

From then I watched it pretty much all the way through to the early to mid 80’s. Then kind of stopped watching it. Not sure why. My route back in was the old BSB (British Satellite Broadcasting) and their lovely squarial for those who remember it.

I then watched and recorded every episode they showed and so my love of Dr. Who began in earnest.

It used to be viewed as an program for anorak’s, but since it came back in 2005, it has gained a whole new audience. Dodgy sets and dodgy models have been replaced by state of the art production values and now even in High Definition.

My intention is to watch the whole lot from 1963 onwards and post my opinion of those stories here as I go. People may very well not agree with things I say and I hope you’ll forgive me for having my own views on the canon of Dr. Who TV Stories.

Right, back to November 23rd 1963 and ‘An Unearthly Child’. Back soon……

Genesis 27 to 31

In our current society, things are fast paced. It is also true that we want things immediately and are not very patient when we have to wait for things.

In this passage Jacob has to work for seven years to claim the right to marry Rachel. She must have been a remakably beautiful woman for him to have worked hard for so long. It also shows incredible patience and someone having a long term goal and not wavering from completing that task to reach the goal.

It is a testament to us living now that not all things have to come at the very second we ask or want them. Sometimes we have to be patient, keep our head down and put in hard work to acheieve the goals that we have.

It is God’s desire to mould us and shape us into the people he knows that we can be and who better to do that than our creator.

Genesis 22 to 26

Chapter 22 verse 17 says, “I’ll bless you – oh, how i’ll bless you.”

That’s the theme threaded through all of these chapters. God provided in the most spectacular ways for Abraham and his decendants. Through Isaac and then Jacob & Esau. The reason for this treatment from God – following Him without question and doing exactly what he asked.

From Abraham being told to kill his only son that he had waited so many years for, to Isaac being given a wife through an amazing specific answer to prayer. Also blessing in terms of family, posessions and wealth.

So many times through these passages, we read about God’s promises, the way that he fulfills them, and the incredible rewards that God has in store for us if we do a few simple things.

Keeping our eyes fixed on him, in a close relationship with him, and knowing and following his will are the keys to a fulfilled and rewarding life. The life that he created and always intended us to live.

Genesis 19 to 21

The destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah can be one of those things that you can read and not take in the full event and the power of God that was on display.

Every year we see what are called, “Acts of God”. Recently mud slides and flooding in Queensland, Australia. We see all this ‘destruction’ almost firsthand now that news from around the world is beamed into our living rooms daily.

We seem to have a need to see extraordinary occurances of this sort. For God however, he did not want Lot or any of his family to see the destruction he was raining down on Sodom and Gamorrah using fire and brimstone.

But Lot’s wife looked back and suffered for doing so, turned to a pillar of salt !

In Chapter 21, Abraham God finally fulfills his promise and gives him a son, Isaac. But not before he has tried to pass off his wife as his sister for the second time.

Following God’s commands and the path he has for us can be challenging and we can easily find distractions to go against them. However, if we stay fixed to the goals he has for us, he will guide us through life, forever at our side, as our mentor and guide.

Genesis 16 to 18

There are so many times now that children are born as the result of affairs. Here we find one of the first when Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Abram so that he can have a son. Even though the three people in this pact agreed to the actions, it still brought the bitterness and resentment that it still brings today. Broken relationships and families. The opposite of God’s desires to have stable family units.

This was not in God’s plan, it had been decided by the three involved but he still promised to bless them. Hagar with a big family through Ishmael her son, and to Abram & Sarai through the son that God has previously promised that they would have.

It is so often the case that we know what God has promised us either through his word or direct to us through other means, but we are impatient creatures who want the fulfillment of those promises ASAP.

But God is who he is, God Almighty, and knows the perfect time when the promises that he has made to us are fulfilled. He knows us better than anyone, better than we know ourselves.

We need to concentrate on him and who he is and he will provide, and above all, will keep his promises.

Genesis 12 to 15

So after Job we come back to Genesis and Abram. In these 4 chapters, it’s all go.

Abram, at 75, leaves his home with all his posessions and travels south. He went to Egypt and was scared that as his wife was so lovely, he would be killed and she would be taken by the Egyptians.

So his wife is presented as his sister and is taken in by Pharoah and he gets treated very well becuase of her. But like the vast majority of all lies told, he gets found out. To be honest he comes off very lightly as he’s banished, but can take all the things that he has gained such as livestock with him.

As Abram and Lot had gathered so many posessions, they could not travel together and so split up and went their separate ways. In the regions where they settled, there was a dispute betwen sets of Kings and a large battle. At the end of this, Lot was taken captive.

Bearing in mind that Abram was in his late 70’s at this point, he took all his servants, all 318 of them, and went after Lot. He managed to defeat the captors and was praised by the King of Sodom.

After things had settled down again, God promised Abram “Your reward will be Grand!” Abram couldn’t understand this as he had no children. But God said that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars.

Then Abram did something that we all need to do when God makes a promise to us, “Believe”

It’s a simple thing to write or say, but difficult to do in some circumstances. In all our dealings with God, it is doing the simple things that we need to do that give the greatest reward.

Finally in these Chapters, God gave Abram two more glimpses of the future. Firstly that his decendants would be slaves for 400 years and secondly that they would have all the land that he could see as there own.

I’ve squeezed just 4 chapters into this post but so much went on. If just those 4 chapters were to be a full novel then it would probably run to ~500 pages.

World Cup here we come.

Cricket.

The best game in the world in my opinion. It’s been the best of winters with England winning the Ashes by an unbelievable margin.

Next up in 32 days is the World Cup. At this point I’m not convinced that England are going to do amazingly. Still theres 6 more ODI’s to go against Australia so we’ll see what happens.

They haven’t lost their last 16 series whatever the format. As an England supporter, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’s like them to get to the semis but I’m not sure they will.

I haven’t seen Sri Lanka for a while so it weill be interesting to see how they will get on.

India and South Africa look to be quite close at the moment in the 2 games they have played in their series.

New Zealand, who have played so well in limited overs in the past, seem to have lost their way.

And theres always a place for the underdog so hopefully it will be a tournament to look forward to, and a tournament which won’t seem to go on as long as the last one did.