In spite of hating rock and roll, I love Delta and the Bannermen. It's just sheer relief after suffering Time and the Rani and Paradise Towers.

Though I wish they'd taken time out of all the racing round Wales on motorbikes (though it DOES make a change from corridors) to explain why the Bannermen were trying to genocide the Chimerons.

And as for those Americans...after them, Peri, whatshisname in the Chase, not to mention the Gunfighters, it's no wonder I have a slightly jaundiced view of America.

How do they know inter-species mating will be a success? Not that Billy will mind trying...

They don't - the Doctor said it was very dangerous and could cause hideous mutations. Well, he should know.

Is that how Mel was created? :)

Well, I was thinking more of the Doctor's half-Gallifreyan, half-human nature (ha!) but I suppose it's as good an explanation as any for Mel. Surely those aren't human vocal cords.

I smell Dr. Solon at work. Hmmm...

Having seen this story again recently for the first time in donkey's years, I was struck by a number of observations. The fifties soundtrack, the special effect of the TARDIS in space alongside the bus which must rank as one of the best the show has seen, the banal Ray, but, more importantly, the utter pointlessness of the last two parts. Which are frankly tripe. After a ripping opening episode and some marvellous sequences therein, it all degenerates in a way no other story has been able to before or since!

Oh, I don't know...I think Underworld degenerates further and faster. Delta is fun! (The story I mean, not its eponymous hero). In fact, it's such fun that I tend to forget it's got one of the highest body counts in Doctor Who - not only the Chimeron race but all those alien holiday-makers.

The destruction of the bus is so sad. It was one of those moments when I said to myself "Good God! That's evil!" In a show when we are presented with evil in every story, it's normally so very easy to become desensitised to nastiness.

The American agent's Morris Minor has flashing indicators, which where not fitted to this type of car until 1961. Trivia time: what does this episode have in common with the Blake's 7 Episode Bounty?

Maybe the Morris has been specially modified by its owner?

Weismuller, in his phone conversation, says he is in "Wales, England." This may have been deliberate though, to show how inept he is. I also love the response made by Hawk: "Sure. If I leave my neck behind..."

What I also liked about this mess of a story was the use of a bounty hunter. We don't often get those in the show.

Maybe when all three parts of the Morris Minor are brought together, (The Dashboard, The Seat and the Indicator), they pulse like the Nemesis statue. Perhaps in a Season 27 story they would've explained it's innocuous presence a la Curse of Fenric. "Do you remember the Morris Minor in Wales, Doctor? Before Cheetah People, before the Kandy Kitchen..." Or something.

Weismuller is wearing a nylon mesh-back Yankees ball cap, which wouldn't have been available in 1959.

How was Delta able to wear one of Mel's dresses? She's at least 6 inches taller than Mel, and a bit more, er, full-figured.

maybe they were Time Lord CIA agents. makes about as much sense as that beekeeper dude being Gallifreyan.

I dunno, there was something really odd about the beekeeper. Weismuller and Hawk, though, were just doofuses (doofusi?).

Those Americans were too s t u p i d to be CIA agents (of the Celestial Intervention Agency rather than the Central Intelligence Agency variety, of course). And given that I've always considered the Time Lords to be the s t u p i d i e s t humanoid lifeforms in the cosmos, that's quite an insult.

I must have misunderstood. I thought that actually the 'aliens' on the bus were humans from the future embarking on a time-travel journey.

Actually I was thinking it would have been a nit since we know the Time Lords don't allow humans to discover or use time travel, don't they (or do they?).

Well, humans keep discovering it anyway. Professor Waterfield (Evil of the Daleks), Penelope (Room With No Doors), Katiatu Lethbridge-Stewart (Transit), etc. In the case of the purple blob alien things which have time travel in Delta, Return of the Living Dad mentions that 'they're so peace-loving the Time Lords let them have limited time travel', or words to that effect.

I expected to hate this, and it did have many of the usual JNT trademarks I dislike so much: question marks, cardboard cutout characters, no backstory whatsoever, general implausibility, silly costumes. But in spite of all that, this story was...fun. Surprisingly fun. It held my attention all the way through.

If only they'd left out the absurd time travel aspect. A species that sends sightseeing safaris to primitive planets like Earth: okay, that's almost plausible, if they just happened to exist in 1959. But time-traveling tourists who can't even defend themselves against a handful of red-eyed thugs? Peace-loving or not, I can't imagine the Time Lords letting this bunch know or keep the secret of time travel--it would be stolen too easily.

Do the Bannermen already have time travel anyway? Delta is on the run, and she hides on a bus that's going to 1959. Somehow the Bannermen follow in their own ship.

I hadn't seen any of Bonnie Langford's stories in 15 to 20 years, so my opinion of her was entirely based on the audios Fire of Vulcan and The One Doctor--in which she was excellent. But she was pretty good in Delta, too. She only screamed once, and it wasn't even what I'd come to remember as a full-Mel throat purging. I had no trouble believing this was the same Mel as in the audios. Now I'm afraid to watch any other Mel TV stories, for feat of ruining my newfound appreciation for Bonnie Langford.

One other thing about this story: I've been tapping my feet and humming and whistling (to the annoyance of everyone around me) "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" for the past three days.

The rock and roll soundtrack was interesting and very un-DW. It was almost like watching another seires altogether. I liked it though. As for Bonnie Langford, apart from that awful Rani episode where all she did was scream, I've actually liked her so far. Don't know why she screamed when the queen egg cracked though; I'd've screamed when I saw the green grub come out of it, not before.

Eponymous hero? Good god, Emily, I had to go look that up. And then I had to think about the definition for a moment before I got it. Nicely done.

I had no idea Brits went through the same 50s trash-era we did (road trips, poodle skirts, James Dean lookalikes, etc.). I'd always imagined that was strictly a post-war American fad. (Sorry; it was probably our fault somehow.) And as for those ridiculous CIA-whatever "Americans"....

re: 50's music--where do you think the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. got their musical inspiration, Mandy?

Um, I didn't say anything about the music except that I liked it.

Well I woke up with a really snuffy nose and decided to dust this story off the shelves and watch it for the first time in aaaaaaaages.
I dunno, somehow this didn't feel like a REAL Doctor story, more like one of those "Short Trips" between the Towers and Iceworld.
I liked Ray- wished she had gone in the TARDIS instead of Mel. The Americans were, as has been so tactfully pointed out in earlier posts, s t u p i d. I honestly believe JNT hates Americans. I have never seen so many episodes featuring dumb Americans as under his regime (and at least one of them was a companion!)
Yeah that bee-keeper...hmmmm...what ELSE did he take with his honey I wonder??? Maybe Daniel can write some explanation into his next book or something...
The thing I remembered most from this story was the Gene Simmons impersonation the Bannermen do when Gherkin says that the CHimerons were dead.
And speaking of that, why name the guy after a horrible little green vegetable??
It's not as bad as I remembered but more of a "meh" on the Emily scale.Oh yeah- what DOES this episode have in common with "Bounty" from Blakes 7????

Wow... haven't seen this since the late 80s... call me sad, call me pathetic but I find Ray incredibly hot. Maybe it's the accent combined with those breathless exclamations: "He was ionised!" Or maybe it's her unrequited love for Billy (maybe the Doctor is thinking of this during his speech about he doesn't like in Ghostlight?).

Why is Billy so accepting of Delta's green slug baby when he first sees it?

Pretty amazing outfit the baby princess has - changes from green to white and obviously stretches as she grows. But where does Billy get his white Chimeron outfit from at the end?

If Delta and the princess are the only two Chimerons left, I'd say Billy is going to have some fun, fun, fun with his repopulating work (assuming the green goo doesn't kill him).

Why do the Bannermen blindly follow the Doctor's orders at the end of part two when he tells them to untie the prisoners? Gavrok hasn't issued any instruction.

If you look real quick at the end of part two/start of part three, you can see a bird fly past the back of Gavrok's head when his face is in close-up.

And how does the Doctor get out of the "I think I may have gone a little too far" situation? It cuts to another scene and then we the Doctor, Mel and Burton on the motorbike, having escaped.

I'm not au fait with bee-keeping but why are the bees attracted to the honey on the Bannermen? Surely they are attracted to pollen? Other insects might be attracted to honey... bees get angry and sting when their hives are upset but this isn't a hive.

And why, when Gavrok is destroyed, do the Bannermen just give themselves up? They're armed; the Doctor and friends aren't. OK, they may be writhing in agony because of the princess' scream but not one thinks of firing a last shot?

What happens to these guys in the end? Does Delta take them in the ship? We don't see this.

You can see Sylvester McCoy wearing glasses pretty obviously in some of the motorbike scenes.

I don't really know Ken Dodd's work; he didn't seem too bad on the whole, given the context of the story - I tended to find it a jolly romp.

Ray could have been the next companion (we got Ace because Dragonfire was broadcast last; otherwise we would have got Ray).

And apparently Belinda Mayne (Delta) auditioned for the part of Romana I.

Bees are attracted to their own honey, to protect it. Once they sting someone, they release a phermone that causes the other bees from their hive to attack and sting. I'm just surprised Gavrok didn't die from anaphylactic shock.

Or maybe it's her unrequited love for Billy (maybe the Doctor is thinking of this during his speech about he doesn't like in Ghostlight?).

Probably. I can't think where ELSE in his life he's had experience of unrequited love.

Why is Billy so accepting of Delta's green slug baby when he first sees it?

Billy is charmingly single-minded. He wants to shag Delta and he's not gonna let a green slug baby (or even the risks of BECOMING a green slug bloke) get in the way.

Why do the Bannermen blindly follow the Doctor's orders at the end of part two when he tells them to untie the prisoners?

'Such was the authority in the Doctor's voice...' ;)

What happens to these guys in the end? Does Delta take them in the ship?

There's no indication that she does. And if I were her I wouldn't fancy giving a lift to the bunch of genocidal maniacs who'd just wiped out every other person on my planet. Especially when there are only three people on the ship to guard the Bannermen. Presumably she's gonna get in touch with that galactic court that gets mentioned and tell them to collect and try them. In the meantime maybe those Americans can keep an eye on them...

Pop music, Welsh accents, the Doctor dancing, inter-species romance...look, it's the new series! Honestly, I was quite shocked when the Doc didn't mention the Shadow Proclamation while parlaying with Gavrok.

Oh, alright...it's not fit to wipe the new series's shoes. But it's still a real pleasure. Great Doctor, great villain, great companion (I mean Ray. Obviously). Though the Americans remain inexplicable abominations.

Why does the guard on the ship shoot the green grub instead of - hello! - THE CHIMERON QUEEN?

'Take this with you' - wow, if the dying grub hadn't said that then no doubt Delta would have forgotten to take her daughter with her...oh, wait, the egg was already on the ship, Delta would have had to deliberately chuck her daughter out the airlock before taking off in order to avoid taking her...

Since when have the Doc n'Companion (even Mel...actually especially Mel, what with the *shudders* bubbly optimistic personality...just look at her in Paradise Towers) been all 'Don't like this one little bit' 'It's spooky' 'Be prepared to run back to the TARDIS at the first sign of trouble'?

Why is Mel so thrilled at the thought of a week in the 1950s? If that was her heart's desire (weirdo) she could have just asked the Doctor.

Love the genuine police box in the middle of the countryside - it really made me do a double take. (Except that, er, the police didn't PUT police boxes in the middle of nowhere.)

The Doctor obviously doesn't think the bus will make it, so he...ushers Mel on board and goes back to the TARDIS. Wouldn't have done that to Rose Tyler!

Delta's lucky she gets ANYWHERE, shooting her own ship's controls like that (I know she needs to get rid of the homing beacon, but still...) And given that she HAS got rid of said beacon, why does she abandon her ship in order to get on a wreck of a bus with some tourists - leaving behind a bloke who can tell the Bannermen exactly where she's going?

Though one can't really blame Delta for the fact that a Bannerman agent just happens to be aboard. Given that the actual number of Bannerpeople seems to be in single figures, they either had a staggering number of informers around (that's certainly the impression Gavrok gives with his 'I want every informer throughout the galaxy to look for her' though quite WHY he says this when he knows she's heading for Disneyworld is another matter), or this one just got unbelievably lucky.

Though I CAN blame Delta for inexplicably and very publicly announcing 'Hello! I'm a Chimeron! Any bounty hunters around looking for the Last of the Chimerons? Cos that's me! Please, come and kill me!' (Well, 'I'm a Chimeron' anyway, but it comes to the same thing.)

It's amazing the bus got as far as Earth if it has no shields against space junk. And it's a stroke of incredibly bad luck that it hit the one-and-only satellite Earth HAD (at least that's the impression I got from the 'history in the making' stuff).

Blimey, lucky that baby isn't as similar to weed-creatures as it looks or Mel's screams would have finished it off. (Must be better soundproofing in those prefabs than there looks or the entire camp would have come running.)

Could Billy's greeting to 'Rachel' have BEEN more unenthusiastic? She should have been a lot more worried about that than the fact he dedicated one song to the attractive older woman who'd be gone in a week and who'd never give him a second glance...um...well, who realistically shouldn't have given him a second glance.

'Poor Mel's exhausted' says Delta. I'm sorry...Poor Mel's exhausted?????????? That's not really what I'd be saying if some utter and total ***** FELL ASLEEP in the middle of my heartrending story of seeing my entire species slaughtered.

'Do you know where Delta and Billy have gone' - how did the Doctor know Billy was with her?

'Couldn't we take it for a bit of a spin Doctor' 'Yes, with pleasure' - the Doc's prepared to take Mr Burton to the stars? I've nothing against the bloke, but he doesn't exactly seem the usual Companion material. And then he gives up the trip of a lifetime to tend to some tourists...I'd've told them to go blow themselves up.

'Pity we destroyed the beacon when we killed that mercenary. We'll have to scan the whole area until we find some trace of advanced technology emissions' - er, yes. So why DID you blow up the homing beacon, moron?! Sure, Gavrok didn't want to cough up all that money, but even leaving aside the beacon issue, how on Earth does he maintain a network of informers throughout the galaxy if he blows 'em up every time they actually tell him anything useful?

Why leave two Bannermen to guard the blatantly useless Americans? (Leaving Gavrok a total of about six to find the Chimeron Queen. Did he conquer an entire planet with a handful of soldiers? Maybe the Chimerons put up such a fight they slaughtered millions of Bannermen...nah, unlikely, there'd be a lot more empty spaceships lying around.) Anyway - WHY? Just shoot the Americans! Please! And when the Bannermen guards had to leave, did they shoot them THEN, no, they just immobilised them. And these the people who'll unhesitatingly vaporise an entire bus-full of innocent (and considerably less irritating) people.

How long does honey last without going all crystalised and horrible? I wouldn't fancy eating that 1932 stuff.

Delta shooting a Bannerman dead seems to be part of the Doctor's cunning plan. Tut tut, naughty Doctor.

Goronwy's cottage is incredibly delapidated - lacking glass in half the windows BEFORE people start opening fire.

I can't believe the Doctor destroyed Garonwy's life's work just to give the Bannermen a few useless bumps on their helmets. (Though it may not have been his entire horde...he SAYS he's got 10,000 jars but I don't see anything like that many.) And that Garonwy doesn't even MENTION this, in fact REWARDS the Doctor for it with...a jar of honey.

Hmm. Those bees running amok look rather...large for bees.

Given that two shots from a Bannerman weapon can vaporise an entire bus...the Doctor and Billy are VERY lucky that the dozen shots fired at them when they're running around all miss.

Why were the Bannermen not expecting the Princess's voice, given that this is the second time she's defeated them with it in a few hours?

Well, the Doc's obviously not been to the fifty-first century yet, or he'd have a far more relaxed, 'So many species, so little time' attitude...

What happens to these guys in the end? Does Delta take them in the ship?

There's no indication that she does.

Oops, I was wrong. They were tied up on their - now Delta's - ship.

Though the Americans remain inexplicable abominations.

As do all Americans in Who, except Capt Jack, of course. Just look at the American president. Who wasn't happy when the Toclafane took him out?

From what I can recall, they've unearthed honey in Egyptian ruins and it's still edible. When it gets crystallised, just run the jar under hot water and the honey becomes liquid and viscous again.

Though the Americans remain inexplicable abominations.

As do all Americans in Who, except Capt Jack, of course. Just look at the American president. Who wasn't happy when the Toclafane took him out?

Certainly not me.

Lemme think...yeah, the entire population of Tombstone...Morton Dill (even worse than Delta's Americans, as if that wasn't physically impossible)...Van Statten...my god, if, say, black people were racially sterotyped like Americans are in Who there'd be international outrage.

Wait a minute - Peri was OK! If you don't mind whining, being letched over by every pervert in the universe thanks to appallingly provocative clothing, and inflicting Colin Baker on us by getting poor Davison killed...on second thoughts, I don't like Peri.

Goddard! I like Goddard.

Incidentally I don't think Jack is American, he just happens to have the accent (for all we know, he's got dozens of accents but just stuck with that one - like the 40s costume - cos it was the one he happened to be using when he met the Love Of His Life). All we know about Jack's origins is the Boeshane Penninsula, that doesn't sound American. We don't know his planet of origin and we can't even be sure of his species...there's definitely plenty of 'human' in there but they were fond of mingling in those days...

From what I can recall, they've unearthed honey in Egyptian ruins and it's still edible. When it gets crystallised, just run the jar under hot water and the honey becomes liquid and viscous again.

Oh, very interesting! (Also useful.) I love it when I actually LEARN something thanks to Who, Sydney Newman would be so happy...

The captain of the ship in Tomb of the Cybermen wasn't bad, which is more than I can say for his accent.

He WAS bad! Forcing everyone to sleep in the Tombs with cybernetic killers, not to mention that bizarre 'How would you know honey' to Victoria vis-a-vis being a woman.

Apart from the lead bad guy, pretty much all the Americans in "Daleks in New York" were okay, even heroic.

Ah, I forgot about Manhattan. Yes, they were a noble-ish lot.

I guess I don't like the idea of today's UK kids being taught Ugly American stereotypes. I mean, if you saw President Winters in Sound of Drums, what would you think of our government? Well, yes, many Americans already think that, not to mention another 98% of the world, but Winters was pretty over the top.

I suppose I shouldn't complain though; the UK government isn't fairing any better. Just look at poor Harriet.

Ah, I forgot about Manhattan.

God, so did I! How embarrassing. The first Who story to be set in America since The Gunfighters (well, let's face it, 'a bunker in Utah' hardly qualifies).

I suppose I shouldn't complain though; the UK government isn't fairing any better.

Well, quite. Winters may have been a rather unpleasant imbecile but at least the USA didn't elect THE MASTER.

Lol!

Delta and the Bannermen by Malcolm Kohll:

As novelisations go, this isn't too bad. Badly-written, obviously, but the lighthearted fun of Delta translates nicely into the Target format. And those Americans are definitely less offensive on the page than on-screen. Plenty of typos, of course, in addition to the infamous 'peeing over a shelf'. Plus Gavrok is more than once referred to as the Bannermen's 'beloved' leader, not an assertion I find particularly convincing.

'Of all his multifarious incarnations, this was one of the nicest. He was, in fact, old beyond reason, but he inhabited the ever-present universe of the "now"'...Oh. Dear. If there's a 'Worst Opening Paragraph' competition this is screaming for admission.

So why is the toll booth abandoned?

Hang on...the TARDIS was there to pay a space-toll????? Have to confess that never OCCURRED to me.

'Mel turned her soft eyes to the Doctor, using her best Spaniel look to try and melt his heart and change his mind. She was put in mind of the sparrow trying to sharpen its beak on the rock of time.' - um...WHAT?

'Chumeria, known as the Garden Planet of the Universe' - so why did we just see a quarry, then?

Gavrok 'had earned for himself, in a few short aeons, one of the most ferocious reputations in the galaxy' - OK...does this bloke have any idea what an 'aeon' is? And how incompetent must all the OTHER bad guys in the universe be?

'They narrowly avoided the vaporizing rays of a hundred Bannermen phasers' - firstly, why emphasise the implausibility of Delta's unscathed escape...and secondly, what exactly happened to these hundred Bannermen?

'Its cargo of holiday-makers looking forward to their trip' - they're already ON their trip!

'Unspoilt location...quiet walks...quiet restfulness...peaceful tranquillity' - alright, WE GET THE BLOODY MESSAGE!

Love the way 'Gavrok...was the epitome of all evil' is immediately elaborated on by 'Gavrok cared nothing for fair play or justice' - you don't say!

WHY was the door to Delta's room 'hanging askew on its hinges' - were she and Billy so desperate to go motorcycling together they ripped it off its hinges or what?

What's Gavrok doing 'on the outer fringes of the galaxy' when he KNOWS Delta's heading for Earth?

"When the Doctor and I agree on something we always stick to it, come what may." - since when has the Doc EVER stuck to a rigid plan than doesn't take changing circumstances into account?

'She felt guilty about the Navarinos. If Murray hadn't lingered for so long, in an attempt to talk her into leaving, they would have been safely away by now' - ha! Good point! IT'S ALL MEL'S FAULT!

'Goronwy accepted without question many strange things' - that's IT!??? The novelisation has the PERFECT opportunity to FINALLY provide the bewildered viewer with an explanation for Goronwy's DEEPLY WEIRD behaviour, and THAT'S all we get?

'A tube of the special food was missing. She hoped that the remaining food would be sufficient to see the little girl through her changes' - my god, Billy's not just stealing food from a kid, he's risking her getting stuck as a green grub FOREVER! What a total git. Delta should have fed him to the Bannermen.

'At this moment in time, Gavrok was the prime recipient of [Delta's] feeling of loathing' - well, fancy that!

In principle I'm all in favour of an Epilogue that tidies up so many loose ends. In practise, however, I'm not particularly convinced by the Bannermen deciding to set up a weaving collective. Is this supposed to be FUNNY? Or an uplifting moral message that even if you genocide planets you can be a really nice person at heart?

'Word of the attack on Chumeria and the subsequent assault on Shangri-La had spread throughout the civilized galaxy.' - I find that deeply unlikely. But after The Stolen Planet I'm not really in a position to sneer.

The Chimeron breeding planet is 'a billion miles from Earth'? Isn't that a bit...near?

Why does Ray set off 'across the [sic] Europe' just after deciding that 'Wales isn't too bad'? If she wanted to travel surely the obvious solution would be to go with the Doctor?

I have to buy this book.

Re: "why did we just see a quarry, then" - In Kohll's original script, he desperately wanted to avoid "Planet Quarry" and even scouted some possible forest locations the production team might be able to use. But, in the end, they went with the quarry on screen because it was the cheaper option. Suspect Kohll reverted to his original scripting in the novelisation.

Having watched this for the first time in years thanks to the DVD, I found it a lot better than I expected...which admittedly says more about my expectations than the story.

But why the heck to the Bannermen take the two bumbling Americans prisoner, leaving two soldiers behind to guard them? They offered zero strategic advantage (they hadn't met the Doctor yet), didn't know anything nor gave any indication that they did.

The one thing present in this story that ruined McCoy's first two seasons for me was the way people react to extraordinary things--or rather the way they don't react. Billy should be shocked to encounter aliens, but instead he simply says he's never seen an engine like this, and then starts shooting up alien food to help repopulate the planet. Everyone just takes everything in stride. Greatest Show in the Galaxy is worse in this respect (and in every other one) as I recall.

Was going to ask why the Doctor didn't use his sonic screwdriver to remove the crystal from the engine, but then I remembered.

Chris - "Why do the Bannermen blindly follow the Doctor's orders at the end of part two when he tells them to untie the prisoners? Gavrok hasn't issued any instruction."
"And how does the Doctor get out of the "I think I may have gone a little too far" situation? It cuts to another scene and then we the Doctor, Mel and Burton on the motorbike, having escaped."

Must have been a Gallifreyan mind control trick.
On the other hand, Gavrok saw the chance to let them run and be hunted down, or led straight to where Delta was hiding. Killing them wouldn't have accomplished anything (other than his future demise).

Chris - 'And apparently Belinda Mayne (Delta) auditioned for the part of Romana I.'

Really? I checked the IMDB and she was born in 1958-- she would have been extrenely young beside Tom Baker-- as young as Ace.

Emily - 'in addition to the infamous 'peeing over a shelf'

Another mystery I hope you can clear up for me. Who's doing that and in what episode???

I felt there was absolutely no need to make the aliens capable of time travel. Just set the episode in 1959, since there should be aliens out there at that time. Keep the 1950's scenario intact, rock and roll and the aliens-turned-into-humans part, but junk the time travel part.

I loved the line, "Where is your 'Uncle Sam'? by Gavrok. I like it when nasty aliens are dopey.

My turning point for the new Doctor (at the time) was that angry speech he gave to Gavrok and demand to release the hostages. McCoy became much tougher and more Doctor-ish for me in that scene, making him one of my favourites.

I must be in the minority as far as Ray goes...I'm sooo glad she didn't become a companion, because I don't like her accent or her light-toned voice, period.

The new DVD has, according to Doctor Who Magazine, a 30-minute edit of episode 1, and includes several scenes inside the TARDIS between the Doctor and Mel.

The Doctor tells Mel that the Bannermen are coming, and she just accepts that they're dangerous and need to be treated as such. Almost as if Doctor 6 or 7 and she had already encountered a different bunch, other than Gavrok's team...

I liked how the Doctor used his umbrella to press additional controls out of reach in the TARDIS to rescue the bus, but he really should have had to press something a little further away-- I think even his smaller frame could have scurried about or stretched across to press the buttons.

Little narrow-minded of Ray to claim that the motorcycle she's inherited from Billy is incapable of being improved upon, when the Doctor says he's wondering how to improve its capabilities. Even in rural Wales 1959 Ray must be old enough to have seen their limited technology or vehicles improved upon. She'd have had to been born sometime after 1937 or so.

Billy is taking a big risk hoping to mate with Delta. Has he even seen what's under her dress to make sure there's a youknowwhat for his manhood?

Emily - 'in addition to the infamous 'peeing over a shelf'

Another mystery I hope you can clear up for me. Who's doing that and in what episode???

It's not in a episode - where the Doc is merely peering over the shelf - it's an amusing typo in the novelisation (to go with the typo ON THE SPINE of early editions of the book ('Bannerman' instead of 'Bannermen'...honestly, I'd've been happy to proof-read these things for free, they just had to ask...)

I felt there was absolutely no need to make the aliens capable of time travel. Just set the episode in 1959, since there should be aliens out there at that time. Keep the 1950's scenario intact, rock and roll and the aliens-turned-into-humans part, but junk the time travel part.

Hear, hear.

I loved the line, "Where is your 'Uncle Sam'? by Gavrok. I like it when nasty aliens are dopey.

I don't think it's dopey, it's a natural assumption. Like the Ice Warrior being crowned King of England in The Dying Days took offence at being told he'd be ruling with Jesus Christ ('I agreed to no joint sovereignty...I challenge this Jesus Christ to a duel!' or words to that effect).

The new DVD has, according to Doctor Who Magazine, a 30-minute edit of episode 1

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

and includes several scenes inside the TARDIS between the Doctor and Mel.

Oh.

Um, well, never mind.

Re: Belinda Mayne playing the part of Romama I - it's in her Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belinda_Mayne - quite possibly the producers realised that, at just 20, she wasn't right with Tom Baker.

Wasn't Ace, the character 16, when she joined the Seventh Doctor (with Sophie Aldred actually being 25)?

The original concept of Romana, to me, seemed to be that of a Time Lady with comparable (and sometimes superior) intellect to the Doctor, which wouldn't have been realistic (at least to me) if Romana had looked like she was young enough to have recently graduated High School.
Ace was seemingly designed from the start to be a young girl that the Doctor could guide.

I wonder if the baby, the toddler and the teenager that played Delta's daughter ever admit to their friends today that they were on Doctor Who, painted green?

Of course they do! It was undoubtedly the greatest honour of their entire miserable existences...god, what wouldn't I do to be painted green and appear in Who (alright, preferably not in Kroll which was a bit rubbish, plus they didn't know how to get the green dye off)...

'I'm calling from Wales, England.'

"Delta and the Bannermen" is extremely
good children's television, with much humour and slapstick comedy (e.g.
Murray's transformation from purple blob to human being and the Bannermen
being attacked by bees); a set of decent villains; an understated romance;
enjoyable characters (Goronwy, Ray, Bily, Murray); and a charming and fun
atmosphere. The plot is very straightforward (the Bannermen hate the
Chimerons and have almost wiped them out. Delta is the last of them, and
the Bannermen want to kill her), and is enlivened by some enjoyable
performances, particularly from Don Henderson, Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie
Langford (giving her best performance), and whimsical execution (the holiday
camp setting; Ray the tomboyish motorcyclist; the parodying of fifties
sci-fi movies and American paranoia). It also looks very glossy, with some
great location work and some slick effects (the bus and its crash-landing on
Earth; the Bannerman spaceship). It's fair to say that this is a very
lightweight DW serial, but it's also one of the most refreshingly
unpretentious for a very long time. "Delta" has no big message - "love
conquers all" and "you are what you eat" seem to be the main points the
story makes. Instead it concentrates on telling a lively, summery tale with
plenty of action and a lot of fun. Criticism of the story tends to focus on
Ken Dodd (who is a deliberately OTT and silly character - hence the look on
the seventh Doctor's face); the inconsequential nature of the story (true),
and the childish feel (which is rather the point). In fact, there's really
nothing wrong with "Delta and the Bannermen". It looks nice, there are no
notably poor performances, and the story only has one obvious hole (the
sonic cone doesn't destroy everyone, as the Doctor said it would). If you
can accept "Delta" for what it is: DW as children's TV, then it's huge fun.
If you can't accept that DW is able to experiment in this style, that the
series should be relentlessly "gritty" and "adult", then you should probably
avoid.

an understated romance

Actually it was probably the LEAST understated romance in Who history...till the new series came along, anyway. Just compare n'contrast with, say, Ian and Barbara's 'romance', or Susan and David's, or Leela and Andred's...

enjoyable characters

Except for the Americans.

and a charming and fun atmosphere

Except when the Americans were around.

Oh, and when all the tourists got blown to smithereens.

The plot is very straightforward (the Bannermen hate the Chimerons and have almost wiped them out.

Actually, IS that the plot? Or does someone else hate the Chimerons and just hired the Bannermen to get rid of 'em? I can't remember.

It's fair to say that this is a very lightweight DW serial, but it's also one of the most refreshingly unpretentious for a very long time.

Hear, hear.

"Delta" has no big message - "love conquers all"

With the exception of possible hideous mutations.

Criticism of the story tends to focus on Ken Dodd (who is a deliberately OTT and silly character - hence the look on the seventh Doctor's face); the inconsequential nature of the story (true), and the childish feel (which is rather the point).

AND THE AMERICANS.

In fact, there's really nothing wrong with "Delta and the Bannermen".

Except for the Americans.

It looks nice, there are no notably poor performances

Except for the Americans.

Mmmmm, I see some subtle, almost imperceptible indications here that Emily does not like American characters.

No Francois--it's not that she dislikes American characters.

She dislikes all Americans(she's stated it more than once)!!!!!!

And there's nothing subtle about it!!!

WHEN ON EARTH have I EVER stated that I dislike all Americans??

I just hate those ******* travesties in Delta...

(Don't tell me they're REAL AMERICANS?)

I've never seen this story. By then I had stopped watching.

Well, nowadays there are these magical time-travelling devices known as DVDs...

Even I hated the Americans in this one.

knew it was only a matter of time. Season 24 has a terrible reputation
within fandom, and I knew it wouldn't be long before I ran into a story that
gives that reputation it's base. While TIME AND THE RANI and PARADISE
TOWERS were relatively weak, they were still enjoyable. They had plenty
within to admire and like about them. But this story is different. This
story managed to do what rarely happens - get just about everything
terribly, terribly wrong, so wrong that words almost can't describe it.
It's quite like watching a disaster take place - watching as at every point
in the story things take a wrong turn into even more surreal terribleness.
It's this aspect that gives DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN it's train-wreck
quality - it's so awful you can't turn away...

The biggest problem (although it's by no means the only one) is that it's
trying very hard to be two different types of story at once, giving us
little more than a surreal mess. On the one hand it's a fast-paced zany
comedy not unlike BANG-BANG-A-BOOM!, as the Doctor, Mel, a crowd of alien
holiday-makers and some thick natives rush around a dodgy Welsh holiday camp
to a fifties soundtrack. McCoy gets to clown around with reason, the cast
get to kick back and have fun while being completely bonkers for the screen.
This could have been quite a spectacle and a high-point of Season 24, except
they stuff it up. Somehow, the story also thinks it's a serious drama,
following the plight of the Chimeron Queen, the last of her race, as she
escapes some ruthless aliens who'll stop at nothing to see her destruction,
when she lands on Earth, gives birth to her new baby, falls in love and
lives happily ever after when the Doctor helps her in her time of need.
That could have been quite a serious, nitty gritty story about the emotions
of two people, exploring an inter-species relationship in great detail that
could have given Season 24 the depth it needed. Only it doesn't work that
way. Trying to pull this story into two directions, what we get is
something which spectacularly fails at both. It's not funny, because the
humour element is being overshadowed by the attempts at seriousness (which
are funny, but not for the reasons they'd want them to be). It's not
emotion gripping because you've got characters like the Tollmaster, Burton
and Murry trying to pretend they've walked out of a Carry On film. And even
then, when you get to the realisation that the writer hasn't done either
type of story properly (nowhere near enough humour for the comedy half, nor
enough depth in the serious half), the story just goes south faster than you
can say "he was ionised!" in a dodgy Welsh accent. It's what makes this
story such a travesty - it could have been so much more.

But of course, that isn't the only trouble, not by a long shot. Even with a
dodgy story like this one, it could have been saved with a half decent cast.
But, somehow, for this story they've managed to drag in as many terribly
terrible (that's not just terrible, that's *terribly* terrible) actors as
they can find. I can almost imagine the auditions - "ok, we can't hire this
one, we need someone worse. We can't have decent quality in a Doctor Who
production!". Ok, not exactly fair, there were a few decent actors here who
could have done something with some decent writing, such as the Tollmaster,
Burton and Murray. But everyone else just managed to reset the scale when
it comes to terrible performances - I didn't think it was possible to do
this badly. For someone who's role was so crucial to the plot, Delta
doesn't seem able to deliver a line with any emotion or feeling whatsoever.
It's like she really, really can't be bothered putting any effort into this
story and would rather get the recording over with as soon as possible.
She's escaping people who want to annihilate her after they've just killed
everyone she's known, and she's just had a baby, surely that would entice
some sort of emotion? Of course she managed to pale in comparison with her
human boyfriend Billy. Actually, just about everybody manages to pale in
comparison to the awfulness of this actor, including Carol Anne Ford and
Matthew Waterhouse - I didn't think it was possible for actors to be this
bad. He's got no charisma, no sense of depth or believability whatsoever -
he manages to bring a new definition to the term cardboard. He's bombarded
with lots of stuff about a girl giving birth to a slimy green baby which
hits adolescence by late afternoon, that would have most people at least
going "huh", but he manages to not only take it in his stride, he just sits
there staring. That's all he seemed to do, look around with this dumfounded
look - no, it wasn't dumfounded, that would have been too much emotion -
let's just say Kamelion had more animated expressions than this guy. And
lets not get into the parts where he actually spoke, his delivery of his
lines didn't help his performance one bit. I honestly think Ray would have
been much better off without him (especially since he seems willing to turn
himself into an alien after barely knowing a girl for two days).

Oh, Ray was also on the horrible list, even more so when you think she came
very close to being Mel's replacement. Whereas Billy and Delta expressed no
emotions whatsoever, Ray seemed to have two - disturbing enthusiasm and
manic depressing. Now, enthusiasm isn't something to be wary of, but Ray
took it to such an extreme that she made Mel look positively sedate. She
almost seemed to be wandering around with this look on her face like she'd
been pumped full of Prozac and wasn't afraid to show it. Each of her lines
was delivered with such a zest and thrill that she also resets the scale.
The big problem with her extreme attitude is that it manages to feel so
fake - you can just see she's acting from a script rather than being
naturally like that. Thankfully it's not long before she manages to fade
into the background. Gavrok, however, doesn't exactly do much fading, he
just manages to be one of the more disappointing villains we've had in a
long time - like everybody else, he's only giving us a sense of fake
evilness, you can just see him reading his lines. Who's left? Oh yes, the
Americans. Why were they there? I mean what exactly did they contribute to
the story? Did they serve any purpose or do anything that pushed the plot
along? If anyone knows, could they please tell me, since all I saw was them
wandering around for a bit, get captured by Gavrok (which I'm not sure why,
since he seemed keen to kill anything else he saw moving), get rescued by
Ray then join the ranks of characters who sat in the background while Billy
and Delta didn't show any emotion at each other. It's quite a strange
thing - when companions get sidelined it's because they have to be there.
When guest characters get sidelined it makes one wonder why they were
written for in the first place...

The regulars didn't fair much better. Mel was - well, was she actually in
this story? She hung around for a bit during the first episode, talking to
Delta and introducing her to the story, but then Billy decided he'd show
Delta how much he doesn't use expressions over a picnic, Gavrok arrived and
captured her, and then she almost disappeared. I mean, I saw her around in
the background, but until she left in the TARDIS she may as well have been
wallpaper. Still, for the little time she was around she didn't do too
badly - her desire to go holidaying in fifties Disneyland is so like Mel, as
well as the way she tried to take Delta under her wing and be her friend.
Of course, I'm still confused at why she was screaming at the birth of
Delta's baby in the first cliff-hanger. Mel's seen much more than that,
surely it wouldn't phase her so much as interest her? But it's so
depressing seeing a regular being ignored in the plot so much in favour of
too many guest characters. McCoy, I think, was at his weakest here, but
that was only because this would have to be his weakest story. Previously
his bumbling around managed to keep the story afloat, but here even that
couldn't help. He didn't get much of a chance to do much in the way of
acting, he was too busy running about on bikes to the strange mish-mash of
fifties and eighties music that Deaf Keff tortured us with this week. And
on the times he did act, such as when he talks Gavrok out of his hostages,
the dialogue is so dodgy I don't think even the all-wonderful Davison would
have done well (and why did Gavrok let him leave so easily? For a ruthless
guy, he seems to let the Doctor arrive, take the hostages and leave with
barely a problem, what was the point keeping hostages in the first place
then?). Really, there was no saving this mess.

I somehow think calling DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN a mess is doing it too much
justice, it's worse. I honestly can't think of anything I've seen that
drops to this level of stupidity and bad work - even in Colin's era when he
had his worst Season 22 scripts he didn't get this bad. With it's ludicrous
dialogue, unspecific style, a plot that often forgets to make sense and a
group of actors so bad they defy belief, DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN drops to
lows so low it almost circles round and becomes entertaining again. Except
it's not so entertaining as frightening. Like a bad train wreck, you can't
look away...

Season 24 has a terrible reputation within fandom, and I knew it wouldn't be long before I ran into a story that gives that reputation it's base.

About two seconds into Time and the Rani, yeah.

While TIME AND THE RANI and PARADISE TOWERS were relatively weak, they were still enjoyable.

ONE of them was, yes And the other was the nadir of human experience.

This story managed to do what rarely happens - get just about everything terribly, terribly wrong, so wrong that words almost can't describe it.

Nonsense! Only THOSE AMERICANS fit THAT description.

Well, maybe Ken Dodd as well.

Trying to pull this story into two directions, what we get is something which spectacularly fails at both.

Doctor Who has ALWAYS mixed tragedy and comedy.

Though I have to confess they don't gel THAT well in Delta and the Bannermen...

and then [Mel] almost disappeared.

You're complaining...?

Deaf Keff



the all-wonderful Davison

The WHAT?

(and why did Gavrok let him leave so easily? For a ruthless guy, he seems to let the Doctor arrive, take the hostages and leave with barely a problem, what was the point keeping hostages in the first place then?).

Um, he had them bugged or tracked or something?

I honestly can't think of anything I've seen that drops to this level of stupidity and bad work - even in Colin's era when he had his worst Season 22 scripts he didn't get this bad.

I'd rather watch Delta ten times than any of Season 22 once. Any day.

The sudden transformation of the baby Chimeron from an interesting green alien puppet into a human baby in a green romper suit with smudged facepaint has to take the cake. Guess the budget didn't stretch to making the baby human actress look alien.

Smudged facepaint DOES make humans look alien! If red and white and blue humanoid-aliens are good enough for New Who...

I think it's been pointed out that if the special jelly works the way we think it does - Billy will be turned into a Chimeron queen and get to enjoy long hair, boobanies and alien ladyparts.

what, no reply from Emily about my point about Billy?

I didn't really know what to say...

'Take no prisoners! Kill them all!' - Gavrok didn't think to issue this order EARLIER?

Nostalgia Trips got stuck WHERE? Can't hear a word the Doctor's mumbling.

Why THE HELL doesn't Delta pretend to be a late arrival from the Navarino party instead of saying 'No, I'm a Chimeron'?

The Bannermen just happens to have an agent aboard every 50s nostalgia tour in the five galaxies? or what?

No one was injured in that landing?

The Navarino tourists aren't exactly undercover - they're happy to tell 50s mechanic all about hitting a satellite and suchlike. Whatever happened to the Time Lords stamping out unlicensed time travel?

'I'm determined to TRY and enjoy myself - if I can' - that's an extraordinarily negative way of having a positive attitude.

'Somehow I always thought Billy and me would end up together. Shows how wrong you can be' - yes, he dedicated ONE WHOLE SONG to a woman he met today who'll be leaving tomorrow. (Though of course, Ray's right. And maybe in 1950s Wales a song dedication is the equivalent of an engagement ring?)

Would Delta really fit in a dress of Mel's?

Informant announces the geographical location but not the year.

The informant recognises the SEVENTH DOCTOR??

The Doctor doesn't stop the informant telling Gavrok everything! Could he not have stopped pee(r)ing and LEAPT over that shelf and disabled him with his deadly finger?

Did the baby grow itself a babygrow?

Genocide stories put Mel to sleep. Charming.

The Doctor is unconscious all night just because an explosion happened nearby?

'They KILLED him?' gasps Ray. 'I'm afraid so' says the Doctor solemnly. What's their PROBLEM? HE was gonna kill THEM.

'A poignant reminder that violence always rebounds on itself' says the man who blows Skaro to smithereens in a few weeks time, sanctimoniously.

'The Bannermen are on their way' the Doctor tells Mel solemnly. Why would he expect her to know who the Bannermen are? He wasn't to know that Delta had spilled her guts to the first couple of humans she'd come across (even if Mel WAS asleep for most of it.)

And five minutes later Mel's telling the Navarino driver that the Bannerman WAR FLEET is on its way.

Why not get everyone into the TARDIS where they'd be SAFE?

The Princess (don't bother NAMING her or anything) is born with a defence mechanism specifically against Bannermen??

Why does Ray stop at a wooden gate and wail that it's the end of the line?

The Doctor thinks Delta should leave in the bus?! Yeah, cos that REALLY threw the Bannermen off the scent last time! And those Navarinos will be so good at protecting her! And not at all just innocent civilians who'd get caught in the crossfire. Why the hell doesn't he take her straight to Galactic Complain-About-Genocide HQ in the TARDIS?

Why doesn't Billy have a Welsh accent if he grew up in Wales with Ray?

That's one spaceship! Mel promised me a war fleet!

Bit late to ask if the Chimeron Queen was aboard the bus after you've vaporised it.

Actually...Gavrok is a really great baddie.

'It's his bees who are telling us to come' - this is sounding slightly less stupid since we discovered they were aliens from Melissa Majoria.

'I'll treat it as if it were the TARDIS' - what, hit it with a large hammer, you mean.

Delta swore a statement WHEN exactly?

Shouldn't the Bannermen have learnt to shoot straight before attempting genocide?

'I've fed her this since she was born' - and Billy needs telling this WHY, exactly. She was only born a few hours ago and he's been with you ever since.

Why does Gavrok send up a flare when he can contact his men by radio to tell them to ambush the Doctor?

Why is Mel waving to cows?

Delta is also incredibly bad at shooting straight.

Gavrok looked EXTREMELY ready to shoot the messenger before he said he'd found Delta's hideout. I don't know why he's got any men a) alive and b) prepared to serve him.

Did they have pop music on radios in those days? I thought the BBC snobbishly refused so people broadcast on pirate ships or something (see; Tenth Doctor audio Dead Air).

How come the shelves all fall down on the Bannermen?

Billy didn't notice the very obvious sound of Delta's high heels approaching while he was guzzling the baby's food.

Love Garonwy very determinedly reading while all this is going on.

Last time the brat's song shattered glass, this time it doesn't even though the Doctor's set up amplification?

'I haven't seen many examples of species-crossing' - for heaven's sake! Your precious human race will soon be nothing BUT species-crossing mongrels!

Who grew the suit for Billy?

'I don't know how I can ever thank you. You saved my planet and my people...' - yeah, so much for Jackson's 'He never gets thanked' claims. Not that the Doctor really DID much. Aside from zooming round the countryside on a motorbike and smashing someone's honey collection. I'm sure the brat could have disabled the Bannermen with her singing without his help.

'Let's make this baby fly!' - anyone else getting the sudden sinking feeling that the Chimeron race might be better off dead than all bred from Billy?

(And I don't see why they'd all die without a male anyway. There are surely ways round this, as well as cloning and stuff?)

So what DID happen to the tour group the Navarinos replaced?

Extraordinary numbers of extras - New Who could never afford this many. And as Who writers are always saying, when you go into the past there's NOTHING the BBC won't do to make everything look authentic, unlike when you go into the future when they couldn't care less...

About Time: Delta is 'desperate for a drone to impregnante her and continue the species...Delta is giving off mind-altering pheromones. That is why fools fall in love.' - the evidence for which includes:

Billy is gay, or at least completely oblivious to girls.

'He only sits at Delta's table because it's the only free seat. He can't think of anything to say, and he seems more interested in her immaculate overalls than anything else'.

Then Delta smiles a 'predatory smile' and he's (sackably) turning up on her doorstep with flowers.

He 'automatically accepts' everything from the existence of a single mother to a Chimeron baby.

This is actually sounding quite convincing. Whereupon we're helpfully informed that 'Some species of insects eat the males after insemination. Others fuse with them, using the genitals as a reservoir of DNA but biting off the head to stop the bloke resisting'...

Did they have pop music on radios in those days?

Yes - Pick of the Pops on BBC Light. This was the only radio show that played chart hits in Britain in 1959, apart from the clicking, hissing Radio Luxembourg — for one hour on Sunday afternoons

Ah!

So was there any indication this WAS a Sunday afternoon?

'Take no prisoners! Kill them all!' - Gavrok didn't think to issue this order EARLIER?

Maybe he did, and just felt his troops needed reminding, or simply enjoys shouting 'kill them all!'.

Whatever happened to the Time Lords stamping out unlicensed time travel?

Is it definitely unlicensed?

Why would he expect her to know who the Bannermen are?

Mel's been on the Tardis for quite a while, and it does have a large library. Once she realised that life with the Doctor would involve regular meetings with monsters and alien warlords, she should really have sat down in the library, and read everything the Tardis has on those topics, so she'd be prepared.

Unfortunately, no companion ever seems to do this, but the Doctor might have optimistically assumed Mel was smart enough to do the research.

Shouldn't the Bannermen have learnt to shoot straight before attempting genocide?

You don't need accurate aim to commit mass murder. Just trap all your victims in one place, then shoot randomly into the crowd. Most of your shots may miss, but enough will hit that everyone in the crowd will die, eventually. It's a bit slower than if you aim, of course, but for a genocidal psychopath, that's a bonus: it prolongs the suffering of their victims.

Last time the brat's song shattered glass, this time it doesn't even though the Doctor's set up amplification?

Perhaps all the glass that had the right resonant frequency to be shattered had already been shattered.

Is it definitely unlicensed?

Well, one of the NAs (Return of the Living Dad?) DID claim that the Time Lords regard the Navarinos as so harmless (or cute or fluffy or something) that they let them have limited time-travel abilities. I just don't buy it.

Once she realised that life with the Doctor would involve regular meetings with monsters and alien warlords, she should really have sat down in the library, and read everything the Tardis has on those topics, so she'd be prepared.

Has Mel (or, to be fair, any other Companion ever) struck you as a big reader? She demands to go to other worlds' SWIMMING POOLS rather than libraries, the total philistine.

You don't need accurate aim to commit mass murder.

That's a point, but given the Bannermen numbers and general level of intelligence (very low in both cases*) they can't OFTEN have been hired to wipe out entire species. They'd be a lot better as assassins, in which case they should REALLY LEARN TO SHOOT STRAIGHT.

Perhaps all the glass that had the right resonant frequency to be shattered had already been shattered.

Does 50s Welsh window-glass have loads of different frequencies?

*Even if they DO have intelligence agents all over the galaxy despite blowing 'em up whenever they report in...

Has Mel (or, to be fair, any other Companion ever) struck you as a big reader?

She's supposed to be a huge fan in C.P. Snow and I'm not entirely sure it's possible to be a fan of his without also being a big reader.

She's supposed to be a huge fan in C.P. Snow

Since when!

Since Pip and Jane got their hands on her!

Has Mel (or, to be fair, any other Companion ever) struck you as a big reader?

She claims to be a computer programmer, a career that would require quite a bit of technical reading. She might not read fiction for fun, but she should be capable of basic research.

Does 50s Welsh window-glass have loads of different frequencies?

The resonant frequency depends on the size of the window, so yes. If the windows that didn't shatter were a different size to the ones that did, even if only by half a centimetre, that would be enough to explain it. I don't suppose you fancy measuring Welsh windows though.

DWM: 'Delta says to Mel and Billy: "I think you deserve a full explanation." There follows a judicious fade to the following morning, and we return to the chalet in time to catch Delta saying, "And so, I'm the last Chimeron Queen. My planet is right now in the grip of the invaders," thus telling us, in a single line, everything that we need to know. So it's hard not to wonder just how mind-bogglingly detailed was that all-night-long "full explanation"?' - fair point, well made.

So it's hard not to wonder just how mind-bogglingly detailed was that all-night-long "full explanation"

Well, they just might have spend the entire night studying 'comparative anatomy', with some hands-on 'practical demonstrations'.

That can't be right, because she clearly hasn't bitten Billy's head off and fed his body to the baby...

That just means she didn't go all the way. It leaves plenty of room for mutually enjoyable foreplay.

With MEL in the room?!

But was she awake all night long?

Nope, she definitely found the tragic tale of the genocide of an entire species to be utterly stupor-inducing. But surely even an unconscious Mel is pretty high on anyone's list of passion-killers...?

For you or me, it would be, but anyone driven enough to experiment outside their species isn't likely to be so easily put off.

I would be TOTALLY driven to experiment outside my species!

Providing it was you-know-Who of course.

And providing Mel wasn't in the same room. In fact, just to be on the safe side, I'd appreciate her not being in the same GALAXY.

'The idea of Delta laying those huge silver globes makes your eyes water' - DWM. Hmm. I honestly never made the connection between the so-called princess hatching out of an egg and Delta actually LAYING one.

She's carrying it round in a bag at the start so she may not have laid them herself.

Well, of course she had to carry it round in SOMETHING...after she laid it.

With all the criticism of Moffat, at least he didn't bring us Delta and the Bannermen's alien puppet that then turns into a green painted human baby in a onesie!

Wallowing in Our Own Weltschmerz:

Goronwy is 'clearly the 43rd Doctor or whatever, having moved to Wales following his sacking from the position of Curator of the National Gallery as a result of his penchant for nipping back in time and writing "this is a fake" under dozens of famous masterpices' - that's actually...worryingly plausible.

'What?! That's also Mel's dress? But Delta's a foot taller than Mel. And the dress is voluminous in the extreme. How did it fit in that tiny suitcase with the peach number and the pyjamas? And the denim suit with big red boots Mel's wearing the next morning?' - the suitcase is bigger on the inside...?

Who's 50 pointed out an interesting fact about this story. It was the first Doctor Who story set in recent history.

In all of the run of Classic Who, we never saw an adventure set between the years 1935 (the Abominable Snowman) and 1963 (An Unearthly Child).

Why was that. Did they feel that the years between those two years were just too close?

In every time travel show I've seen, they always had episodes set during World War II. However, it was not until its final year that Classic Who set a story during WWII.

Of course, the New Series has no problem with this. They've even had stories set in the 1970's and 80's, my lifetime!

Maybe all those brief stop-overs - and staggeringly unsuccessful attempts to be funny - in Dalek Masterplan put 'em off...

Someone once suggested that Delta and the Bannermen, set in 1967 instead, and featuring music like Manfred Mann, the Kinks, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Small Faces etc, with Patrick Troughton's Doctor and Polly, Ben and Jamie, might have been fun.

FUN? Have they any idea what the Beatles would CHARGE for such a story being released on DVD?

Oh why am I worrying, it's Troughton, of course they'd've burnt it.

I’ve never minded Ken Dodd because he’s playing a character that’s really suited being played by Ken Dodd. If he was playing Gavrok however...

Digital Spy points out that not only did they shoot Ken Dodd, they shot him in the back whilst he was running away. *laughs hysterically*

Ed Stradling - superfan and associate of the Restoration Team - says his brother met ("and doubtlessly failed to pull") one of the girls who played one of the incarnations of the child Chimeron princess.

when a baby is yellow - they have jaundice.

When a baby is green - someone fed them bad oysters or they are an alien

that was a bit of a whirlwind romance, wasn’t it? How many of you would turn yourselves into aliens so you could mate with someone you just met? Also, was it ever explained anywhere WHY the Bannermen wanted to wipe out the Chimerons? What was it all for?

How many of you would turn yourselves into aliens so you could mate with someone you just met?

ME! ME! ME! Hand over that Chameleon Arch!

(Of course, it's a slightly different situation, the Doc's been in my life since I was THREE, grooming me like so many others...)

Also, was it ever explained anywhere WHY the Bannermen wanted to wipe out the Chimerons? What was it all for?

Nope, the novelisation went into great detail about the basket-weaving the Bannermen got into whilst in prison, but I don't recall it ever bothering to mention why they attacked the Chimeron in the first place.

This story really would have been improved by The Andrews Sisters...

Except when this episode was made, one of the Andrews Sisters (LaVerne) was dead and the other two (Maxine and Patti) long retired.

And if you mean in universe, the Andrews Sisters were more associated with the World War II era, not the late 1950's (when this story is set).

The Swing Era music such as the Andrews Sisters has never really been touched by Doctor Who. Not even by the "quintessential Englishman" P•rtw•• Doctor.

Never the less, by the time this story was set in, 1959, the Swing Era was over.

My statement stands.

So what is the deal with the Bannermen? Apart from never finding out why they want to wipe out the Chimeron, we don't get told anything about their banners either. As we've now had ten years of 'Game of Thrones' on telly to get used to the idea, the word "bannerman" implies a kind of oath-bound loyalty to a liege lord (Kohll nicked the idea from 'Kagemusha', set in feudal Japan) but we never find out who they're bannermen for. It can't be Gavrok because he behaves like a captain rather than someone who can command their fealty.

So is there another big bad out there who's the one with the real motive for wanting the Chimeron dead? And if so why would they rely on sworn soldiers who can all be easily overpowered by one of their targets having a bit of a scream? Are they related to the weed creatures from 'Fury from the Deep'? Big Finish should be told!

I'm sure they'll get right on it.

You know, the effects in scene 1 are really good.

Although Delta's soldiers look a lot like the toy soldiers I played with as a kid.

Winning a tour package at a tollbooth must be the silliest (and most needless) way to get the Doctor and company into a plot.

I get not wanting to talk to your persuer while in flight, but taking a blaster to the viewscreen on your control panel certainly can't be the best way of turning it off.

Delta doesn't have to pay for the tour or anything?

She also isn't the least bit surprised that it turns out not to be a normal bus, but it did have the name of the company on the side, and the Doctor said they were notorious, so I guess she could have known.

I really doubt someone Weismuller's age in 1959 would have actually wanted to hear rock'n'roll. The generation gap of the time (between the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers) was growing and already quite pronounced. I see this nit often in period dramas, like Sam Tyler's Guv being well-versed in David Bowie songs. People forget that rock music was effectively counter-cultural for many years.

How did the bus driver know their safe landing was the Doctor's doing?

And how did the Doctor know Delta was Mel's roommate?

'Connect me with the Bannermen leader.'
'Gavrok here.'
--That was shockingly instantaneous. Not even time for Gavrok's phone to ring or whatever they do.

Is this the first time someone recognises the Doctor by reputation (without reference to past stories like Thals)?

What is it with McCoy and sneezing?

Or Mel and screaming? After everything she's seen, there's no reason for her to scream her head off at the egg. Billy didn't even bat an eye. In fact, the stride Billy takes everything in is practically a nit itself.

And then, bizarrely, Mel falls fast asleep moments later.

Gavrok's men untie Mel and Burton just because the Doctor, not Gavrok, told them to? 'Such was the authority' indeed.

Ace was undeniably the right choice, but Rachel wouldn't have been a bad companion. Mel is easily the worst, so, granted, it wouldn't take much.

Where does Billy suddenly get Chimeron clothing from?

Assuming Mike's theory of the beekeeper being a Time Lord is false, he's awfully willing to sacrifice 10,000 jars of honey spanning decades just to inconvenience a few bad guys, what with that being his livelihood and all. They're back in action later, neither sticky nor apparently stung.

Winning a tour package at a tollbooth must be the silliest (and most needless) way to get the Doctor and company into a plot.

Especially when you've got someone as batty as Mel around, who'd no doubt have taken one look at the bus and demanded to go aboard like it's a Paradise Towers swimming pool even if the Doctor had to PAY for her...

How did the bus driver know their safe landing was the Doctor's doing?

Well, the Doctor did TELL him that 'I'll follow on in the TARDIS' and what with space being really really big it was unlikely that anyone else would have been in the vicinity to rescue them from STUPIDLY being aboard a bus with no defences against space-junk.

And how did the Doctor know Delta was Mel's roommate?

You have NO IDEA how much rummaging around inside his Companions' heads the Doctor does till you read a Dave Stone NA.

And then, bizarrely, Mel falls fast asleep moments later.

Could the rug-rat be letting off subsonic shut-the-Mel-creature-up vibes?