Doctor Who: Mission to the Unknown

This story is unique among Classic Who episodes. The story is one part, and it doesn't have the Doctor or any of his companions. It was meant as a teaser for the upcoming story "The Daleks' Master Plan." It is sometimes referred to as the "Dalek Cutaway."

Space Security Agent Marc Cory crash lands on the planet Kembel. He's looking for the Daleks. Well, he found them. The Daleks have formed an alliance with some other baddies, and they're going to invade Earth. Cory manages to send a warning signal to Earth before the Daleks get him. That's it! What confuses me is why there is an unrelated story between this one and "The Daleks' Master Plan." Shouldn't they have aired it immediately after this one? Why not just make this the first episode of that serial? See you in a month, Daleks. We have to stop in Troy first...

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: First (does not appear)
Companions: Vicki, Steven (do not appear)
Episode: #19, "Mission to the Unknown," one part
Adversary: the Daleks
Classic Lines: Daleks: "Exterminate!" (Yep, they always say this. Classic!)
Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: This is the only episode that doesn't have the Doctor or any of his companions.
Next Up: "The Myth Makers"

Shameless self-promotion

I entered a photo contest on Fine Art America, the site that hosts my portfolio. The winners will be featured in a national tv commercial. The catch- photos need 250 votes from the public to get to the juried second round of the competition. Please vote! You're allowed to vote for all three images. Round one voting ends on February 28. Thanks in advance.

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=6680342

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=7818912

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=9281135

The above links are links to the contest voting pages. Below I'm including thumbnails of the photos.

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4

The Whoathon returns! "Galaxy 4" is the first story of season 3. We're coming to an era of Doctor Who in which a lot of the episodes are missing. As has been mentioned before, the BBC used to wipe old tapes. Many episodes of Doctor Who are lost, although audio recordings exist. For this story, three out of the four parts are missing. I watched reconstructions- audio paired with photo stills.

There really isn't much to this story. The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven land on a planet that seems quiet. They encounter little machines that Vicki dubs "chumblies."

Chumbly!

The Drahvins rescue the TARDIS crew from the Chumblies, but it's soon obvious that the Drahvins are the real baddies. The Drahvins and the Rills are both trying to get off the planet, which is due to explode in a couple of days. The Drahvins attacked the Rills while they were both in space, and they all crash landed. The Chumblies are the Rills' machines.

Vicki talks to one of the Rills.

The Drahvins are kind of over-the-top evil, especially their leader, Maaga. The Rills won't come out from their little enclosure. They say it's because they don't want to upset everyone with how they look. I think it's because if the Rills are only seen through a window, Doctor Who gets to save money on making a creature prop. The Doctor helps the Rills get enough power to launch their ship, the good guys leave, and the baddies are stuck on the exploding planet.

Steven was a lot less irritating in this episode. A nice surprise! I liked this story, even though I think it doesn't come across from what I've written. It's just a very simplistic story. I wish we could've seen more of the Rills.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: First
Companions: Vicki, Steven
Episode: #18, "Galaxy 4," four parts- 'Four Hundred Dawns,' 'Trap of Steel,' 'Air Lock,' 'The Exploding Planet'
Adversary: the Drahvins
Classic Lines: the Doctor, to Maaga about the Drahvin ship: "My ship's not made of tin like this old trash."
Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: When a Chumbly is trying to blast its way into the TARDIS, the Doctor says the TARDIS is protected by a force barrier so it won't be damaged.
Next Up: "Mission to the Unknown"

Update!

I've been seriously neglecting the blog over the past month. Between the holidays and an extended dogsitting stay, I haven't had much time. Let me start the new year with some things that have happened since the last update, random-style...

Celtic Classic

I'm going back to September for this one. Several friends and I went to the Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, PA. I kept calling it Celticfest for some reason, but that's not its real name, even if that is the website. This event was a lot of fun. I can see going to this every year. We went on Saturday. There was a parade, performances, and Highland games. Okay, so my favorite part was the half and half- half Guinness and half Harp. That's good stuff. My boyfriend says that is gross. He is wrong. I will admit that I prefer to mix Bass with my Guinness, but Harp is good, too.

Wildwood

My cousin and I went to Wildwood one day in the summer. We gorged on Mack's pizza and birch beer. YUM. This led me to finding out that Dave had never been to Wildwood. So he and I went down for a day. We walked the boards and ate tasty boardwalk food. It's fun going places with him that are familiar to me and seeing them afresh through his eyes. And so...

Philly

I went to Philly and did touristy things! Again, Dave had never done this stuff, and it's old news to me. But walking around Philly was fun. I even went to the boring Liberty Bell. And there is photographic evidence.

We ended the day meeting up with a friend and her kids at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We saw the ever-present yet still-awesome dinosaurs and a special exhibition on chocolate.

Florida

I took the quickest trip I've ever made to Florida. My cousin moved back to NJ, and I helped. I flew down, we packed her car, and we left. We drove straight through, which is something I've done in the past but definitely forgot how LONG it takes. It was longer with two dogs in the car. But I'm glad she is back now, so it was worth it.

Cape May

Some of my relatives from Indiana came to visit. We planned to meet up with them and some other relatives in Cape May. Before meeting up with the family, Dave and I wandered around the town because yep, he had never been. It was fun. I have mentioned in the past how I like Cape May in the offseason. It's peaceful and beautiful.

That's me on Higbee Beach. We walked around the state park and went to see the ocean and the shops on Washington Street, too. (Higbee Beach is on the bay side of Cape May.)

Peddler's Village and New Hope

These places aren't new to me, but they're always fun. What was new was discovering that the chocolate shop at Peddler's Village has one of the best things I ever tasted- chocolate covered s'mores. That's s'mores covered in an additional layer of chocolate. Okay, so when I can't get to Peddler's Village, I've found that the smorez bark from David Bradley Chocolatier is just as good, if not better.

Walking outside when it's probably too cold to be outside

Dave and I like to go for walks. It's hard to give that up when it gets cold. There's a park near where I live that we go to a lot, and we discovered a hidden lake there.

This was in the fall when the leaves were turning. It was very pretty. We also often like to walk around Merrill Creek. Last time we went there was snow on the ground. I think we're pretty much done with our outside excursions until the spring.

Kenobi is still adorable

My parents gave Kenobi a sweater for Christmas.

I thought this pic of him wearing his sweater/begging me for treats needed to be shared. He is doing well for an almost 14-year-old beagle. He has kidney disease and heart disease, but his arthritis medicine has made him like a young beagle again, and at dinnertime you'd never know he was an elderly dog. I adore him, as ever.

Downton Abbey costume exhibit

My mom and I watch Downton Abbey. We discovered that there is a touring exhibit of some of their costumes, so we went to Winterthur in Delaware to see it. It was fantastic! I especially loved the hats. I want to wear 20s hats. Lady Mary's costumes were absolutely gorgeous.

Misc...

To wrap up, some random things...I have been playing the game KOTOR, and I love it. That's Knights of the Old Republic. Dave thought I'd like it a lot, and he was right. I've also been enjoying more tabletop games. I binge-watched Wil Wheaton's TableTop, and now I can't get enough. Luckily, Dave is a willing participant in my reawakened love of gaming and doesn't mind at all that I'm going to ask him to play games he has never heard of like Carcassonne and Forbidden Island. I used to play a game called Diplomacy in high school. I probably shouldn't have told Dave that it got to the point that my friends wouldn't let me play as Great Britain anymore because I'd crush everyone with my mighty British navy.

That's it for the update. I'm sure as soon as I publish this post I'll remember things I wanted to include. Too bad! Next time- Doctor Who or food. The Whoathon has been delayed, but not forgotten.

Dark chocolate and pumpkin swirl cake

My cousin got a free copy of Better Homes & Gardens. Since we both love everything pumpkin, she passed it on to me with the instructions to bake us some pumpkin goodness. First up was the cover, dark chocolate and pumpkin swirl cake.

I'd say this was more of a quick bread than a cake. It called for an orange glaze, which I didn't make. This was incredibly easy - and that's the only reason this recipe is going to stick around. My family went nuts for this. My cousin went so far as to say this was one of her favorite things. So, I guess I'll keep making it for them. But it's not great. It's okay. I found that neither the pumpkin flavor nor the chocolate flavor was particularly strong.

It was just okay. There are other pumpkin recipes in the magazine, and I'm going to try at least one more.

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

The Whoathon is back after a bit of a lull. This episode starts off with the Doctor and Vicki discovering that Steven has stowed away aboard the TARDIS. Steven immediately irritates the Doctor. Considering being on the TARDIS saved his life and he is trespassing, you'd think he wouldn't act like such an ass to the Doctor and Vicki.

Steven, the Doctor, and Vicki

They land on Earth in 1066, and Steven continues to be irritating, to the Doctor and to me. The Doctor leaves Steven and Vicki to go exploring. He ends up at the monastery, and the Meddling Monk, who overheard the TARDIS crew talking about the TARDIS, captures the Doctor and locks him in a cell. Why does a monastery have jail cells? I don't know.

The Meddling Monk talks to Vicki and Steven.

Vicki and Steven figure out that the Meddling Monk is not all he seems. They know he is lying to them when they first meet him, but wandering around the monastery, they find a record player playing monks chanting. He also has a toaster and a first aid kit with penicillin. But this is 1066. Hm....

We find out that the Meddling Monk is another Time Lord. The Doctor acknowledges that they come from the same place, and we see inside the Meddling Monk's TARDIS, which is disguised as a Saxon sarcophagus. They never mention the planet Gallifrey, and they don't even say they are Time Lords. Gallifrey isn't named until the 3rd Doctor. So what's his deal? He travels through time meddling. Yep. He thinks it's fun. He wants to advance civilization. He says he helped build Stonehenge with his antigravity lift. Now he wants to make sure King Harold beats William the Conqueror. Then there won't be hundreds of years of war over claims to France. The best part of this is that he rolls down a parchment attached to the wall with the eight steps of his plan on it. Then he checks off the next number! I enjoyed this immensely.

He has an evil checklist. This is something the Master would do.

The Doctor is appalled because they aren't supposed to interfere with the natural order of history. The Doctor thwarts his plan and also traps him on Earth in 1066. The Doctor removes the dimensional control of the Meddling Monk's TARDIS, so the inside is tiny- the Meddling Monk can't get in. However, I don't think this means we've seen the last of him.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: First
Companions: Vicki, Steven
Episode: #17, "The Time Meddler," four parts- 'The Watcher,' 'The Meddling Monk,' 'A Battle of Wits,' 'Checkmate'
Adversary: the Meddling Monk
Classic Lines: the Doctor, to Steven: "That is the dematerializing control, and that over yonder is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner. Those are the doors. That is a chair with a panda on it. Sheer poetry, my boy! Now please stop bothering me."
Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: This is the first appearance of someone from Gallifrey other than the Doctor and Susan.
Next Up: "Galaxy 4"