Captain's Holiday Library DOCTOR WHO "Father Christmas and the Demon Magician"

Here's a Doctor Who Christmas tale last seen in 1994...but which originally appeared in 1965!

So it's been more than a generation since Whovians have laid eyes on it in any form!

Note, though the cover (with new art by Bill Mevin who drew the original story decades earlier) is from Marvel UK's Doctor Who Classic Comics #15 (1994), the story itself is scanned from Polystyle Publications' TV Comic 732-735 (1965-66).
The reprint's scans weren't very good!

Note the toy cars are Aston Martin DB-5s, James Bond's auto from the then-current movie Goldfinger!

Who are "Grandkids" John and Gillian?

The comic strip didn't license anybody or anything but the Doctor and TARDIS from the BBC, so they created new companions and foes for the Time Lord!
No Susan, Barbara, or Ian!

No Daleks or other established aliens!

For the record, these strips are considered either apocryphal or an alternate universe.
(Unlike the 1960s Amicus movies Doctor Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., starring Peter Cushing, which are considered to be "fictionalized" re-tellings of actual events in the Whoverse!)

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

To paraphrase the end of 007's cinematic adventures...

Captain Video WILL Return!

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Doctor Who

Christmas Specials Gift Set

Captain's Library: DOCTOR WHO MONTHLY "Dalek Movies"

Peter Cushing IS Doctor Who!

Sadly, most of today's audience doesn't even know he played Doctor Who...twice!

Note: I didn't say "The Doctor", since Cushing's version was not a Time Lord from Gallifrey, but an eccentric human scientist!

To be fair, the exact concept of who (or what) the character was didn't get defined until the final episode of the first Doctor's run, which was done after the first Cushing film!

In the Hartnell stories the Doctor is said to be from "another time, another world", but that can be just taken as his being from a future Earth (which certainly would fill both criteria).

Even when other characters from his home (like the Meddling Monk, who also had a TARDIS) were introduced, no clear definition of where (or when) they were from was presented!

(The terms "Time Lord" and "Gallifrey" were first used during the second Doctor's {Patrick Troughton] run.)

Though Cushing's two films were adaptations of BBC-TV serials ("Dead Planet" and "Dalek Invasion of Earth"), they are not considered part of the official canon of the TV series.

Here's the cover-featured story from Doctor Who Monthly #84 (1984), which was only available in America through Forbidden Planet's New York store!

(The series was made available to the US market through Diamond Distribution a couple of years later, but this particular issue wasn't.)

You can see Peter's Doctor Who in comic book form...

Doctor Who and the Daleks Part 1

Doctor Who and the Daleks Part 2

Daleks vs the Martians

Plus Peter Cushing in other Hammer Film roles...

Baron Victor Von Frankenstein 

in Curse of Frankenstein

Part 1

Part 2

Lawrence Van Helsing

in Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

Part 1

Part 2

There's more cool Cushing stuff to come!

Bookmark us and visit often!

And check out other posts from the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon by clicking on the art below!

Captain's Library: DOCTOR WHO "Daleks vs the Martians"

Set between the two 1960s Dr Who films starring Peter Cushing...

...this tale was created for Doctor Who Magazine's 101st issue thirty years later in 1996!

As it turns out, it was, as we saw in Daleks: Invasion Earth, 2150 AD...

Some feel the Peter Cushing Doctor Who is an "alternate universe" version of the character, much as the current Star Trek films depict an official alternate version of the Classic Trek universe.
There's also speculation that the two films are actually part of the BBC's universe as movies portraying the Doctor's public image based on rumor and speculation!
Considering that Peter was offered the TV series role twice (after the 1st Doctor, William Hartnell, and 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, announced their departures) it's not unreasonable to assume the BBC would've found a way to incorporate material from the flicks into the series.
Note: Cushing turned down the first offer feeling he didn't want to do an ongoing TV series.
The second time, he was interested, but had no time in his schedule to accomodate a commitment of several months!
You can learn more about the genesis of this strip (and see larger scans of the art) at THIS POST at the amazing Peter Cushing Appreciation Society blog.
The official comic book adaptation of Doctor Who and the Daleks can been seen at Part 1 and Part 2.
(Plus a bonus page of videos HERE.)

Tomorrow:

An extensive text feature (with cool pix) about Peter's Dr Who films from an even earlier (and harder to find) Doctor Who Monthly!

And check out other posts from the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon by clicking on the art below!

Captain's Library: THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

The first manned flight into space by the British Experimental Rocket Group ends with a crash landing and only one survivor.
The other two astronauts' intact spacesuits are aboard the ship...but not the astronauts!
The remaining astronaut is alive, but catatonic, and his body seems to be infected with an unknown disease.
Meanwhile, blobs of organic material found in the ship appear to be the transformed remains of the two missing crew members.
The survivor's wife, fearing her husband will become a guinea pig for scientists' tests, has him spirited away from the hospital.
But the alien life-form inside him is transforming the hapless man into a creature who must absorb the energy of other living beings to survive...

In the original teleplay, Quatermass negotiates with the three astronauts' minds, still inside the creature, and convinces them to commit suicide to save the planet from the creature they're mutating into!
To fit the tv plot into a 90 minute movie, a sub-plot involving Victor Carroon's wife having an affair with the Rocket Group's doctor was jettisoned.
In addition, Carroon's kidnapping in the tv serial was by Communist agents, who are then killed by the mutating astronaut.
In terms of characterization, Brian Donlevy's cold, logical Quatermass is a far different version than the warm, paternal BBC-TV version played by Reginald Tate.
I think this was done primarily to reduce the amount of character interaction and dialogue not directly related to the main plot.

While the uncut British version has been released in the US on VHS, it is not on Region 1 DVD or BluRay (at least, not officially).
It is available in England both separately and as part of a Quatermass box set.
If you have a region-free player...

1n 2005, the original teleplay was reworked into a 97 minute production and broadcast live on the BBC!
Starring Jason Flemyng (X-Men: First Class, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) as Quatermass, the cast included David Tennant (Doctor Who, Fright Night [2011]) as Dr. Briscoe, Indira Varma (TorchWood, Human Target) as Judith Carroon. and Mark Gattis (Doctor Who, Sherlock) as John Patterson.
While available in England on DVD, it has never been released in the US in any form, nor aired on BBC America!

The 11th Hour Web Magazine did a story about similarities between key plot points of The X-Files (both the series and first feature film) and the Quatermass series, showing how major plot elements from all four mini-series (and the film adaptations) were incorporated into the legendary "mytharc" by Chris Carter.

Finally, the BBC has a kool website devoted to all things Quatermass!
And here's the website for the 2005 remake.

While we catch our breaths, a word from our sponsor

(Oh, wait, that's us!)

Check out the

Quatermass

Collectibles Corner!

Captain's Theatre: DOCTOR WHO & THE DALEKS / DALEKS - INVASION EARTH: 2150 A.D. Trailers!

Since the Doctor Who and the Daleks comic adaptation has garnered such a response, we're presenting the two trailers for the film

along with a bonus you'll see when you scroll down...

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The British Trailer, narrated by Peter Cushing as Doctor Who!
Note the sound effect that was later used as the alien ship effect on Gerry Anderson's UFO!

The American Trailer
Plus:
Trailer for the sequel, Daleks-Invasion Earth: 2150 AD!

Captain's Library: DR WHO & THE DALEKS Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Doctor Who, his granddaughters Susan and Barbara, along with Barbara's boyfriend Ian, accidentally activate Who's time-and-space machine, the TARDIS, and travel to an alien world where they become involved an a centuries-long war between two races, the humanoid Thals and the life-support device-enclosed Daleks.

While the comic's scripter is unknown, the art was by Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani.
Encouraged by the box office for this film, Amicus adapted the second Dalek story into an even more-expensive feature film, Daleks-Invasion Earth: 2150 AD.

There was no American comic adaptation of the second Dr Who movie.