Doctor Who has thousands of unproduced story concepts. Indeed, the first ever story ‘An Unearthly Child’ was based on a completely different idea: C.E. Webber’s ‘The Giants’, in which the Doctor and co. would have been shrunken down and faced comparatively massive Earth insects, was in an original series document produced for Doctor Who, and had Rex Tucker assigned to direct.
‘The Giants’ was vetoed for a combination of technical reasons: the small and outdated studio assigned to Doctor Who wasn’t up to the task of giant insects. Said insects drew the ire of Doctor Who co-creator Sydney Newman, who famously disliked bug-eyed monsters – you can’t get any more bug-eyed than literal bugs. Aspects of it ended up in the Season 2 story ‘Planet of Giants’, and the opening scene – where teenager Sue and her teachers Cliff and Lola meet Dr Who (sic) in the fog – was adapted...
‘The Giants’ was vetoed for a combination of technical reasons: the small and outdated studio assigned to Doctor Who wasn’t up to the task of giant insects. Said insects drew the ire of Doctor Who co-creator Sydney Newman, who famously disliked bug-eyed monsters – you can’t get any more bug-eyed than literal bugs. Aspects of it ended up in the Season 2 story ‘Planet of Giants’, and the opening scene – where teenager Sue and her teachers Cliff and Lola meet Dr Who (sic) in the fog – was adapted...
- 4/16/2024
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Alex Westthorp Oct 1, 2019
Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...
This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.
Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.
In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...
Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...
This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.
Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.
In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...
- 10/1/2019
- Den of Geek
Digital Spy readers named David Tennant as Doctor Who's greatest ever Doctor - now, with just 10 weeks to go until the 50th anniversary, DS is embarking on a new quest... to list the top 10 Who stories of all time.
We kicked off proceedings last Monday with William Hartnell classic 'The Aztecs' - now we travel seven years forward in time, for one of Jon Pertwee's all-time greats...
9. The Daemons (1971) - Five episodes - written by Guy Leopold
Season eight of Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee's second year with the show - represented the BBC sci-fi drama's second major creative revamp in two years. Just four stories on from a switch to full colour and new Earthbound format, Who found itself rejigged once again in 1971, with producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks eager to push the show in a new direction.
Sweeping change is always a risk,...
We kicked off proceedings last Monday with William Hartnell classic 'The Aztecs' - now we travel seven years forward in time, for one of Jon Pertwee's all-time greats...
9. The Daemons (1971) - Five episodes - written by Guy Leopold
Season eight of Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee's second year with the show - represented the BBC sci-fi drama's second major creative revamp in two years. Just four stories on from a switch to full colour and new Earthbound format, Who found itself rejigged once again in 1971, with producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks eager to push the show in a new direction.
Sweeping change is always a risk,...
- 9/23/2013
- Digital Spy
Robert Holmes establishes his long-running genius for Doctor Who scripts in this first-class Pertwee story...
Back in my review on Colony In Space, I mentioned that writer Malcolm Hulke had found some way to travel forward in time. Well, now I’m convinced that there was a whole gaggle of writers who built their own Tardis, and armed with copious quantities of beer and kippers, travelled forward to the 21st century.
So while Hulke conducted research on the nitty-gritty of the British economy, Robert Sloman was assigned to have a chinwag with Sting about the environment, while Robert Holmes was assigned to do two things: One was to investigate the mundane policies of politicians, the other was to investigate that thorn in everyone’s TV side, reality TV. The end result? Carnival Of Monsters.
Carnival Of Monsters sticks out like a sore thumb in the Pertwee years. Most of the...
Back in my review on Colony In Space, I mentioned that writer Malcolm Hulke had found some way to travel forward in time. Well, now I’m convinced that there was a whole gaggle of writers who built their own Tardis, and armed with copious quantities of beer and kippers, travelled forward to the 21st century.
So while Hulke conducted research on the nitty-gritty of the British economy, Robert Sloman was assigned to have a chinwag with Sting about the environment, while Robert Holmes was assigned to do two things: One was to investigate the mundane policies of politicians, the other was to investigate that thorn in everyone’s TV side, reality TV. The end result? Carnival Of Monsters.
Carnival Of Monsters sticks out like a sore thumb in the Pertwee years. Most of the...
- 8/16/2010
- by admin@shadowlocked.com (John Bensalhia)
- Shadowlocked
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