Back in the day, long before he was reviving Doctor Who or writing Queer as Folk, Russell “The” Davies wrote a couple of BBC children’s drama series, 1991’s Dark Season and 1993’s Century Falls. Both were excellent pieces of kids’ TV.

Dark Season, which featured a young Kate Winslet among the cast, was, in many ways, Doctor Who in disguise. It featured an eccentric lead character with a couple of sidekicks investigating mysterious goings-on in suburban England. There are two distinict plots: the first involves computers being used to take over schoolchildren’s minds (c.f. new Who episode School Reunion); the latter features a troop of Aryan archaeologists led by Servalan off of Blake’s 7 attempting to obtain a powerful machine buried in the school grounds. These six episodes were, at the time, some of the best CBBC had to offer. It’s a little dated now – some of the clothes are shockingly eighties despite this being the nineties – but still good value. Oh, and it features Brigit Forsyth from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Doctor Who legend Cyril Shaps.

Century Falls was made two years later by largely the same production team. I only saw it on first broadcast so my memory of it is 13 years old, but it was notably darker than its predecessor, using the fantasy medium to deal with issues such as teenage pregnancy. The cast includes Who alumni Eileen Way and Bernard Kay, plus Mary Wimbush from K-9 and Company and The Archers.

I’m looking forward to seeing both series again, because – and this is the reason for this post – they’re coming out on DVD next month, having never been released on VHS. Both Dark Season and Century Falls are released on Monday 17th July and I heartily recommend them.

Inspired by Nick, I’ve had a go at making a Doctor Who scratch video. The soundtrack is ABBA’s Happy New Year; most of the footage comes from the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie – now, gosh, ten years old. You can see it (on broadband only, I suspect) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2lqivhz9gE.

And wasn’t The Impossible Planet great? I’m not blogging reviews of this series of Doctor Who, but I can’t not say how good it was. Properly suspenseful, well made, “base-under siege” adventure. Fingers crossed that the second part lives up to the first.

On Sunday night I was in a club in Blackpool which had a free internet café. I hope I gain a little street cred for not logging on and posting a blog entry despite the temptation. I was down for a stags do – my sixth trip to the town but my first not attending NUS conference, having skipped party conference last September.

Yesterday morning I went to the Doctor Who Museum on Blackpool seafront. It’s much more focussed on the “classic” series than the Brighton exhibition (now in Cardiff) with only one room and a few props for the new series. It was nevertheless good fun and full of classic costumes and props. Original Hartnell walking canes were very cool, as were the Melkur and Bessie (I realise this sounds slightly sad). Certainly worth a visit if you’re in the area and a fanboy.

Here are a couple of cameraphone photos from the bit where photography was allowed.

Gosh, some campaign group just crashed the lottery live on BBC1!

Anyway, what was I about to say? Ah yes: Alex and Simon having previously written extra scenes for Who episodes, I couldn’t help myself. Apologies for the tastelessness…

Short Trips

Mickey approaches the front door and knocks. There is no answer. He knocks again before trying the handle. The door opens and he moves inside.

MICKEY: Gran?

Mickey stops in horror as he sees Ricky’s grandmother sprawled unmoving at the bottom of the stairs.

MICKEY: Bugger.