Set To Stun @ Gunnersbury Park Museum

I first heard about this small exhibition whilst it was still in the planning stages. Last year I attended a VFX talk by Mike Tucker at Gunnersbury Park Museum, where the museum curator spoke about it.

West London is the home of the British film and TV industry, and this is a local history museum, so there has been a Voc mask and Cybermen photo on permanent display, alongside Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. We also have displays reflecting the nearby Ealing Studios.

The museum is situated in a large Georgian house in the middle of the park. On entering the main part of the building, past the reception area, we see a Dalek - of the cream and gold variety seen in Remembrance of the Daleks.

Its location work was in West London.

When it comes to exhibitions, these are actually quite rare. I've had a look though my Experience photos and this type of Dalek wasn't seen in Cardiff (though Davros and the Special Weapons Dalek from the same story were).

Remaining on the ground floor, towards the back of the house, is a room devoted to toys and games. This contained Tucker's model which recreated the Dalek production line seen in Power of the Daleks - as seen as an extra on the Special Edition Blu-ray.

Moving upstairs, one of the rooms is now given over for a small exhibit of props, models, merchandise - and an original Moonbase Cyberman costume. Also present are a moon buggy from Moonbase 3 and one of the original models from The Tripods.

The Doctor Who material includes a cast of Terry Molloy and one of his Davros masks, a pair of TARDISes - a large one from Day of the Doctor and a smaller one from 1993's notorious Dimensions in Time.

There are a number of small props like guns, and on one wall are Ian Scoones' storyboards for The Invisible Enemy.

The Cyberman is rather badly placed, stuck in a corner behind glass, but well enough lit. It is an original screen-used costume from The Moonbase, whose filming took place at Ealing.

All that's just the museum proper. Next to the reception area is another room dedicated to the exhibition, and this one has been specially laid out by designer Jeremy Bear (The Mutants, The Seeds of Doom).

He's best known for popularising the triangular plastic wall panels, introduced in his first story and seen in many more thereafter, as well as numerous episodes of Blake's 7.

They feature here, framing a full Voc robot costume from The Robots of Death.

There's a video of Bear on a loop, and some of his design sketches adorn the walls. The room also features the Starbug from Red Dwarf and a Stormtrooper helmet from the Star Wars franchise.

Not a huge exhibition by any means, but certainly quality rather than quantity and worth catching if you're in London over the next couple of weeks.

Blog Update

I'm taking a short holiday this week, visiting London once again, so there won't be any new updates before 9th / 10th May.

As well as sightseeing locations where Daleks once trundled, or Cybermen once stomped, I'll also be dropping in to the sci-fi exhibition at Gunnersbury Park Museum, so expect a post on that very soon - hopefully on the 9th.

(You'll recall that I was there last year, for a VFX talk by Mike Tucker).

With Series 14 almost upon us (none of your Disneyfied Season One nonsense here) there will be a slight rejig of the weekend posts. "Episodes" will be moving to the Saturday for the duration of the new series, freeing up the Sunday for reviews of the new instalments. 

As I've previously mentioned, I don't want to post anything until after the BBC One broadcast on the Saturday evening, even if I watch the episodes on the i-Player earlier in the day.

Be back soon.

N is for... Nardole

The Doctor first met Nardole on the Earth colony world of Mendorax Mellora, at Christmas 5343. He had been sent by his wife to fetch a medic whom she had arranged to meet here. Due to a mix-up, the Doctor thought that it was he whom Nardole sought, whilst he believed the Doctor to be the medic.

Taken to a crashed spaceship on the edge of the village where the TARDIS had materialised, the Doctor was shocked to discover that Nardole's spouse was River Song. Not only that, but he was supposed to help treat another husband - the brutal King Hydroflax. Only his head remained of him, attached to a robot body. An explosion had resulted in a precious gem being embedded in his skull, which River wished removed. She did not recognise the Doctor in his twelfth incarnation.

River actually only wanted to steal the gem, and she and the Doctor ended up taking the King's head. The semi-autonomous robot body decapitated Nardole to use as its new head. The same fate befell a third husband of River - Ramon. The robot would swap heads over time, with the unused one continuing to function within its torso. It would later come to be employed as a waiter in a restaurant beside the famous Singing Towers of Darillium.

The Doctor later saved Nardole from this fate, building a makeshift artificial body for him. 

The pair travelled together for a time, and at one point Nardole actually ruled the early Byzantine Empire.

However, River had given Nardole a role to perform before she and the Doctor parted for the final time.

He was tasked with guarding a vault in which Missy was to be incarcerated for a thousand years, after preventing her execution. The Doctor hid this vault in the basement of St Luke's University in Bristol where he took on a teaching role. Nardole joined him there, acting as his valet but also to ensure that he adhered to his vow to oversee the vault.

It was in his role as valet that he first met canteen assistant Bill Potts, whom the Doctor agreed to tutor.

Frustrated with being tied to one place and time for so long, the Doctor wanted Bill to travel with him and see the stars. Nardole disliked her for making the Doctor want to go against his vow, and attempted to stop their travels - but to no avail. He even tried to sabotage the TARDIS by removing a fluid link, but the Doctor predicted his actions.

Instead, he decided to go with them so that he could ensure that the Doctor remained safe and able to go back to his responsibilities at the university.

Their first journey was forced on them, as Bill was stalked by a sentient water-borne AI which resembled her potential girlfriend, and now wanted to travel through space with her as her co-pilot.

Over time, Bill came to learn that Nardole had led an extremely interesting life himself - often engaging in illegal activities such as smuggling and black-marketeering. It was his efforts to escape a life of crime which had led him to being employed by River Song, whom he subsequently married.

When the Doctor became blind after being exposed to the vacuum of space, outside the Chasm Forge asteroid mining station, he kept this secret from Bill but told Nardole, who naturally challenged him about the dangers of abandoning their mission to guard the vault.

However, when the Doctor and Bill became stranded on Mars in Victorian times, Nardole actually opened the vault to allow Missy to pilot the TARDIS back to the Red Planet to rescue them.

The Doctor attempted to rehabilitate his old enemy, allowing her to accompany them on their travels - much to Nardole's concern. On encountering a tribe of Picts in 2nd Century Scotland, Nardole managed to be accepted into the community as a story-teller.

Nardole's travels with the Doctor came to an end when they visited a vast colony ship trapped on the edge of a Black Hole. This originated on Mondas, and they witnessed the evolution of a new race of Cybermen. Missy also encountered a previous incarnation of herself. Nardole befriended a woman named Hazran who looked after a group of orphaned children, protecting them from encroachment by the Cybermen.

With the vault no longer needing guarding, the Doctor gave Nardole a new role - to continue to protect Hazran and the children as they moved to a new home within the vessel.

Just before his next regeneration, the artificial intelligence Testimony allowed the Doctor to see a glass avatar of Nardole, holding all his memories, for a final time, along with similar duplicates of Bill and Clara Oswald.

Played by: Matt Lucas. Appearances: The Wedding of River Song (2015) to Twice Upon A Time (2017).

• Lucas first came to public attention when he featured in several series with surreal comics Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer, before finding fame with David Walliams in Little Britain. 
• He and Walliams were huge Doctor Who fans, leading Little Britain narrator Tom Baker to declare that he was now being employed by the children who had grown up with his Doctor.
• The actor was originally intended as guest artist on the 2015 Christmas Special only, but everyone enjoyed his presence so much that Steven Moffat brought him back the following year in The Return of Dr Mysterio. Similarly, a brief appearance in the 10th series was expanded so that he featured throughout. Lucas was living abroad and working on his autobiography at the time.
• The Target novelisation of Twice Upon A Time claims that Nardole spent the rest of his life on the colony ship, defending everyone from annual attacks from the Cybermen. He died aged 728, after marrying six times.

N is for... Nancy

The Doctor encountered a girl named Nancy in the East End of London during the Blitz of 1941. She exploited the air-raids to feed a group of orphaned children who lived rough in the bombed-out parts of the city. As the homeowners sheltered from the bombs, she would enter their houses and allow the children to eat their interrupted meals. 

The Doctor had first met her when she warned him not to use the TARDIS telephone. A child's voice was heard on the line - despite it not being connected to anything. Later Nancy advised him to avoid contact with a small boy wearing a gas-mask, who was prevented from joining the air-raid meals.

This despite him being her younger brother, Jamie. 

The Doctor discovered that anyone who came into physical contact with Jamie was transformed to resemble him - with a gas-mask forming part of the skull, and with the same injuries which he had sustained when caught up in a bomb blast. Later, this infection became airborne. The Doctor came to realise that Jamie wasn't Nancy's brother at all, but her son. She looked younger than she was.

A crashed alien medical ship had released nanogenes into the atmosphere and these had repaired the dead boy's body, but had no concept of what a human being ought to be like. Using him as a template, they were transforming everyone to be like him.

The Doctor was able to use Nancy, as his biological parent, to reprogramme the nanogenes and they began correcting their work. 

The Doctor and Rose were able to assure Nancy that Britain would eventually defeat the Nazis. Dr Constantine from the nearby Albion Hospital agreed to look after her and her son, after losing his own family in the Blitz.

Played by: Florence Hoath. Appearances: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005).

• An early role for Hoath was as one of the girls who photographed the Cottingley Fairies in the film Fairy Tale: A True Story. In this her father was played by Paul McGann. 
• She featured in the 2004 ITV adaptation of the Miss Marple mystery The Body in the Library along with a number of future Doctor Who guest artists.

N is for... Namin

Human servant of Sutekh, the evil Osirian whom he believed to be one of Egypt's ancient gods. His family had served Sutekh for generations, helping prepare for his release from millennia-long captivity.

After Egyptologist Marcus Scarman had unwittingly broken into the tomb where he was held immobilised by a force-field, Namin was despatched to his country house in England to prepare for his freedom. He was given a special ring which controlled the mummy-like Osirian servo-robots.

Namin's task was to secure the house and grounds to establish a base of operations. 

When an old friend of the archaeologist - Dr Warlock - arrived demanding to know the whereabouts of Scarman, Namin attempted to kill him. He was saved by the Doctor's intervention, though badly wounded. Namin sent the robots to search the grounds and kill them.

Sutekh took over the reanimated corpse of Marcus Scarman and sent him to the house via a time tunnel, deeming him to be a more effective servant. His usefulness now at an end, his first task was to kill Namin.

Played by: Peter Mayock. Appearances: Pyramids of Mars (1975).

• Mayock returned to Doctor Who the following year, playing Solis - the hypnotised Chancellery Guard officer who tried to kill the Doctor in The Deadly Assassin.

N is for... Naismith

Joshua Naismith was a telecommunications billionaire who used his money and influence to obtain black market alien technology. One item, taken from the defunct Torchwood organisation, was a device which he called the "Immortality Gate". Experiments had found that this could repair damaged human tissue, and Naismith sought to get it working fully so that he could make his spoilt daughter Abigail immortal.

Donna Noble felt compelled, subconsciously, to buy his autobiography - Fight The Future - for her grandfather, Wilf, as a Christmas gift.

He employed a private army at his country estate, and sent them to capture the resurrected Master, who had been brought back to life in London's Broadfell Prison just before it burned to the ground.

Brought to his home, the Master was tasked with repairing the Gate and make it fully functional.

However, the Master knew what it was capable of and ensured that it would help him rather than the businessman. Rather than heal individuals, the Gate could be used to restructure the genetic code of entire planets. He turned everyone on Earth into versions of himself - including Naismith and his daughter.

The Doctor had seen fleeting mental images of Naismith when communing with the Ood Elder, warning him of the Master's return. Wilf's book allowed him to realise where the Master had been taken, but he and Wilf were too late to stop the Master's transformation of the world's population.

After the Time Lord Rassilon had undone the Master's work, Naismith tried to flee but was captured along with Abigail and imprisoned.

Played by: David Harewood (Joshua), Tracy Ifeachor (Abigail). Appearances: The End of Time I (2009), The End of Time II (2010).

• Harewood played Friar Tuck in the BBC's 2000's version of Robin Hood. 
• He was a regular on the Supergirl TV series, as well as guesting in its stable-mates Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.
• Ifeachor also appeared in an episode of Legends of Tomorrow. She has recently featured in Wonka.

N is for... Nagata

Commander of a military mission to the Le Verrier space-station, in orbit around the planet Neptune in the 38th Century. Communications had been cut off with the station, and Nagata's team had been sent to discover why. Following tectonic disturbances back on Earth, Indo-Japan was now a major power bloc. She hailed from a colony on Triton.

The station was found to be deserted apart from lead scientist Gagen Rassmussen, who had taken refuge in a sleep pod. In the 38th Century, people could condense their sleep in these units in order to maximise their working life.

Rassmussen was hiding from a group of creatures which now infested the station - Sandmen. It transpired that they were formed of organic matter - "sleep" from the users of the pods.

Nagata's squad were picked off one by one until only she remained, accompanied by the Doctor and Clara.

The scientist had apparently been killed by Sandmen, but this was a ruse. He was actually intent on creating more of the creatures from pod users across the entire solar system.

Nagata was taken off the station by the Doctor before it crashed into Neptune's atmosphere.

Played by: Elaine Tan. Appearances: Sleep No More (2015)

• Tan's career took off after appearing in a National Theatre production of musical South Pacific. UK work has included EastEnders and Auf Wiedersehen Pet, whilst US work includes Boston Legal, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Hawaii Five-0.