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This meticulous docu-drama is still the best show about the Titanic, the awesome disaster that has never lost its grip on the imagination. Roy Ward Baker leads an enormous cast of Brit character actors through 2.5 hours of true-life terror in the icy Atlantic — Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith, Anthony Bushell. No stupid subplots and no insulting anachronisms, just an awful sinking death trap and 1600 passengers facing the freezing water. [Imprint] brings some new extras to the mix, too.

A Night to Remember

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #135

1958 / B&w / 1:66 enhanced widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from / 39.95

Starring: Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith, Anthony Bushell, Alec McCowen, John Cairney, Michael Goodliffe, Ronald Allen, John Merivale, Jill Dixon, Kenneth Griffith, Frank Lawton, Tucker McGuire, Ralph Michael, George Rose, Joseph Tomelty, Jack Watling, Michael Bryant, Bee Duffel, Thomas Heathcote, Andrew Keir, Jeremy Bulloch, Desmond Llewelyn, Derren Nesbitt, Beth Rogan,...

Louisa Mellor Jul 21, 2017

Deborah Watling, the actress behind Second Doctor companion Victoria Wakefield, has passed away...

Some sad news: actress Deborah Watling, fondly remembered for playing Doctor Who companion Victoria Wakefield, has died at the age of 69.

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Deborah acted opposite Second Doctor Patrick Troughton in 1967 and 1968, appearing in multiple classic Doctor Who serials including The Tomb Of The Cybermen, The Ice Warriors and many more.

A great deal of her work on the sci-fi drama didn't survive due to the BBC's erasure policy in the 1960s. However, in October 2013, previously missing serials The Web Of Fear and The Enemy Of The World were released by the BBC after being discovered in Jos, Nigeria by Philip Morris.

Deborah and former co-star Frazer Hines attended the launch for the rediscovered episodes, and spoke fondly of her time on the show. One of the recovered serials, The Web Of Fear,...

Strictly for serious Doctor Who fans who won’t mind the ultra-low-budget ethos, and who’ll love the fan-fiction-y tidbits that are catnip to Whovians. I’m “biast” (pro): big Doctor Who fan

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

It’s hard to remember now, what with so-called NuWho nearly a decade old, but there was long Doctor Who drought throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, between the cancellation of the classic show and the reboot in 2005. But there were a few attempts to quench the thirst of parched Whovians with unofficial, quasi-authorized semipro films. One of them, 1995’s Downtime, has just been released on DVD for the first time. The Doctor doesn’t appear here — the producers couldn’t get a license to even mention him — but we do get the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney...

Koch Media

From celebrated Doctor Who director Chris Barry Downtime is a unique British 1995 sci-fi movie from the Doctor Who universe featuring treasured characters and talent from the franchise. It follows The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney – Doctor Who) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen – Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures) of Unit who investigate New World University; a sinister school run by old enemies Victoria Waterfield and Professor Travers.

Fighting alone this time – without their famous time-travelling scientific advisor – The Brigadier and Sarah Jane are hard pressed to decide who is friend or foe as they search for a missing Locus, which binds the Great Intelligence’s power. The battle is broadened when the Brigadier’s own family is threatened and Unit faces a powerful new breed of Yeti!

Starring Nicholas Courtney, Deborah Watling, Jack Watling and Elisabeth Sladen reprising their roles as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Downtime is an unofficial sequel to...

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The 1990s Doctor Who spin-off movie Downtime – starring Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen - is finally getting a disc release…

Good news, everyone! The 1996 Doctor Who spin-off film Downtime is finally getting a DVD release. It’ll arrive on disc next month, on Monday the 16th of November, to be precise.

If you’re unfamiliar, this is a 70-minute story that brought back classic era Doctor Who characters including Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith, Deborah Watling’s Victoria Waterfield and Jack Watling’s Professor Edward Travers.

There’s just one catch, though – Downtime was made by Reeltime Pictures, not the BBC. Although regular Doctor Who director Christopher Barry called the shots, the BBC didn’t grant Downtime a licence to include the Doctor, or even reference him directly. Still, it has a soft spot in many fan’s hearts, not least for introducing Kate Lethbridge-Stewart,...

Koch Media have announced the UK release of Downtime, a unique British 1995 sci-fi movie from the Doctor Who universe (but unofficial) featuring treasured characters and talent from the franchise – which will be available for the first ever time on DVD from 16th November.

Downtime follows The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney – Doctor Who) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen – Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures) of Unit who investigate New World University; a sinister school run by old enemies Victoria Waterfield and Professor Travers. The technology obsessed University holds a gateway to Earth made by classic foe the ‘Great Intelligence’. Fighting alone this time – without their famous time-travelling scientific advisor – The Brigadier and Sarah Jane are hard pressed to decide who is friend or foe as they search for a missing Locus, which binds the Intelligence’s power. The battle is broadened when the Brigadier’s own family is threatened and Unit...

Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...

Professor Travers

Portrayed by: Jack Watling

Doctor: Second Doctor

Story: The Abominable Snowmen (Sept, 1967) and The Web of Fear (Feb, 1968)

Background: Professor Edward Travers is a British explorer and anthropologist who is searching for Yeti in Tibet when he encounters the Doctor. He later returns to London and eventually helps the Doctor and Unit, led by Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, fight the Great Intelligence (and the Yeti) in the Underground.

Family: Though we don’t actually meet her, Prof. Travers has a wife as well as a daughter Anne, who we do meet in The Web of Fear. Anne is a scientist as well and is a particularly self-assured and confident woman; Travers clearly did a good job raising her.

Personality: Prof. Travers is brave, but can be suspicious of strangers. He suspects the Doctor for quite a while after encountering both him and the Yeti at the same time. Once he does trust the Doctor though,...

There have been a lot of whispers in the rumor mill about lost episodes of Doctor Who being found, and almost every time we heard a rumor, the BBC was quick to call shenanigans. This time we have the official release of 11 episodes from the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) on iTunes. Here’s the official press release from the BBC:

BBC Worldwide North America announces that a stash of BBC master tapes from the 1960s featuring missing episodes of Doctor Who has been recovered in Nigeria, Africa. The BBC has re-mastered the tapes, and is making two stories, “The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear,” now available exclusively on iTunes (www.itunes.com/DoctorWho).

Eleven Doctor Who episodes were discovered (nine of which have not been seen for 46 years) by Philip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive, by tracking records of tape shipments made by the BBC to Africa for transmission.

Feature Louisa Mellor 11 Oct 2013 - 00:01

Den of Geek was lucky enough to see newly discovered and restored episodes of The Enemy Of The World and The Web Of Fear…

If it wasn’t such a frustrating waste, the junking of those Doctor Who episodes in the sixties and seventies might be viewed as a marvellous opportunity. Firstly, because it sent fans and the BBC on a global, decades-long, unpredictable scavenger hunt - those are always fun - and secondly, because it offered up moments like today. Moments that, if you’ll indulge the notion, are as close to time-travel as you’re likely to come amidst a herd of journalists eating crustless sandwiches in the basement of a posh London hotel.

Back in 1968, somebody at the BBC, a technician perhaps, maybe a runner, closed a canister that was sent around the world. Sealed in the air of late-sixties London,...

Bette Davis movies: TCM schedule on August 14 (photo: Bette Davis in ‘Dangerous,’ with Franchot Tone) See previous post: “Bette Davis Eyes: They’re Watching You Tonight.” 3:00 Am Parachute Jumper (1933). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Harold Huber, Leo Carrillo, Thomas E. Jackson, Lyle Talbot, Leon Ames, Stanley Blystone, Reginald Barlow, George Chandler, Walter Brennan, Pat O’Malley, Paul Panzer, Nat Pendleton, Dewey Robinson, Tom Wilson, Sheila Terry. Bw-72 mins. 4:30 Am The Girl From 10th Avenue (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Phillip Reed, Katharine Alexander, Helen Jerome Eddy, Bill Elliott, Edward McWade, André Cheron, Wedgwood Nowell, John Quillan, Mary Treen. Bw-69 mins. 6:00 Am Dangerous (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Dick Foran, Walter Walker, Richard Carle, George Irving, Pierre Watkin, Douglas Wood,...

Over a dozen never before published colour photos from the filming of the 1967 Doctor Who story The Abominable Snowmen have been discovered, and will be featured in the forthcoming limited edition version of Deborah Watling's autobiography Daddy's Girl from Fantom Publishing.

Says co-writer Paul Ballard:It really was an exciting find! We were trawling through the masses of documents, cuttings and photos in the Watling family archive when we chanced upon a huge box of holiday slides. One of the cases was labelled very faintly as Dr.Who (Wales).

There are a selection of photos featuring the cast – including Debbie’s father Jack Watling, and co-stars Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines – and crew filming with the dreaded Yeti up Snowdonia.

© Deborah Watling, reproduced with permission

Also contained in the limited edition hard back will be a treatment for a series entitled House of Watling. This comedy was due to be...