Until this story, I had only seen Four and Five. I knew about the previous Doctors from annuals and so on, but this was the first time I saw one. It was, I suppose, the equivalent of when you saw Classic Who for the first time, for me.
Now that you've seen this story, try to find the Past Doctor novel The Face of the Enemy. It's mostly about Delgado!Master, but it uses continuity from this story in a rather clever fashion.
The Face of the Enemy also has some references to a previous novel by the same author, The Dark Path, where Two meets Delgado!Master before he became evil, and which I highly recommend. You won't miss a lot if you don't read that one first, though.
Yes, I believe it is the first mention of the name; I've read somewhere that David A. McIntee wrote a third "Koschei" novel, but I don't know if it came before or after this one. And yes, it is rather interesting - the Master answers to that name for most of the story, has a Riveresque human companion, and has a rather interesting rapport with Victoria.
Regarding Petra, I think this calls for another "spot-the-returning-actor", this time with a twist. Sheila Dunn was married to Inferno director Douglas Camfield (one of my favourite Who directors) and had very small roles in two other Camfield-directed stories. In the second of these, The Invasion, she was only meant to provide the voices of the computer Zoe kills with her brain and the ministry's telephone operator, but when the photographs in Isobel's studio disappeared (I don't remember if they were stolen or destroyed) and there was no time to plan another photoshoot for the actress playing Isobel to replace them, Sheila dressed up as Isobel and posed for a new set of photographs to replace the ones lost. And, of course, Christopher Benjamin (Sir Keith) later became Jago in Talons of Weng-Chiang and the Colonel in The Unicorn and the WaspYes, Nick Courtney did a great job as evil!Brig (Caroline John and John Levene should be commended as well - I thought evil!Benton was quite impressive). You can see traces of the Brig, but at the
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Olaf Pooley looked familiar to me as well, but I couldn't pinpoint where I've seen him before. According to Wikipedia/IMdB, Inferno was his only Who serial, but he's been in other stuff I've watched like Star Trek: Voyager and MacGyver, so I probably remember him from one of those.
No, they were never addressed as Primords in the dialogue, but the actors playing them were credited as such at the end. John Levene apparently called them "Richard III" because they had a sort of hump. :P
[this refers to a convention tale told by multiple cast members, in which a gag was played on Nick Courtney. During one take of his dramatic spin-in-chair to reveal his evil!eyepatch, he beheld everyone else in the shot (I think) wearing them...and thus he 'corpsed'.
Evil!Brig is just great. I think he, the Doctor, and Liz where my favorite parts. The Doctor flying into dumps and begging the Brig for help, funny. Just too funny.
They kept saying it was a alternative universe. I kept thinking about Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. XD
Penetration Zero sounds kind of wrong. Maybe it's just my twisted mind.
Agreed on all of the above. Including the Penetration Zero. I think I mentioned in an earlier commentary that it puzzled me why EVERY epic-ground-digging operation HAS to come with the word "penetration." I think I first noticed it in Caves of Androzani and kept seeing it over and over again afterwards. It's not just you :P
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Now that you've seen this story, try to find the Past Doctor novel The Face of the Enemy. It's mostly about Delgado!Master, but it uses continuity from this story in a rather clever fashion.
-Arcalian
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And, of course, Christopher Benjamin (Sir Keith) later became Jago in Talons of Weng-Chiang and the Colonel in The Unicorn and the WaspYes, Nick Courtney did a great job as evil!Brig (Caroline John and John Levene should be commended as well - I thought evil!Benton was quite impressive). You can see traces of the Brig, but at the ( ... )
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Oh, Nicholas Courtney, you and your amazing amazingness...
And I don't think the name Primords came up in dialogue either, even though I'd read it in several places.
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No, they were never addressed as Primords in the dialogue, but the actors playing them were credited as such at the end. John Levene apparently called them "Richard III" because they had a sort of hump. :P
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[this refers to a convention tale told by multiple cast members, in which a gag was played on Nick Courtney. During one take of his dramatic spin-in-chair to reveal his evil!eyepatch, he beheld everyone else in the shot (I think) wearing them...and thus he 'corpsed'.
;-)
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They kept saying it was a alternative universe. I kept thinking about Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. XD
Penetration Zero sounds kind of wrong. Maybe it's just my twisted mind.
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