2006 news archive
24 December 2006
Merry ChristmasMerry Christmas to all our readers! (or is it "browsers"?) Anyway, many felicitous greetings to you at this time of year - whatever your religion. If you don't normally celebrate at this time of year because of your faith then please store this message up until the time that you do. And if you're not religious (like the person typing this) then please have a beer and celebrate something. And if you don't drink, then.... oh my god this is getting complicated. And did I say 'god'? Look, just go and watch Doctor Who or something with Nigella in on the telly... Cheers and see you soon!
07 December 2006
The JNT ArchiveThe JNT Legacy
A few words as promised a month or two ago from Stephen Cranford regarding the JNT archive. He gives us a footnote to the article in this month's Doctor Who Magazine which talks of how this important collection was saved for future fandom by the efforts of JNT, Gary Downie and then Stephen.You can read the article here at doctorwho-devious.com/jnt
05 December 2006
MasterplanYes we have a (Dalek) Masterplan...
We've been keeping this quiet whilst Nick (Scovell) arranged all the necessary permissions, and now we can announce that there is going to be a follow up to the highly successful and critically acclaimed stage play 'Evil of the Daleks'. It will be during October 2007 again in Portsmouth. We are pleased as punch here at 'Devious Towers' and we'll be able to follow the build up rather like we did for 'Evil'.
Ashley is especially delighted as he'll be again be providing a set of Daleks (colours and look to be decided!). Although the Emperor won't be needed of course you may well see something special... Hmmm....! And we're also pleased that Stuart Currie is now a very welcome part of the new team.
More news as and when ....
17 November 2006
Children In Need - 17 November - updatedChildren In Need
[updated] With any luck, we hope to be able to present a cheque to Children In Need live on TV this Friday.
With luck we hope Rob (Evil) Ashley (Devious) will be there although Rob may be in disguise......(guess!!!).The programme is coming from the new tower at Portsmouth and we're told between 8.30 and 9???? Who knows - keep watching - and keep pledging your money! The links below can give you some background to Children In Need and there will be further links so you can make your donation!
"The recent production on stage of Evil of the Daleks raised a good deal of money for charity. A successful stage production that played to a sell-out audience (the best sales in 30 years at the theatre in fact) and kept bubbling the tremendous support for the phenomenon that is Doctor Who! The smiling faces on children and adults alike was testament. Professionally produced with integrity and dedication it showed how a proper stage production could be an asset to the show - leaving fans itching to see the new series! Roll on Christmas!"
Also during the Children In Need night you may catch a glimpse of Devious's own Stephen Cranford in one of his other many guises!
06 November 2006
evil of the daleks - set buildDetails of the set and prop builds for the recent successful (sell out) Evil of the Daleks play are now being added to the evilofthedaleks part of the Devious web site... See the sets and props section of Evil...
We have some new Devious news coming soon!!!
29 October 2006
Evil Success - thanks for comingEvil show a success, now we're so very, very tired...
See you all soon and thanks for coming along! If you enjoyed this as much as we did we're more than delighted! As I (Ashley) write this I am barely awake. Staying up til 3 chatting and the after-show party really takes it out of you. And then the daleks had to be returned to my house in preparation for further storage. Those casings have never seemed heavier. So I hope you will forgive us if we take a day or two to get our thoughts together before we get things onto this site. Both the evilofthedaleks.co.uk site and this Devious-Evil sub-site will feature some photos from the show I'm sure - just bear with us over the next few days or so!
In the mean time whilst we go away and lie down in darkened rooms (or actually go out and get some fresh air and sunlight) we'll leave you now with a picture from the dress rehearsal (above).
Thanks to the Evil of the Daleks Team from Ashley! A more warm-hearted and friendly, dedicated professional crew and cast you will never find... thanks everyone
25 October 2006
Evil of the Daleks - Dress RehearsalEvil of the Daleks - Dress Rehearsal
Dress Rehearsal last night! Excellent. Brilliant. Had a tear or two in the eye when the daleks first came on. Don't mind admitting that. Hopefully you will too when you see it!
More words than this I cannot add at the moment I am so tired after getting home at midnight all this week! And even on the last night I'll be coming home on the last Brighton train (10.19 depart) and trudging home - but I suspect less of a trudge more of a triumphant march...
...assuming all goes well. Break a leg. Or is it break a plunger? No it can't be - we've done that already (Helen's dalek lost it's sucker during the dress rehearsal and so a new one is being fabricated today). Break a castor? - no we've added so many more for stability that the local hospitals and supermarkets people are having to drag the trolleys round scraping the floor.
So it's break a leg then...
Hope to catch a lot of you during the run - if you think you know me when you see me strolling (doubtless tearfully) around then please say hi.
Ashley (25th October)
for more news on the production and some images (especially after the run) go to www.doctorwho-devious.com/evilofthedaleks
29 September 2006
Devious / Evil dalek on BBC website!Just a quick note to say that one of the Devious daleks is currently on the BBC Dr Who website. Three of the children at Patcham High School in Brighton have just reviewed one of the excellent BBC Audios read by David Tennant - The Feast of the Drowned and are pictured in front of one of their school daleks. 'The students are drawn from an English class where reading issues such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are addressed' says the article and teacher Rowlie Darby has been instrumental in a lot of initiatives to encourage reading in general and appreciation of science fiction writing in addition!
Indeed the daleks were initially loaned to the school to help in this process; being an exhibit in the school library as part of a sci-fi display which has been most successful - there was an article featuring Rowlie and some of the youngsters in an issue of Doctor Who Monthly a few months ago.
Rowlie is tomorrow (30 Sep) delivering this loan dalek back to Ashley for modification for the Evil of the Daleks play in Portsmouth (25th-28th October).
The BBC review is featured here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/09/27/36649.shtml
20 September 2006
The JNT LegacyStephen from the Devious Team is going to be putting a few words on this site soon regarding the John Nathan Turner Legacy.
When JNT died Gary Downie preserved his collection of Dr Who material and when Gary in turn died earlier this year the material was left in its entirety to Stephen Cranford.
Stephen has written briefly about this connection and how he arranged for the material to be passed on to the Restoration Team / BBC. There will be a feature soon in a future Doctor Who Monthly and Stephen has submitted a few words to add to this account.
A fuller version of his own account will appear on this site in due course by way of a trailer for the DWM article.
13 September 2006
episode viewingTonight we (five of us from the Team) are watching for the first time a new edit of the second half of the story. David has been furiously editing ready for this showing which will culminate in a timecoded version on dvd being created so that we can comment on what needs to be trimmed out. At present these edits are really sequences and will need further editing and trimming. Nevertheless we're all terribly excited about seeing Devious again now all the dalek segments have been inserted.
Once we have agreement on scenes to be kept we will refine the audio and properly voice the daleks and then look at the effects again...
30 August 2006
dalekupdateconstruction update
for an update on one of the new daleks being built then please go here...
http://www.doctorwho-devious.com/evilofthedaleks/file_30_Aug_2006.htm
23 August 2006
link to usIf you want to link to the Devious site from your own site then we have finally got* round to creating a banner! We'll doubtless come up with some more designs and sizes in due course but don't hold your horses - it's taken us years on the web to get this far...
* - and yes it's "gotten" for you guys over there in the USA...
15 August 2006
new daleksFinally we can show you some new images from the prop builds for the play at Portsmouth. For further info please go here...
04 August 2006
Props and ComicsNot a great deal to report - just loads of prop building for the Evil of the Daleks play at the moment - as as you can see from the Evil news item also dated today - there's not a lot we can say at the moment, so please bear with us. To compensate we've put up a Comic Relief retrospective for the Devious site - mind you we will add to it as (a) our memory returns, or (b) someone contacts us on "say hello" and suggests something we ought to mention... or (c) Stephen and David get a moment to add their memories...Hope you like it - and we will tell the real story behind all those "wobbly console" comments!!!
12 June 2006
World Cup WaffleSo all you peeps out there are watching the World Cup now instead of Doctor Who. Even you chaps in the USA where winning the world cup is as likely as David Hasselhoff being the next Doctor Who. Having said that his name did crop up in our suggestions people have been giving us for a future Doctor, so it's not as daft as you think! After all he's big in Germany musically... Seriously though - good luck USA! Actually good luck Ghana too (Ashley spent some time there a few years back and loves the place and people). So to be fair - GOOD LUCK EVERYONE. How impartial can you get!
And on a football theme we also got a comment saying "am I the only one who thinks your Doctor looks like Teddy Sheringham?". So - does he? I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear that as we believe Tony has absolutely no interest in football so he won't know who you mean! Of course all this football does mean that we have to be careful to watch the schedules to see if REAL Doctor Who (not this amateur malarkey) is displaced from the 7pm slot. By the way - is the best episode so far in series 2 The Girl in the Fireplace???
And in other news - we've decided to take down some of the edited clips from the site (leaving perhaps the trailer-of-sorts) to keep David happy*. As the chief person behind the editing and viaual effects so far he felt that it wasn't right to show off clips of clearly unfinished work as it doesn't give a good idea of how good the final stuff will be. So in the next week or so some will be removed. However as these have proved popular we may upload some behind-the-scenes and filming clips instead. That way you can see some footage of how we have shot some of the scenes - and can imagine what effects we'll be adding afterwards! Occasionally we may put some finished clips up but only when we think they're at a quality level we're proud of. As always we will credit the BBC and Terry Nation and denote that what we do is just for fun and in no way for any financial gain - just a respectful homage.
*-actually it's not just about keeping David happy - it's about trying to do our best and we'd like you to appreciate that and not half-finished material on often low resolution. We know you'll understand and of course we always always value to support and frequent encouragement we get (including the cracking email from Paul we got in today!).
30 May 2006
faqHi there - just a quickie - ooh err matron! We've renamed the "production" bit of the site to "crew" so we've more room on the menu for the new FAQ bit. A guestbook will follow in the same area! Please still email us and say hello though - just because we may have answered your question doesn't mean we don't still want to hear from you! All words of encouragement are very very welcome!
25 May 2006
waffle and clipsA few clips added in the, er, "clips" section which is actually currently within the "imagery" section. Try here. Meanwhile more work is ongoing on the new dalek bases for the Evil of the Daleks play this October. And David is still editing. So apart from that it's really quite a sparse news day. not even worth putting up I suppose... Mind you here's a few pics from those clips... Please bear in mind that they're only there for a short time as David isn't particularly keen on the site showing clips of material in such an unfinished state. Rightly so he feels that it doesn't represent the final quality we're after. To that end we're trying to look out for some bits that will show off what we're after as soon as we can!
18 May 2006
Evil of the Daleks photocallBrief item: Ashley popped down to meet the full team behind the Evil of the Daleks for a photocall and chat at a hidden location near Havant near Portsmouth. The evening meant cast and backstage people could meet - and try out the dalek voicebox moogerfooger!!! Well, Ashley tried it but clammed up as he didn't like an audience apparently - fine for someone puportedly doing some of the dalek voices for Devious! The cast included Nick Scovell who plays the Doctor and Nick Briggs who is to supply the dalek voice (hence the modulator being present!) and photos from the event (Ashley took a few to assist) will be available on the Evil of the Daleks site as soon as possible - presumably! We won't preview any of Ashley's shots until the Evil site have done theirs!
05 May 2006
voting - the first 1000Just to say thanks for voting all of you in our "who's your favourite Doctor" poll. Just a bit of fun as we said, and it seems that Messrs Baker (Tom),Pertwee, Troughton came out on top along with Mr Tennant!
William Hartnell
34 votes = 3%Patrick Troughton
173 votes = 17%Jon Pertwee
215 votes = 21%Tom Baker
166 votes = 16%Peter Davison
31 votes = 3%Colin Baker
32 votes = 3%Sylvester McCoy*
55 votes = 5%Paul McGann
25 votes = 2%Christopher Eccleston
87 votes = 8%David Tennant
160 votes = 16%these are the results with almost a thousand votes in, and so it's unlikely we'll continue it much longer but it has been fun!
However there's always one or two individuals out there who are willing to spend an hour at a time (say on the 27th April at 9pm our time) clicking repeatedly and refreshing to bump up the figures to try to get a distorted result (for Sylvester McCoy as it happens!) Now we are big fans of Sylvester, and indeed we have had the pleasure of his company on occasions including on the Devious set, and it seems highly unlikely it was him bumping up his own stats!!! So for the person who had nothing better to do than to try to fiddle our results then fine if that's what you like to do, but bear in mind we here at Devious do this just for fun and we're all sensitive souls and don't want to get into the whole fan-politic partisan thing where opinions become so strong on issues that judgement is clouded and the "fun" seeps away. We have reset the figures to roughly what they were for Sylvester and apologise to our other viewers (of which there are refreshingly a lot nowadays) for the distorted results that may have been shown whilst our webmaster was away doing non-Doctor Who things...We also apologise to Sylvester in case we didn't reset his results correctly enough!!!!
C'est la vie We'll have another vote along soon along with a little bit of code to prevent any reoccurrence of the above! P.S. Lots of good prop building going on - news soon!
26 April 2006
K9 and [Devious?] Co
Just in time for the K9 episode (School Reunion) on BBC1 this Saturday (7.20pm) here's some rumouring and pure speculation from the chaps at Devious... It seems there has been a slight disagreement on a new section of filming for 2006. As you may know Devious decisions are made by the trio and things go ahead only upon unanimous agreement. However it seems that two of the trio are actively planning a short cameo scene featuring K9, Rose and the Tenth Doctor. To be shot with K9 in close-up to the camera with the TARDIS in the distance and the easily discernable outlines of the Tenth Doctor and Rose calling out for him the scene is intended to be "just a bit of fun". An unnamed source (obviously one of the three!) says that the scene may be shot and edited together for the sheer fun of doing it and may include lines from the mechanical mutt or the Doctor recalling the time when he "nearly wasn't me" - i.e. his temporary tenure as the Interim Doctor. 
The scene has only been mooted because we have two candidates for two of the three roles...firstly Mark Jones (who plays Teleko in episode one) has an uncanny resemblance (in certain lighting conditions) with a certain Mr Tennant (indeed Ashley's son Adam thought he was the Doctor!). And we have been offered the services of a K-9. This is one of the original 5 made from the mould and is in the possession of a local fan and Devious follower (!!) Mark Beeson close to us. Mark Jones is a busy man indeed - we'll only get this scene in if he's free from his other projects for a short while! - he's working on a new film at the moment after critical acclaim for Griffin...
Of course we don't don't know as yet if the scene will actually get filmed, and if it does will it cause ructions? Chances are it won't make the final edit but will remain as an alternate opener or other scene. It's more important that the trio concentrate on the rest of Devious and don't get sidetracked of course but then a little filming session one afternoon may just be a bit of fun...! And that's what we try to have in Devious anyway!More later if we get any developments...
25 April 2006
Evil of the Daleks trailerThe Evil of the Daleks trailer is now hosted on Devious site - this has assisted the www.evilofthedaleks.co.uk website with their bandwidth issues and frees their space up for further content. This really will be a great production (not that we're biased of course!) - Ashley from Devious went down to meet with the two main people behind the project Rob and Nick some time ago and reported that they have been very thorough with their planning and have some excellent ideas for what will be a well-remembered production for years to come. More set/prop building will be done this coming holiday weekend so expect some pictures soon!
(Also the Devious site has a long-awaited site map)20 April 2006
evil of the daleks trailer too popular! (updated)the trailer for the forthcoming Evil of the Daleks play has proved so popular it has temporarily brought down the Evil website (in the meantime a copy of it can be downloaded from here). Rest assured it will be back again as soon as possible. And on the set-building front, Ashley spent yesterday on the new dalek bases - the mould for the new castings has been started and is half-finished already. We'll have some pics of that as soon as...
13 April 2006
evil of the daleks news
A bit more set work has been done whilst Ashley toys with the idea of getting loads more wood delivered ready for Easter...- And the Evil of the Daleks website now features their TRAILER...! well worth a view 29 March 2006
Evil of the Daleks
Evil of the Daleks - THE STAGE PLAY - is coming to Portsmouth later this year! And now we can announce it on this site and help our friends down in that fine city with their latest production - the famous "lost" Troughton story. These chaps have already brought you Fury from the Deep and Web of Fear fully licenced from the BBC and original writers and writers' agents/estate. They put together very professional performances and it is true to say that Evil of the Daleks will be well worth waiting for. Ambitious? Certainly - but if you don't have ambition you don't achieve.We are also delighted to announce here at Devious Towers that we have an involvement in this production. We (well Ashley mainly) are supplying the NEW dalek fleet and also .... ????
Hang on! - NEW daleks? Don't you have some already? Well, we're going to refurbish and redesign (even some recasting) some of our props especially for the production. They will be equipped to perform well on stage and as we complete the rebuild we will give some updates on this site no doubt. We'll have a new subsection of the site or a subsite - probably with a path of /evilofthedaleks - in which we'll give updates on how the preparations are coming along. However you may not see any finished daleks or emperors in their entirety as we certainly don't want to steal any thunder from the production and so the new props will be kept under wraps until October! Their production can be seen at http://www.evilofthedaleks.co.uk
24 March 2006
dalek emperorJust a few notes added to the sets and props section giving a few words on the dalek emperor prop...
16 March 2006
dalek voicesJust an idea this - we're going to have quite a few scenes with loads of dalek voices required. The Black and Emperor Dalek and main silver ones will doubtless be voiced by one of our team once we get the acting right, but there will be times when lots of daleks will be required to chant the ubiquitous "exterminate" or "I obey" etc etc, so there will have to be voices for at least 9 daleks at one stage or another. But how about if some of the other dalek voices doing some of these single lines could be voiced by the people who send in their best dalek voice samples via email. We've already had one or two emails (from the "say hello" section) showing interest as well as a sample! It's just an idea at this stage but could be fun - we'll see what kind of thoughts you have on this! If it actually happened (i.e. if the three of us in the trio agreed it - which is iffy really to be fair) then we'd send out the required lines and the mood/intonation required to those we select.
Anyway - don't get your hopes up - it's just a silly idea at this stage, but then Devious itself was a (silly) idea at one stage many many many moons ago...
15 March 2006
ring modulation etcAshley met some friends at the recent Gary Numan album signing in London and in conversation with some fellow "Numanoids" found a high level of interest in Dr Who and also Devious. Apparently one of the chaps he spoke to has his own studio and composes his own music and hopefully we'll be talking to him about some instrumental work for Devious. Although Ashley and David want to write and perform their own material they also recognise they have never done that before and consequently are likely to be completely talentless! Presumably they come from the "I don't know much about art but I know what I like" school of composing - i.e. they can ascribe a sound or mood to some scenes but may not be able to carry it off. That's where talking to people who know their stuff is perhaps a good idea!
And on another note (ha ha) Ashley and David were fiddling around with some effects for part 6 last night whilst David tried to decide whether to stick with AVID for the editing. Some visual effects work was tried out on a particular scene where there is a confontation between Auriga and the Emperor, whilst the voices were given a check over. David has loads of different ring-modulator plug ins and we tried the MoogerFooger one with some success. However as others have found the answer is in the original performance of the dalek voices. All three of the trio have tried the dalek voices and we've yet to convincingly make the final effect divorce from the known voice of the actor. More work there! Perhaps we need volunteers to come and voice the daleks! Nick Briggs where are you??? Having said that we actually want to make good dalek voices from within our own group if possible as it's more of an achievement for us then!!!
28 February 2006
Brighton Modelworld 2006A brief note from Ashley who would like to express his thanks for the half-conversations he had with the excellent members of the Dalek Builders Guild who had a stand at the recent Brighton Modelworld exhibition. Ashley had gone along with his elder son Adam who is really into trains, but daleks less so (with a couple at home we imagine they're not quite as unusual as they would be to other kids). So for the short while Ashley managed to speak to Stuart, Steve, Dale et al he would like to thank them and to wish them all continued success in their building endeavours. The half conversations were so because young Adam wanted to drag his Dad back over to an N-gauge railway he'd liked!
The aluminium-turned dalek artifacts were superb and in conversation with the builder (whose name has been lost to the mists of time in Ashley's raddled memory) that metal dalek project seems one worth watching indeed. The other daleks on show and the other attractions such as the cyber head and the K9 were simply excellent - well done to all concerned. A great bunch and great ambassadors all of them for our continued enthusiasm in this wierd and wonderful TV show. Ashley has a few pics from the show which may gravitate towards the site eventually.
24 February 2006
ContinuityWe had a great email to the site from Luke... he wrote...
guys! You site is great! And the project sounds brill. I was just going to ask, out of interest,you story is set part way through the second doctor's regeneration right? But could you tell me how you would fit the new second doctor novilisation world game in to the setup. Maintaining continuity.
Here's the blurb: The Doctor has been captured and put on trial by his own people - accused of their greatest crime: interfering with the affairs of other peoples and planets. He is sentenced to exile on Earth. That much is history. But now the truth can be told - the Doctor did not go straight into exile. First the Time Lords have a task for him. From the trenches of the Great War to the terrors of the French Revolution, the Doctor finds himself on a mission he does not want with a companion he does not like, his life threatened at every turn. Will the Doctor survive to serve his sentence? Or will this adventure prove to be his Waterloo?
Ashley tries to reply! : Well, it's a poser and it's been on our radar since Terrance Dicks released this story! (it was him wasn't it?) Total credit to the man - the man behind much of the "classic series" tales. And it's fair to say that the unseen-by-television transition between the 2nd and 3rd Doctors is a very tempting story to tell. We're not surprised in the slightest that we're not alone in telling a version of the events.
Maybe it also depends on how you fit the novels into the canon of Dr Who. Certainly they're more "canon" than a mere amateur video tale, but conversely we did use Jon Pertwee in the role of the 3rd Doctor, so does that make it real? If for the sake of argument you say ours is a real story to be fit into the chronology then the moment that the 2nd Doctor is extracted from his timestream would be crucial - it could happen just at the moment Terrance Dicks' tale is about to convert him to the 3rd Doctor. To be fair I (Ashley) haven't read this story so I really must do so asap...(In Devious he is extracted during the point where he chooses his new face in front of the 3 judges)
Also we could always use the "alternate universe" strategy - doesn't the new series have an alternate earth for the forthcoming Cybermen story...??? hmm not sure.
So unless anyone can place exactly the point at which Devious branches out and gives the mantle of Doctor to an interim, a half-finished model with sketchy memories put in place to perform a specific task for Auriga we'll have to assume ours is an alternative tale.
In fact at one stage Auriga actually dangles the prospect of reality to this Interim Doctor. He says in episode 5 that if he can dig Auriga out of his mess then he can get to be the "real Doctor". (Although that has also been seen as a recognition in the script of the "fake" nature of the whole thing!)
An alternative story, told from the present time about an episode in the Doctor's past. And like a lot of stories the details can become vague. Did it really happen? Were you there?
As we always say, it's just a bit of fun!
10 February 2006
website improvementsAt last we've managed to make a few changes to the website. Apologies that the news page was missing for a while, and as you can see you've missed nothing, although we may have something interesting for you soon! (hmm?) The "email us" bit is now "say hello" - well why not - and we've the first of many polls for you to vote on - the first being the rather obvious "who's your favourite Doctor" - go on - have a go! we hope you like the tidied-up site - we've some more designs for the top of the website pages to add and we may also add some new sections to the site...(Printing out a page may not work for a bit yet, although the site should function in firefox and on the MAC now) See you soon
07 February 2006
2006 filming
Well, we'd like to!
We've some modelwork to complete and film and if the weather is good and we feel like reshooting one particular scene then we will attempt to get 8 daleks to some countryside somewhere to film another ambush. However that does seem unlikely seeing as we have more than enough work to do on the existing footage! And anyway - after the modelwork we've FINISHED!!!David is busy with work at present and is hoping to return to the edit, whilst Ashley hasn't done a great deal of set-building this winter. Both David and Ashley have become fathers again recently and families as always take up most of their time - rightly so!
