Friday, 29 October 2010

Doctor Who Live

Doctor Who Live
M.E.N.
23.10.2010

The Manchester Evening New stadium played host to Doctor Who Live last weekend.

Be warned - this report contains big spoilers for the show, so if you'd rather not know, look away now.


The live orchestra was present on the stage throughout the show.

The mysterious Ood were the first monsters to be seen. They heralded the arrival of The Magnificent Vorgenson (played by Nigel Planer).


Vorgenson is the son of Vorg, who ran 'The Carnival of Monsters' before it was shut down by the Third Doctor. New technology allows Vorgenson to pluck monsters from the Doctor's adventures and use them in his show.

Scarecrows emerged to scare the audience.

An impressive solo spot.

The Silurians came from beneath the ground (or from under the stage).


Winston Churchill (Nick Briggs) appeared and asked for a telephone to summon the Doctor. On finding he was in the future, he asked who won the war but the knowledge was forbidden.

The Doctor answers the call!

...but he is not too pleased to see what Vorgenson is up to.

The Judoon are dispatched to track down the Time Lord. Perhaps he is hiding in the audience...?

Meanwhile, the house lights go on and some police enter the arena to investigate. Unfortunately, one by one, they fall victim to the sinister Weeping Angels.



The Doctor finds himself trapped in Vorgenson's machine!


Vorgenson continues to show off his pet monsters. Here he is with the Vampires of Venice.

The extraordinary Clockwork Monsters.


More weird aliens ran amok, terrifying the audience...

...but were eventually hunted down.

Lots of snippets from the Doctor's adventures were displayed on the big screen.

Things got a whole lot more monstrous when the Cybermen appeared in force.

The silver giants did unspeakable things to a member of the public.

The Doctor (appearing via prerecorded snippets) looked on in horror as the masterminds behind the whole plan eventually revealed themselves...

The Doctor's past lives appeared briefly on the screen...



The 10th Doctor got the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

The Daleks! Their new design looked good on the stage. Vorgenson's life was in great danger.



Hands up who wants a full set of these for Christmas?

Just when it looks like the Daleks have won the day, help comes from an unexpected source - the Cybermen! A shoot-out swiftly followed...

Foes defeated, it looked like the Doctor had won the day against the odds. There was one final surprise though...a flying white Dalek!

With the help of the audience's synchronised shout of 'Geronimo!', the Dalek is destroyed.


Vorgenson, shown the error of his ways, survived and the monsters are all released from the machine. It's time for the TARDIS to head off for adventures new...

The plot is very thin, acting mostly as bridging material between showing off the monsters and it's aimed squarely at the family audience but it was all great fun and well worth seeing.

Rumour has it another show is on the pipeline for 2011...

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