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Post by Cyggy on Apr 8, 2022 15:56:51 GMT
Please discuss Harry Sullivan - and Ian Marter - here.....
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Post by GC on Jun 15, 2022 4:10:39 GMT
I rather liked Harry, old school, bit of a blunderer but endearing with it, quite a personable chap really, Ian Marter played him very well. It's a pity they never kept the character on till at least the end of season 13.
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Post by GC on Jun 15, 2022 4:15:22 GMT
A couple of bits with Ian Marter.
Doctor Who- Ian Marter Interview WHYY Spotlight
Some Q&A thing with Ian at a convention in Philadelphia back in '84. His stuff starts up around 2:01 in and ends (I think) at 10:58-ish.
"The Doctor is in Philadelphia" convention WHYY 1984 Dr. Who special
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Post by rapscallion on Jun 15, 2022 8:54:31 GMT
I rather liked Harry, old school, bit of a blunderer but endearing with it, quite a personable chap really, Ian Marter played him very well. It's a pity they never kept the character on till at least the end of season 13. I remember being really confused as a kid that he wasn't around for Planet Of Evil and Pyramids Of Mars, but was in Terror Of The Zygons and The Android Invasion. Personally, I think the production team missed a trick by Harry being dropped. Not only was he a great companion, he also had an electric rapport with Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker, both on and off screen. It would've been cool for Harry to have stuck around with the Doctor and Sarah, with both departing at the end of The Hand Of Fear and a big old hint at romance between the two of them as they left. For me that would've been a far better departure for Sarah at the end of The Hand Of Fear, not the jarring one that I found her actual departure to be.
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Post by Future-Diver on Jun 15, 2022 10:07:37 GMT
I rather liked Harry, old school, bit of a blunderer but endearing with it, quite a personable chap really, Ian Marter played him very well. It's a pity they never kept the character on till at least the end of season 13. I remember being really confused as a kid that he wasn't around for Planet Of Evil and Pyramids Of Mars, but was in Terror Of The Zygons and The Android Invasion. Personally, I think the production team missed a trick by Harry being dropped. Not only was he a great companion, he also had an electric rapport with Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker, both on and off screen. It would've been cool for Harry to have stuck around with the Doctor and Sarah, with both departing at the end of The Hand Of Fear and a big old hint at romance between the two of them as they left. For me that would've been a far better departure for Sarah at the end of The Hand Of Fear, not the jarring one that I found her actual departure to be.You really don't like the ending of The Hand Of Fear, do you? I have no problem with it, and don't find it jarring, in fact I love the perfect stillness and quiet of the scene. I'm sure there are some modern fans who would consider it all a bit dry, detached and emotionally unengaging, and I understand that, but to me, the scene is beautiful in it's simplicity - the way Tom delivers the line "Don't you forget me" - is wonderfully understated and says far more than a cliched, weepy farewell would. I think that SJS's departure is perhaps a little rushed, there should have been a bit more build-up to it, but having her depart with Harry wouldn't have fixed this - your suggestion would have created a far bigger problem - the dreaded hint of romance. The suggestion of romantic feelings between original companions Ian and Barbara was handled well, but that worked for those two - there is no need to suggest that Sarah and Harry will pair off in the same way. What does it add? Isn't being close friends good enough? Sorry but I find the idea of introducing a romantic element where none previously existed, a very NuWho way of doing things (Yes, I know that Leela copping off with Andred and staying on Gallifrey was the Classic series doing just the kind of thing I'm complaining about, but I didn't like that either! ). But I agree that Harry was a great companion and I wish we'd seen more of him.
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Post by rapscallion on Jun 15, 2022 17:25:10 GMT
I remember being really confused as a kid that he wasn't around for Planet Of Evil and Pyramids Of Mars, but was in Terror Of The Zygons and The Android Invasion. Personally, I think the production team missed a trick by Harry being dropped. Not only was he a great companion, he also had an electric rapport with Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker, both on and off screen. It would've been cool for Harry to have stuck around with the Doctor and Sarah, with both departing at the end of The Hand Of Fear and a big old hint at romance between the two of them as they left. For me that would've been a far better departure for Sarah at the end of The Hand Of Fear, not the jarring one that I found her actual departure to be.You really don't like the ending of The Hand Of Fear, do you? I have no problem with it, and don't find it jarring, in fact I love the perfect stillness and quiet of the scene. I'm sure there are some modern fans who would consider it all a bit dry, detached and emotionally unengaging, and I understand that, but to me, the scene is beautiful in it's simplicity - the way Tom delivers the line "Don't you forget me" - is wonderfully understated and says far more than a cliched, weepy farewell would. I think that SJS's departure is perhaps a little rushed, there should have been a bit more build-up to it, but having her depart with Harry wouldn't have fixed this - your suggestion would have created a far bigger problem - the dreaded hint of romance. The suggestion of romantic feelings between original companions Ian and Barbara was handled well, but that worked for those two - there is no need to suggest that Sarah and Harry will pair off in the same way. What does it add? Isn't being close friends good enough? Sorry but I find the idea of introducing a romantic element where none previously existed, a very NuWho way of doing things (Yes, I know that Leela copping off with Andred and staying on Gallifrey was the Classic series doing just the kind of thing I'm complaining about, but I didn't like that either! ). But I agree that Harry was a great companion and I wish we'd seen more of him. To be honest, I agree with you on pretty much everything you've written in this post. The reason why I put forward the romantic element was because Harry always seemed to have such a charming affection for Sarah, but I can also see that this could be interpreted as brotherly, or as you say, just simply close friends looking out for each other. I don't think I was coming at this from a New Series angle, I was really just putting that notion forward because I think that they looked great together. But hey, all this is moot, because it never happened. And Leela's departure on Gallifrey WAS dreadful, I agree. If there had been some spark of attraction between Leela and Andred in any of The Invasion Of Time's six episodes it might have been more believable. But at no time was there one, so to force it right at the end was pretty poor.
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 4, 2022 21:51:25 GMT
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Post by GC on Jan 22, 2023 17:43:06 GMT
TPTV have been showing Crown Court and are now up to one with Ian Marter in. Starts tomorrow...
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Post by ant-mac on Jan 23, 2023 3:53:35 GMT
Harry Sullivan was always one of my favourites... I thought he, Sarah and the fourth Doctor made an excellent team. It's such a shame he couldn't have appeared in all the DOCTOR WHO serials between TERROR OF THE ZYGONS and THE ANDROID INVASION as well. And for Ian Marter to die from a diabetic heart attack on his forty-second birthday - presumably in front of his family and friends - is both shocking and tragic. Requiescat in Pace.
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Post by rapscallion on Jan 23, 2023 6:09:17 GMT
Harry Sullivan was always one of my favourites... I thought he, Sarah and the fourth Doctor made an excellent team. It's such a shame he couldn't have appeared in all the DOCTOR WHO serials between TERROR OF THE ZYGONS and THE ANDROID INVASION as well. And for Ian Marter to die from a diabetic heart attack on his forty-second birthday - presumably in front of his family and friends - is both shocking and tragic. Requiescat in Pace. Yeh, Ian Marter was brilliant as Harry. He should've been able to stay on. Just think of what brilliant contributions he could have made to Pyramids Of Mars and (if he remained around past The Android Invasion) The Seeds Of Doom. We never even got to see him actually on board the TARDIS. And his death at such a young age was so sad. He was an extremely gifted writer, a very talented actor, and I would imagine a very kind and clever man.
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Post by Bowties on Jan 29, 2023 15:53:30 GMT
I like Harry.
I read somewhere that he was supposed to be an Ian Chesterton type action companion in case an older Doctor was cast, but when Tom Baker got the role he wasn’t needed for that.
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Post by Black Orchid on Jan 29, 2023 16:40:01 GMT
I like Harry. I read somewhere that he was supposed to be an Ian Chesterton type action companion in case an older Doctor was cast, but when Tom Baker got the role he wasn’t needed for that. "Dicks' formal contract to write Robot wasn't issued until May 23rd. However, he actually began working on it several months earlier, at a time when the new Doctor had yet to be cast. To this point, Dicks and producer Barry Letts had envisaged an older actor for the role. As such, they decided to create a new companion who could handle the physical aspects of the Doctor's adventures, in the vein of Sixties characters such as Ian Chesterton and Jamie McCrimmon. Robot would therefore introduce Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan; the surname Sweetman may also have been considered. Although UNIT was being gradually de-emphasised as a focal point of the Doctor Who format, Harry would still be attached to the organisation, providing an ongoing element of familiarity for sceptical viewers. To play Harry, Letts cast Ian Marter, who had already appeared in 1973's Carnival Of Monsters and who had been Letts' original choice for Mike Yates. Marter and Sarah Jane Smith actress Elisabeth Sladen were both issued twenty-six-episode contracts on April 16th. By this stage, however, the “elderly Doctor” concept had been discarded and forty-year-old Tom Baker cast in the lead role, undercutting Harry's narrative function." www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4a.html
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Post by GC on Sept 13, 2024 15:49:00 GMT
Watched Doctor Faustus (1967) last night and who should turn up in it as a King...
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Post by GC on Sept 15, 2024 17:41:25 GMT
This might go down as one of Heccy's favourite pictures...
Ian Marter throttling Nick Briggs
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Post by heccy on Sept 15, 2024 19:36:10 GMT
This might go down as one of Heccy's favourite pictures...
Ian Marter throttling Nick Briggs And this was before Big Furnish,,,
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