Iain McClumpha writes:

Got a surprise yesterday when The Archives of Phryne came. I was expecting that to come in a couple of weeks so a huge thanks for that!

Production-wise, this is the best yet. Barely any obvious 2D animation, and some lovely scenes aboard the Dalek saucer at the start. The skin maps work well, and the clothing doesn’t break up. The lip-synch’s great, making it much easier on the eye. If this is anything to go by, Abslom Daak will be special.

The whole production seemed much more dense and solid this time around. However, for me, the standout moment had to be your Thunderbirds send-up, from the spoofed theme tune to the sliding pool and typically Anderson launch procedure.

Thanks again for Archives... Excellent.

David Rance writes:

Just to thank you once again for a hugely entertaining disc (and to thank you for not going too wild with the designs, as TV21 did the further on the Dalek strips went).

Your work gets better and better and is very much appreciated in this household. My wife can leave our son and I alone for a while enjoying the exploits of the Daleks, while she gets on with the "important" things.......

All the best with the future projects.

Chris Avery writes:

Wow !! Lip synched!! That makes an incredible difference. We have really enjoyed all your productions, but the mouth movement has been the only thing that we felt was missing (although we totally understood the limitations of a non commercial production) but now....

Really looking forward to Abslom Daak. Do we get his Martian and Draconian associates in the first one (I don't remember)?

Any plans to do any more 8th Doctor stories ? As there is only the one visual Production (or two if you include yours) this is an area that would really benefit from your attention (how about a short original production covering the end of the Time War and the regeneration?)

Looking forward to whatever you produce next!

Roger AKA Black Dalek writes:

What can you say that has not been said before: they just get better and better and this one is a cracker with full lip synch as well. Brilliant

It has to be one of the darkest stories so far. I love the way the Black Dalek is taking the lead in this one. First he shows intuition by noticing something wrong, but cannot put his plunger on it. Then, once found out, the very ruthlessness of the Daleks comes out. All I needed was the Black dalek saying, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"

Glad I do not live there is all I can say.

As for the extra - Excellent! I nearly wet myself it was so funny, I will not spoil it for others but it still makes me smile.

Nick Mellish writes:

The Archives of Phyrne is one of the bleaker episodes in the Dalek Chronicles saga; it concerns the Daleks attacking a hidden planet in a bid to gain weaponry to use in their oncoming battle with the Mechanoids. Whilst the Daleks invading a planet for information or simply to ruffle a few feathers and kill some folk is nothing new, here everything appears to be that bit nastier.

The Phrynians are petrified that they will be discovered, attacking the Daleks and hiding their information as best they can; this desperation is what adds the darkness to the story, with them willing to even die so the Daleks never learn the truth. It all feels a lot grittier than some of the previous stories, and gives The Dalek Chronicles a rather harsh edge, something that has been mostly absent in the previous stories. Whether or not this is necessarily a good thing is questionable— it certainly reinforces the notion that the Daleks are ruthless killers, but it seems at odds with the rather light-hearted stories that have popped up before it. The Daleks are shown to be merciless and intelligent throughout, from the mass extermination of the Phrynians to the use of their unfortunately named vibration machine (ooh-err!)

Whatever the case may be, the series never really strayed into territory quite as bleak as here, so as a one-off it sticks out for better or worse.

I must confess that it all seems too much of an oddity to me and that it is one of my least favourite stories in the series, and yet the animated adaptation by Altered Vistas is, once again, fantastic.

These animated adaptations have come a long, long way since Genesis of Evil. The earlier adaptations are terrific fun, but they feel a lot like tele-snap reconstructions; nice stills matched with the occasional burst of movement. There is certainly nothing wrong with this at all, and the results are very impressive, but watching these later stories just hits home how far they have come in terms of realisation.

The animation now is amazingly fluid, with the lip-sync being spot on for the most part and the movement being very rarely jerky (only one shot, of the Controller and Saf running as seen from behind, doesn’t quite work, but even that looks more than passable).

There are some terrifically peachy shots in this instalment too.

One that springs to mind is the launch of the Phrynian missiles; after a launch that reminds you of Thunderbirds, they shoot into the sky impressively and then, even better, the camera pulls back to reveal it is all being watched on a screen: it really does look great, and shows how a nice, subtle effect works wonders when pulled off well.

Another impressive sequence occurs when the Daleks go on an exterminating rampage; the dying Phrynians are very well animated, and one shot involving a victim falling off a roof after being killed looks very nice indeed.

As always, the lighting is very nice. There is a wonderfully subtle lighting effect when the Controller is watching the missiles being launched, and you can make out the panels’ lights flickering off his face. The shots of the Daleks looming in their own spaceship also work well, making it all very moody.

The directing is good too, with some nice cross-fades between scenes and, as mentioned above, a few imaginative deaths that work very well.

The acting is again universally great, with the partnership of Saf and the Controller (played by Aaron J. Climas and Stuart Palmer respectively) really working well. The Dalek voices are again good, with the modulation this time being a tad reminiscent of the Death to the Daleks voices at times, something matched with the silver casings of the Dalek troops.

To be honest though, the thing that probably impressed me the most in this instalment was the frankly marvellous sound design; the music is very subtle and nicely underscores the action, and the voices are mixed into the action very well, not seeming like they have been arranged from a patchwork of different sources and blending together with the pictures nicely.

To top this all off, as a bonus there is a video for the truly awful Roberta Tovey song Who’s Who. Oh boy. Any song that claims the Doctor looks at home sitting on a horse deserves a mention, but not in a good way. The video is also terrifying and will no doubt be giving me nightmares for months to come.

At the end of this story, Saf says “Yesterday is dead; we must build for tomorrow.” I guess the same can be said for the adaptations; the old style is gone and the newer one is coming on in leaps and bounds. I for one cannot wait until the next episode.

John and David Anderson write:

What can I say... David (my son) and I just watched the The Archives of Phyrne"which arrived today.

It was apparent immediately that once again you have raised the already high standards of the productions to new levels. The speech synchronisation was perfect throughout the production and the colours brighter and detailed with clarity that is of superb quality.

The story telling was exactly what we have come to expect from you - clear, concise and totally faithful to the TV21 graphic. The Dalek rendition was smooth, clear and totally authentic with the sound balanced and distinctively (proper Dalek voices as I remember them!) clear.

I hope you realise how much enjoyment you give - my son cannot believe the turn round times and he feels very fortunate that we came upon your website.

Once again many thanks.

Alan Boyd writes:

I watched the disc last night, and as expected saw another polished production... and unless I'm mistaken a sound-a-lot-like Thunderbirds music and sliding pool in-joke to boot.

Nice touch!

Keep up the good work...

Robert Barclay writes:

I've now watched The Archives of Phryne, twice, and think it's great!

It's quite a bleak story, with the Daleks seeming a bit nastier than usual, and has a fairly downbeat ending too. But it shows some of the range encompassed by the comic strips, and acts as a reminder that the stories were written by the Doctor Who script editor and so weren't just bits of throwaway stuff for little kids.

On the technical side, the animation of human figures just gets better, with the lip-synch being particularly good. Most of the movement is fine, with only the odd moment (running, usually) acting as a reminder that this isn't being done on a commercial scale - like the CGI Captain Scarlet, for instance.

Speaking of Gerry Anderson, I loved the brief musical nod...

...and, on the subject of small digressions, I'm beginning to suspect your long-standing association with the Daleks has brought some of their time-travel technology your way. The time between me posting my blank disc and receiving it back was less than any reasonable estimate of the time is takes for a package to make it through the postal system twice. Therefore, logically, you must have turned it round in a negative amount of  time.

Unfortunately, I appreciate it takes large amounts of real time to animate each story, so I'll just have to be patient until the Rogue Planet makes its way to us on Earth.

In the meantime, thanks for another really enjoyable story.

Alan MacKenzie writes:

Regarding The Archives of Phryne, received last week, I enjoyed your latest very much indeed. Every successive episode brings further refinements of technique and this is the "smoothest" so far, both in terms of the characters' movement and the speech lip-synch.

The Daleks of course, are brilliant as always and their "upgrading" to movie-style casings is very effective. I liked the various different accents employed for the Phrynians and had quite a chuckle at the classic R.A.F. accent of the Interceptor Squadron Leader.

Now looking forward to Rogue Planet!

Andrew Panero writes:

Those poor Phrynians: they don't stand a chance from the time the Black Dalek decides to have a closer look at their moon. In what is arguably one of the darker stories in the series, the Daleks win and for once it isn't against someone almost as bad as themselves. What is perhaps even more extraordinary is that there was no follow up story to this one where the Phrynians throw off the Dalek yoke, no feel-good reconstruction of events. The Phrynians are outmanoeuvred all the way and the only comfort they can draw on is that the Daleks still have their work cut out extracting information from them. One must assume that they haven't invented the mind probe yet as one of the Daleks refers quite happily to torturing people to get information, which sounds more like the old fashioned way to me.

As promised Stuart delivers full lip sync in this, the tenth release from Altered Vistas. The result is pretty impressive and the new, more mobile faces convey a great deal of emotion as well. Stuart still needs to work on what you might call anthropic movement, if you were a Dalek. There is one particularly memorable scene where Saf and the Controller are running down a corridor. Their bodies jiggle up and down comically whilst the background rushes past in true Hanna Barbara style. But I don't want to dwell on Stuart's faults because his successes with this series are so impressive.

I also really enjoyed the squadron leader voices of the Phrynian fighter pilots and the Thunderbirds pun that Stuart slipped in with dart-shaped planes emerging from underneath a swimming pool.

I believe Stuart rated this a 'U', but there is one fantastically grisly scene in which the Daleks attack the Phrynians with a nerve gas which blisters the skin and causes unstoppable shaking. This seems very similar to the gas that was used on Resurrection of the Daleks to take out the space-station crew.

This is the first time we see the Daleks in an all-out invasion in this series; true they do attack and destroy Alvega and almost get away with invading Solturis, but we've never seen them actually pull off a full blown invasion before this. It's amazing how effective just one saucer full of Daleks can be against a technologically advanced civilisation. I guess the Daleks probably prefer to invade planets with recognisably humanoid inhabitants for this very reason, at least they know where they stand with them, but with vicious plants they're totally in the dark.

This was also the last planet they would invade in the series, for after the Mechanoid story arc the remaining stories are set exclusively on Skaro with minor excursions to neighbouring planets. We are well past the halfway mark with this story, so the possibility of the entire series being adapted by Mr. Palmer certainly looks do-able.

Guy Newmountain writes:

Stuart, sorry it's taken me this long to say thanks for AV10 - it's fantastic and lives up to your usual standard!

Hopefully (for you) the work gets easier as I imagine you must be able to reuse/recolour or adapt the Dalek models you have already?

But it still defies belief how you can churn sophisticated animations of this length out every two to three months!
I wonder if you had considered (perhaps towards completion of the final chronicles a few years ahead - I know that's major wishful thinking!) approaching some TV channels (Sci-fi or CBBC) because what you will have completed is at least one (if not several) series' worth of shows - you could make a fortune, lad, if you got     BBC- endorsed backing - and they'd be insane to say no with Doctor Who at its highest popularity in decades!

I can hear that exacting perfectionist mind of yours sighing "No, they'd tear it apart, the earlier chapters aren't lip-synced", or  "the figures in motion let it down a bit", but the point is it's DALEKS that the kids will go mad for - and these stories are meticulously faithful adaptations of timeless originals that actually  improve with each episode.

Or, (dare I even insult your intelligence by suggesting this because it's truly unthinkable!) - once the job is done, if you had the  luxury of time and you knew the series had been commissioned on the strength of the later chapters, would it be possible even to go back and amend those scenes for which you have now developed the expertise to improve them in a way you could not have at the start?

I'll shut up now and countdown to Abslom Daak and Princess Taiyin.

Steve Swales writes:

I’d forgotten how the original stories went and was expecting a Mechanoid-Dalek battle in this one. However, instead of metal-on-metal hostilities we get a good old fashioned bloodbath with vulnerable humanoid flesh being on the receiving end – hooray!

Yes, mass exterminations, mutilations by acid and suicide – all in perfect lip-sync – we haven’t had so much   on-screen Dalek ultraviolence since Resurrection. The bleakness is made all the more effective by being prefaced by some good gags earlier in the episode, so that when it does hit it’s a real shocker.

The production values here are what really bring this episode to life. On paper the original Chronicle doesn’t seem all that special, but just like  AV09, AV10 kicks arse. In fact in general, the Altered Vista productions are starting to take on a life of their own outside of the comic’s inspiration, which is probably just as well as I don’t recall the latter half of the Chronicles as being as memorable as the first. However that may be because I’d spent most of the time trying to decipher Ron Turner’s artwork instead of paying attention to the plots.

This episode is so good that I didn’t even miss my misremembered Mechanoid-Dalek battle. Those big hyped-up “robot”(sic.) wars are always a bit anticlimactic anyway; look at Doomsday ;-)

Extras: THAT Tovey song: – evidence enough that they got the wrong Susan as well as the wrong Doctor in those movies. Kitsch beyond the pain threshold but the absolutely hilarious Terry Gilliam-eque animation from Mr. Palmer makes you forget your agony.

Jonny D writes:

A war with the Mechonoids is imminent, and the Daleks go off in search for new technology and weapons. They strike gold and find an archive of immense size, with knowledge of a whole galaxy, but the people of the archives have a cunning way to hide their secrets which parallels with the classic 60s film Fahrenheit 451.

Stuart has excelled himself with the production of the episode, gathering and mixing quality audio effects and vocal performances (even a space ship pilot who sounds just like John Cleese). As always the space scenes are imaginative, beautiful, and action packed, the battle scenes on the planet are full of destruction and mayhem, with a few gory effects, and the Daleks in this are indeed very menacing towards their victims.

Thanks to everyone who was involved with this production, you all did a fantastic job which I fully enjoyed watching.

Retrorobot writes:

Prog. 1:  The Archives of Phryne    (21:35)

        2:  Who's Who  <bonus>

     (animation for) Roberta Tovey's 'Who's (Doctor) Who'    (2:44)

Prog. 2 review:  "Was Who?"  ("everything old is old again")

Mercifully brief, Stuart's second foray into preserving those embarrassing 60s kidsongz, 'Who's Who' is as lightly animated as his hilarious version of the classic "I'm Gonna Spend My Xmas Money On A Dalek", but lacks the Wit & Daleks! 

The song itself is funny(for-all-the-wrong-reasons)enough I spose.  We do get to see Cushing & Hartnell "face-off"' (although they don't do the "Bowlingball-Bounce" the way that Mars & Venus do!) and this of course reveals the true meaning of the song (Yes - there Is one!).  Depending on Who(sorry) you ask, both The Daleks and Doctor Who are defined by whether one was a TvSeries-fan or a DalekMovies-fan.  So whilst we don't get to see Peter Cushing & William Hartnell "canon" off each other, there's still the question of Whos...

In summary, Cushing's from Mars, Tovey's from Venus and Dr.Who's from Gallifrey, but this song's from Uranus!

Prog. 1 review:  "The Archivistrons of Phunny"

Opening with a reprise of the Golden(Award)Emperor's hit comedy-speech* from the end of 'Eve Of The Tour':  >>PRE.PARE.FOR..GAL.AC.TIC..TOUR...<<  –  this ep quickly launches in to original-script'authentic' dialogue up to the end of page 1 (thence the famous AV-DCsTheme) – save for some cheeky ad-libbing of >>PRE.PARE.TO..AT.TACK!!<< by Black Dalek (and his sychophantic chorus chanting >>AT.TACK..AT.TACK!!<<) just to beef(or-ham)up the Cliffhanger.

[* anyone who doesn't get the oh-so sophisticated joke about "Searching the Skies for the (comic)Inventions of Other Races" just isn't a Dalek ]

Meanwhile, halfway up a Cliff, we see the OfficeBox of the Phunnyones 'BookingComptroller', who, eager not to be upstaged by the Daleks, does a bit of ad-libbing of his own when ApprenticeComic "Naf" rushes onstage with exciting news.

The Daleks have sent Galactic-TalentScouts out to canvass the "12 Skies"* for vital data on comedy for to repair their tragic loss of a Sense-of-Humour.

[* known-worlds, stellar-divisions or planetary-regions not specified, but, being a comedy-routine, inevitably has something to do with 'pi' ]

Despite the fact that many SentientSpecies find Dalex hilarious (until they actually Meet some) the 'Dullhicks' just don't get the joke (nor do they understand why we find Toy Daleks "cute").

They have discovered that the Planet Phunny is a repertoirepository of the Comic traditions of "over a hundred planets" and serves to provide the Official Panels Of Judges for ComedyFestivals all over the 'Infotainment Universe'.  Despite being "mooned" by Phunny's only visible satellite, the Daleks interpret this classic humanoid joke as a feeble attempt to hide their planet ( the physics-ignoring likes of which would not be seen again until Gorge Lucasaide's 'Raw Rats 3 : Spite Of The Sis’ – see also ‘…2 : Bout Of The Clowns’ & ‘…1 : The Puny Menace' ).

Stuart kindly gives "young Naf" and the 'Comptroller' some more further extra dialogue to help round out the scene and to set up the next one they will appear in (listening in on the Dalek gag-writing team working on their script:  >>OH.WE'LL.KILL.'EM..WIV.DIS.ONE..EH?...YOU!..THAT.DA.LEK.THERE..STOP.GIG.GLE.ING..AND.RE.PORT..ON.WHE.THER.OR.NOT..

THIS.SKIT.IS..FUN.NY!!<<  'Search-Me'Leader reports on (laughter)"frequency9087D.A.C."(DalekAudioComedy) as instructed, but the Phunnyones are still listening-in and order out a squad of Theatrical Agents to "Deal" with the Daleks and corner them in an Advantageous Contract.

Meanwhile, the Dalek Cast determinedly continue ad-libbing* in the background just to prove that their Stage-Presence is just as annoying (and funny) Stage-off as on.

[* to the effect {with Dalekomedy-translations}:  >>ONCE {(solar)BOOKING} SYSTEM IS REVEALED WE WILL {(attack)AUDITION}, {(enslave)PERFORM} AND RETURN WITH ALL THE {(weapons-technology)COMIC-TECHNIQUES} THAT WE CAN FIND... WE WILL BE {(victorious)HILARIOUS}!<< ]

The Phunnyone Theatrical Agents launch their 'BookingOpportunity-InterceptorSquadron' (distastefully located beneath a TVC21-copyright* ceremonial Phunny Gazing Pond**) with the unforgettable parting-shot of:  "Squadron blowing-off for interdiction of 'Loony-Tuners'!".  Their SkyRay!(Lollypop-Red)Rocketships shine tastily in the smug, bluesky-atmosphere of the BookingOffice screening-room.

[* now we know what planet Gerry Anderson came from! ]

[** not for looking at things Under the water, but for preening themselves in the Reflection from its mirroring surface, plus the inevitable humorous distortions caused by gentle wave-action ]

The Daleks have, as usual, Calculated/Plotted/Schemed a Plan (and concomitant Device) for making themselves the Galactic'LaughingStock'*

[* Daleks still haven't quite gotten the hang of Theatrical Terminology! ]

They've invented a Vibration Machine ('Vibratron') for tickling audiences' FunnyBones on a Planetary scale.  Unfortunately, Daleks don't have 'funnybones' so their calibrations are off the scale.  Nonetheless all the Phunny InterceptSquadron's Agents 'get it' – save one who goes under the gag entirely.  It is his review of the 'Dalek Comicals' that causes their Show to 'crash&burn' and crushes the Daleks left out in the cold.

The ones safely on board the Dalek-Bandwagon bravely Soldier-on, with only Naf spoiling the moment by adding the corny old line:  "Then let us hope he did not die in vain".  However, news arrives that the 'Bandwagon Of Tha Daalex' has had a breakthrough with the hiring of Phunny's own 'Invisibility Band' (trading on their Silent Hit "No Hear This").

The Phunnyone BookingOffice-Comptroller orders the activation of the "Acting Rays" in the hope of improving the Daleks' performance before the unreasonably high standards of the Phunny audience.  He goes on (and on) the Public Screens to alert the population to the need to Surrender to the Dalekshow and not to Resist the Dalex attempt to Win them over.  Typical of Phunny humour he warns them of danger "in the sky above us" and then goes on to say "go about normally" and "do not panic" (by which time he's been drowned out by the screams & clamour of the rioting populace).  The Comptroller leaves them with another typical Phunny statement:  "My face is with you" and leaves the Screens on "still-frame".

Showing themselves to be fast-pacers through the Theatrical-LearningCurve, the Dalex inject more dialogue of their own into the scene (about how "cleverer still" they are – and even "brillianter moving" i presume) and then proceed to eschew acting-lessons (>>DA.LEKS.ARE..HOT.E.NOUGH..ALL.READY!<<) and counter the 'Acting Rays' with SkyRay'GammaBeta'{Lime-Blueberry}Ice-lollies.  The Comptroller claims he is not "hurt" by this, but the true bitterness of his feelings is revealed when he glumly admits that "we can't stop them winning now!"

To the hysterical screams of Phunny-DalekFans the Dalek-Bandwagon lands amidst Phunny Security to prevent them being mobbed by PlungerGraph-hunters and rogue-BookingAgents.

Meanwhile Naf & the Comptroller are making a feast of it up in the OfficeBox.  Presumably a backwash from the Acting Rays has sent them into Thespic-Overdrive as they volubly bemoan their fate until Naf has the bright idea of using the Revolving Atrium to turn the tables on the Daleks' act.  But the sudden appearance of the Dalek-StageManager throws the Comptroller off his mark sufficiently to have him fumble his lines, ending-up lamely with:  "Uh, how did you get up here?"  Ignoring the implied 'handicap-prejudice' of this remark and not falling for his ploy* the Dalek orders him to disqualify the other Contestants.

[ * and wasting time with responses like:  >>I started as a Stagehand{plunger} and worked my ticket up to Prompt, then to Head of the Props Department, from where I stabbed my way up the backs of others on the Ladder-to-Success until I became StageManager....after that I will become an Empresario, retire to a country bunker and grow Germanimums and Arkellis-flowers<< ]

The Comptroller, playing for time, foolishly asks a Dalek: "Who are you to condemn us to second place?"!  Naturally he gets the usual earful in reply:  >>WE.ARE.THA..DAAA.LEX!...WE.ARE.THE..SU.PREME.CO.MICSs..OF.THE..U.NI.VERRRRSE!!<< 

(It's all in the Timing y'know!)

The Daleks want the Phunnyones to surrender their Humorous Stagecraft, their 'InDerisability-Shield' and all other Comic Inventions.  The Comptroller objects to giving up their tricks, for without them:  "...if we go on Stage, we'll Die!"  The Dalek is, naturally, an unsympathetic audience.

Speaking of which, the Dalek Show, whilst a Big Hit on Planet Phunny, is having a tough time with Their audience.  The Phunnyones aren't buying the >>LAUGH!...LAUGH..OR.YOU.WILL.BE..EX.TER.MIN.ATED!!<< routine and the MeteorShower-Joke is a washout and bombing badly.  The Comptroller points out to the Dalek that they "cannot slay them" and that the only ones 'laying in the isles' are corpses.

It is revealed (dramatically of course) that the Phunny World was invented by Ray Bradbury and in true 'Farenheit451'-fashion the Phunnyones keep no written records (Actors, being what they are, typically keep lousy paperwork) nor recordings (Actors, not being technicians, etc...) and, being inordinately proud of their prodigious memorization-abilities, have "all that stuff" filed away in their noggins.  The Dalek-StageManager is intrigued by this notion and experimentally drops the Comptroller on his head to see if his brain is full of filing cards.  This, after all, is all one can do with Prominent Humanoids who start wibbling-on about "Honour and Dignity" in complete contravention of both original script and the Geneva Accords*.

[* look for 'The Accords Of Geneva' a new Epic-Dalekronicle from AlteredEgopictures/McClumphantComix/ZegProduktions – available on all disreputable 'Despicable-DalekLovers' sites anytime then! ]

Whilst the Dalex clean-up at the Box Office, the humiliated Phunny writing-team have quit Mainstream Comedy and gone Underground, never to be heard from again.  A proper fate for those who cannot see the funny side* of Daleks – serves them right!

[* which, for those who need to be told, is their Right side – the one with the Plunger... especially when it's lined up with the Gunstick so's it looks like the Plunger is firing DeathRays – hilarious! (to Dalex) ]