The Talking Oak's Popular Victoriana Compendium: wells

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Monday, 26 October 2015

Chapter 20 - Murdoch Mysteries

Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian crime drama currently in it's 9th season. Based on a series of novels written by Maureen Jennings it follows the adventures of late 19th Century (early 20th Century in later seasons) Toronto Detective William Murdoch (played by Yannick Bisson).

While most of the crimes Murdoch solves involve ordinary criminals, several of his cases have involved teaming up with notable personalities of the era, including: Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Emma Goldman, Jack London, Alexander Graham Bell, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh and, of course, a host of Canadian personalities. He has saved the life of Queen Victoria and captured Jack The Ripper. The show doesn't take itself too seriously with some Steampunk elements creeping into the show, including death rays and killer German robots but it is well written and it's fun to see all the historical characters mix it up with Bisson's Murdoch who is a likable and charismatic lead.

I have to admit I haven't seen the show since the end of series 5 (The end of the 19th Century) so I can't comment on how well it covers the Edwardian period but for the early seasons are an easy recommendation for fans of Victorian Detectives.

Buy Murdoch Mysteries Box sets:

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Chapter 10: Google Doodles

Today's post was inspired by simply opening my browser today and seeing the really cool Google Doodle about water on Mars. So here, dear reader, are some awesome Victorian era based doodles for your viewing pleasure.You can find these and more in the doodle archive. :)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 208th Birthday (6th March 2014 - UK and Ireland only)

Ada Lovelace's 197th Birthday (10 December 2013)

175th anniversary of the Penny Black stamp (1 May 2015)

Charles Dickens 200th Birthday (7 February 2012)

Birthday of H.G. Wells (21 September 2009)

Bram Stoker's 165th Birthday (8 November 2012)

Edvard Grieg's 172th Birthday (15th June 2015 - Scandinavia only)

Sunday, 20 September 2015

Chapter 3: The Doctor & The Queen

Doctor Who returned to our screens last night so this is a nice opportunity to talk about some of the long running show’s trips to the Victorian Period.

I was born in 1982 and grew up with the final few years of the classic series. While I remember some of the Colin Baker years I really became a fan when Sylvester McCoy took over in 1987 (and he remains my Doctor). One of the stories that stuck with me for the rest of my life was the 1883 based Ghost Light (1989) writen by Marc Platt.

It is an incredibllly complex tale of fear and evolutiuon set in a gothic house under the control of an alien intelligence. The performances are excellent and the sets and costumes are beautiful by the standards of the 1980s. I would say this is one of the stories that people who only know the post 2005 series should check out.

This was not the Doctor's first trip to the period. Patrick Troughton battled the Victorian inventers of a time machine who had teamed up with his deadliest foes in 1967s (now sadly missing) The Evil of the Daleks. Tom Baker doned Sherlock Holmes' Dearstalker and faced another time traveling threat on the streets of post Jack the Ripper London in 1977's The Talons of Weng-Chiang. An excellent story that introducted the characters of Jago & Litefoot who would go on to have an equeally excellent series of audio plays from Big Finish.

And, of course, the Doctor has met some of the more prominent figers of the age.

In 1985's Timelash, Colin Baker's version of the Time Lord met a young H.G. Wells (played by David Chandler) taking him into the future and inspiring the writing of The Time Machine.

Picture from the Tardis Data Core

When the series was rebooted in 2005, Christopher Eccleston hunted ghosts with the ade of Charles Dickens (played by the wounderful Simon Callow) in the Mark Gatiss (One of my favourite Writers of Who) penned The Unquiet Dead.

A year later, the then showrunner, Russell T Davies had David Tennent meet Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins) in the Warewolf themed Tooth and Claw, a title that is, of course, taken from Tennyson's 1850 poem In Memoriam A.H.H.

Both Matt Smith and the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, would later go on to have more adventures set in the period with the absolutely wonderful Paternoster Gang. I may return to Doctor Who in the future to fully cover some of these adventures.

But I hope the tradtion of Victoriana in the series continues because there are many intresting events that the Time Lord could visit and people he could meet.