Series 10 Trailer Breakdown

At the end of The Return of Doctor Mysterio we got our first look at Series 10 of Doctor Who. I've taken some screenshots to give us a closer look at what's going on and speculate on what it might be telling us. You should be able to click on the image to see them a bit bigger

Bill says that she "serves chips". Obviously this doesn't tell us much but at least suggest Bill is from a fairly ordinary background like most recent companions. 

The Doctor is some sort of teacher or lecturer here. Maybe Bill is also a student and the chip serving is just a part-time job? That would explain how they end up meeting anyway. Is the Doctor undercover here a la School Reunion?

Nardole is still around. He doesn't appear too much in this trailer but he's certainly present. I would assume he will play a similar small role like in The Return of Doctor Mysterio and maybe doesn't leave the TARDIS in every episode.

An alien/ futuristic city. Looks pretty awesome but no idea what it actually is. 

This is one of many shots showing a historical episode. The Doctor and Bill are in historical dress for it. It's unclear exactly when/where it is but it looks maybe 18th or 19th century. 

A blue-skinned alien. Lots of shots from the trailer appear to be from this futuristic episode where the majority of the cast seem to be in some sort of spacesuit.

It's unclear where the Doctor and Bill are here. It looks to be some sort of vault or catacombs. It's enormous whatever it is.

This appears to be some sort of wooden alien. It looks a lot like the walking trees in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe but it would be odd for them to return.

Smiley robots. These look friendly but I suspect they may end up being rather nasty. Note that their eyes are exclamation marks in this image. 

Very hard to get a clear screenshot of this. There's a big war involving the daleks and someone is thrown against a wall. It looks like a Movellan from Destiny of the Daleks. I might be tempted to suggest that it's just their hair but there are definitely two character in this shot with that hair. Maybe the Movellans are back!

Here's a closer look at those spacesuits from the futuristic episode. It's interesting that no characters are ever shown wearing a helmet so it's not clear why they are all wearing spacesuits. Nardole is here, the only time he's shown outside of the TARDIS in the trailer other than a brief encounter with a dalek.

The Doctor saves a small boy in the historical episode. What on Earth is the Doctor wearing here? It looks like a steampunk spacesuit. Maybe it's a diving suit but why is he wearing it?

Ther Doctor's wearing shades again. There's loads of people in the TARDIS here, more than ten by the looks of it, and they look like they might be monks or something similar. Has the Doctor rescued them? 

The Doctor punches someone! Full on punches them in the face! That's not normal is it? The set and costumes look historical so it is probably from the same episode we've seen a fair bit of. 

The Series looks a lot of fun in my mind and that's bearing in mind it doesn't look like we've seen much of it here. A tiny bit from a contemporary opening episode, a historical 18th/19th century episode, a futuristic in spacesuits episode and dalek war episode.Those last two may be one and the same and it's not clear where the city and the robots fit in either. Still, that's a long way a full series of episodes so there's a lot more to see!

Doctor Who Unlocked: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

The episode is based on the idea of Superman's alter-ego of Clark Kent and indeed Superman images appear in the episode. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and permission for the images was given by Jerry Siegel's family. The creators are then namechecked straight after the credits with Mr. Brock saying that any questions "can be handled by Miss Shuster and Miss Sigel".

The episode is set in New York but most of the external New York street shots were actually filmed in Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria.

On the street you might be able to make out the name of the film being shown at the cinema- it's Mind of Evil, named after the Third Doctor story of that name. Also on the street is Joe's Pizzas which is where Peter Parker worked in Spider-Man 2.

The Doctor references the famous Spider-Man line "With great power comes great responsibility".

The Doctor mentions how he always has invasions at Christmas. This references the various Christmas Specials such as The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride where he has fought off Christmas Day invasions.

This episode follows on from The Husbands of River Song in various ways. Scratch in Husbands has similar physical characteristics and said "I represent the Shoal of the Winter Harmony" which is very similar to the company name Harmony Shoal.

Nardole returns, now with a full body again. In The Husbands of River Song his head was attached to Hydroflax but mention is made that the Doctor reassembled him.

Nardole tells Grant and Lucy about River Song and a night that lasted 24 years- he is referencing the end of The Husbands of River Song where the Doctor takes River to the Singing Towers of Darillium. He also mentions that River died in a library a long time ago. This happened in Forest of the Dead but was a long time ago for the Doctor.

The UNIT soldiers dealing with Harmony Shoal mention Osgood, the British UNIT scientist.

The episode title The Return of Doctor Mysterio is explained in the episode from what Grant calls the Doctor. In Mexico the show is known as 'Doctor Misterio' which Peter Capaldi discovered during the 2014 world tour, much to his delight. Writer Steven Moffat recalled that delight and used in for the episode.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Times Squared

The Brigadier has a much needed holiday after his recent adventures so he takes fiancee Sally and nephew Owain to visit New York. Upon arrival they quickly become embroiled in an alien plot- the Great Intelligence is back and Yeti are in the New York Subway. 

This certainly made for an interesting change to the series. Previously we've had what are essentially UNIT stories but with the Brigadier technically off-duty here and in the USA it has a rather different style. He's well out of his comfort zone and I like that. Sally has a bigger role here than in previous books as she is properly involved with the adventure. 

I did have a lot of issues with this though. Essentially it's The Web of Fear but in New York. The author has changed a few things to make it a little more interesting, notably stripping some of the Yeti of their fur and adding lots of essentially rabid rats. The plot itself is different but it's still the Great Intelligence doing the same sort of evil stuff again. 

I also felt that the book could have been shorter considering how little plot there is. There seems to be a lot of long descriptions of lots of rats approaching people which gets a bit samey after a while. Then there's the problem that this has to fit with the Great Intelligence's ever more complicated continuity- and the author even throws a time-traveling Professor Travers into the mix too. It feels like half the book is dedicated to explaining how it fits in with Doctor Who and The Forgotten Son and I still feel a bit confused. 

That said, I enjoyed plenty of bits of this book. There's an interesting character in Kramer and I'm tempted to seek out the book she originally appeared in. The rats are a really good idea and certainly creepy, it's just a shame they are overused. Owain gets a much bigger part then he's had for a while and the author really plays around with his connection to the Great Intelligence. He's great here and I am intrigued to see how he will play out in future books. 

It's not the best Lethbridge-Stewart book by any stretch but I still enjoyed it. The idea of the Brigadier in New York is as awesome as it sounds!

Lethbridge-Stewart: The HAVOC Files 2

This is the second collection of short stories from the Lethbridge-Stewart series of books.

Ashes of the Inferno by Andy Frankham-Allen: This story links the parallel worlds of  The Schizoid Earth and the Doctor Who story 'Inferno'. It's a nice exploration of parallel worlds and the idea of how they might affect those that find out about them. What I really liked from this story was the hints at how the Lethbridge-Stewart novels work with Doctor Who and why there seems to be more to the Brigadier than we ever saw on TV.

House of Giants by Rick Cross: Another story which deals with the aftermath of a Who story, this time First Doctor story 'Planet of the Giants'. It sees Anne Travers become miniaturized and the Brig attempt to clear things up. It's a lot of fun and sets up an element of The Grandfather Infestation well.

In His Kiss by Sue Hampton: A different style this one, set in 1945 and featuring a young Alastair through the eyes of his friend Jemima. It deals with the aftermath of James Lethbridge-Stewart's death and is really a dark story about a young girl dealing with grief.

The Lock-In by Sarah Groenewegen BEM: Another different style. This is set late in the Brigadier's life and sees an exchange of letters between a woman called Pearl Hammond and the Brig in his care home as she recounts an encounter with the Fifth Operational Corps and aliens. I liked the style but felt the plot didn't quite work. 

The Black Eggs of Khufu by Tom Dexter: Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

The Band of Evil by Roger J Simmonds & Shaun Russell: An alien band called Totem Pole is brainwashing it's fans. It's a plot that has been used before but done well here. The story also introduces Captain Younghusband who is immediately a great character. 

The Playing Dead by Adrian Sherlock: Sherlock wrote a Lethbridge-Stewart novel set in Australia which I thought was never published but will apparently be next year. This follows on from that future book. Bishop and Anne Travers are in Darwin and find themselves in a zombie apocalypse. Whilst I am a big zombie fan it felt out of sorts with the feel of the series. It worked in a Torchwood novel but I don't think it works here. 

Schädengeist’s First Love by Jonathan Cooper: This is a deleted scene from The Showstoppers. It delves into how Schadengeist/ Mondegreene ended up as the villain of the book. I really liked this and felt it would have worked well in the book. 

Exodus from Venus by John Peel: The original prologue from The Grandfather Infestation. It sees a failed invasion of Venus by the grandfathers. It's a good story but I can see why it was cut as it reveals too much of the aliens of the book. 

The Lost Skin: Episode One by Andy Frankham-Allen: The first part of a longer story which is set parallel to Times Squared. Whilst the Brig is away in New York, Anne Travers, Bishop and Samson have their own problems to deal with. Harold Chorley and Larry Green are investigating the Brigadier so a distraction involved Anne's father Professor Travers is conceived. Travers inevitably finds a myth to investigate... It's a fantastic first part of the story and I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. 

Overall, I thought this was a great collection. It's great to see how the publisher's have decided to expand it's short stories for this range and experiment with different styles and eras of the character. As with any short story collection some are better than others but I thought generally the standard was very high.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Grandfather Infestation

Lethbridge-Stewart and the Fifth Operational Corps face their greatest challenge yet!

When a pirate radio ship disappears, the Navy investigates. When the Navy submarine disappears, Lethbridge-Stewart knows something is up. Deep in the sea an alien race known as the Ynir are preparing plans for their 'grandfathers', a species of intelligent killer plants, to wipe out all life on Earth and take the planet over.

This is the book in the series that really captures the era well. It feels like a James Bond movie but with killer plants akin to The Day of the Triffids or Doctor Who's own Seeds of Doom. At the same time it fits in well with the previous six books and Doctor Who in general. Unlike previous books the threat is world-level here and it's interesting to see that additional tension and the way the team deals with it- they are starting to get used to this sort of thing. There's also a great link to the First Doctor story Planet of Giants which I thought was fantastic.

Peel's other strength in this book was the characterisation. For a start he deals with the main cast really well, making Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne Travers feel just like do on screen. He also introduced us to some great one-off characters like pirate radio DJ Mary. The thing that really surprised me was his excellent characterisation of the aliens. So often the idea that aliens have some sort of personality is ignored but Peel addresses it really well and in doing so creates a more believable threat.

My one issue with this book was the ending. It felt a little rushed and much of the solution came from a frustrating deus ex machina, albeit a previously established one. As much as I thought this was clever it felt a little frustrating in terms of the story.

Overall though a stunning read and this series continues to reach a high standard.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Showstoppers

This sixth Lethbridge-Stewart book again feels different to the previous books in the series. The team commissioning these book is doing a fantastic job at finding great authors and ensuring we get a range of stories. 

This time Jonathan Cooper gives us a tale which focuses on the world of spy-fi TV shows, which were of course massive at the time and many fans of classic Doctor Who loved. Journalist Harold Chorley meets a tramp wearing a tinfoil hat and somehow manages to persuade Lethbridge-Stewart to investigate the making of a new TV show called BLIMEY. It's star, Aubrey Mondegreene, is playing all the main characters and is nearly single-handedly running the show. But he seems to get into character in an extreme way and people are convinced he seems to be in more than one place at once.

The actual plot isn't revealed to the closing stages of the book which means this is largely about the mystery. It's great because as a reader I had little idea in what was going on and frankly when all was revealed I realised I never would have guessed. 

My favorite part of this book was where Anne Travers and new character Samson Ware find themselves trapped by one of Mondegreen's characters, an over-the-top German scientist. Such a ridiculous character was common in the sort of TV shows that BLIMEY is representing but they rarely work as a proper character. Thanks to the context though we can have a ridiculous German scientist and Cooper even manages to give him that brilliant accented quote from The Underwater Menace, "Nuzzink in ze vorld can schtop me now". 

Cooper does a great job at ensuring all the main characters are properly involved with the story and represents them all well- even Harold Chorley, who fits into this book so well. This book also had my favorite epilogue of the series so far for reasons I won't spoil. 

Yet another hugely enjoyable book in the Lethbridge-Stewart series and I look forward to reading the next one.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Moon Blink

This is the first book in Season Two of the Lethbridge-Stewart series. After the events of the previous books Lethbridge-Stewart is becoming more experienced in dealing with alien threats and has a strong team to help him. Here he heads up to Edinburgh to prepare to lead a new unit, the Fifth Operational Corps (a prototype UNIT).

In London, Anne Travers gets a visit from an old friend who announces she has an alien baby from the moon in tow. Lethbridge-Stewart discovers there is a new drug on the streets called Moon Blink which seems to have actually come from the Moon. It's up to Anne, Bill Bishop and Lethbridge-Stewart if they can ever contact him, to protect the alien baby from being used and abused by both the US and the Soviets.

I had my concerns about the publisher choosing Sadie Miller as the author of this book. She is the daughter of Elisabeth Sladen, who played Doctor Who's most popular companion Sarah-Jane Smith. But it turns out that Sadie Miller is a fantastic author, perhaps the best this series has seen so far. I liked her style of writing and she manages to some fantastic details. This book really fits into the series excellently with references back to previous books and indeed into the Doctor Who universe- there are references to everything from The Ambassadors of Death right through to Victory of the Daleks.

I really liked the plot here as it manages to be original and very different from the previous books. Here we have good aliens and it's humans that are the villains. There's a fantastic section where Anne considers that this is more scary which I thought was one of the best moments of any Doctor Who novel I've ever read.

There are a few minor quibbles though. Even more so than some of the previous books, this focuses more on Anne than the title character. It worked well here though and I can totally understand why an author would choose to do this- Anne is more of an interesting character. The ending here is what let the story down a little- it got very exciting and then suddenly fizzled out.

I thought this was probably the best book of the series so far and a strong start to the second series. I hope Sadie Miller writes more books because with this as a debut I can only imagine how fantastic her later books might be.

The Legends of River Song

Like the recent Legends of Ashildr book, this has five short stories featuring River Song. All the stories are from her perspective and are written like they appear in her diary.

Picnic at Asgard by Jenny T. Colgan: Probably the best story of the collection but it's by Colgan so that isn't really surprising. This is one of the last River Song stories that has been mentioned on screen that we haven't seen. It's a fab story featuring a Viking-based sci-fi theme park which is as good as it sounds.

Suspicious Minds by Jacqueline Rayner: River and the Eleventh Doctor team up with an auton Elvis and visit an insect-zoo which is not all it seems. A story that could only happen in Doctor Who which works brilliantly.

A Gamble with Time by Steve Lyons: The Doctor can't cross his own time line so he gets River involved instead. It's a timey-wimey story mostly set in London 2016 featuring a giant alien slug. It's awesome.

Death in New Venice by Guy Adams: My least favourite story. The Doctor is nowhere to be seen in a story about a futuristic rebuild of Venice that goes wrong. Whilst the Venice idea is good I've seen the basic plot before.

River of Time by Andrew Lane: Another no Doctor story but it's steeped in Who mythology anyway. River goes to visit an alien archaeological site where an alien species contemporary to the Time Lords lived. Inevitably they are still there. Very enjoyable.

A good collection and whilst I felt all the authors captured the character well it did mean the style of writing differed a little, as did the format. I felt the authors needed to work more closely together to make the collection a little more coherent. Overall I thought this was one of the best Who releases of recent years. 

In the Blood

The Tenth Doctor and Donna return! Here an alien virus that spreads through the internet is increasing the natural anger in people and killing them. But can the Doctor and Donna find out who is behind it and how to stop it?

Obviously this is very topical, dealing with internet trolls and people being horrible online. I like that the phenomenon now has a Doctor Who explanation because it's hard to accept it's just human nature. I did feel it was just a few years too late to be contemporary to Donna though but I'm happy to let that slide.

With any Doctor Who book there are two big things which affect it's quality. The first is does the author capture the incarnation of the Doctor and his companion? The answer here is a resounding yes. The narrative focuses much more on Donna and often delves into her head in a way that obviously can't be done on TV. Donna is a unique character in Doctor Who and I felt Colgan captured her perfectly. I also thought the Doctor was well portrayed, as was the feisty relationship between the two.

The other question is does the book do something Doctor Who couldn't do on TV? That's also a yes as Colgan has the Doctor and Donna involved in some massive scenes on a plane and then on a train and sends the action from London to Seoul to the Amazon rainforest. OK, in theory it could be done on TV but it's far more than the budget of a typical Doctor Who episode would allow. I also like it when the extended media allow the Doctor to visit places on Earth he doesn't usually get to go.

For me there were a couple of issues. One is that a revelation of this book relies on you having listened to Colgan's Big Finish Doctor Who adventure. I haven't and it really lessened the impact for me, and I suspect that this will be the same for many readers. I also noticed that characters in this books were constantly blinking as a reaction to things. It's fine occasionally but particularly towards the end of this book it's happening at least once a chapter. It's not Colgan's fault as such because I know authors end up repeating things like that but surely someone at BBC Books should have spotted that?

It's great fun to have a new Ten/Donna book and it's another cracking Doctor Who story by Colgan and one which has more relevance to everyday life than most do.

Magpies Electricals

Ten years ago today, The Idiot's Lantern first aired in the UK. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to see all the times Magpie Electricals popped up throughout time and space.

The Idiot's Lantern: Magpie Electricals was the name of the shop owned by Mr. Magpie up until his death in 1953. At some point Mr. Magpie was contacted by the alien entity which called itself the Wire and was instructed to sell television sets cheaply ahead of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was all part of the Wire's plan to reconstitute its corporeal body. Mr. Magpie was killed by the Wire but somehow his business survived long into the future.

The Runaway Bride: When the Tenth Doctor flicked through various websites on a mobile phone, Magpie Electricals briefly makes an appearance.

The Sound of Drums: Martha Jones' television was made by Magpie Electricals.

Voyage of the Damned: The space cruise-liner the Titanic had a Magpie Electricals microphone. Wilfred Mott also had a Magpie Electricals television on his newspaper stand.

The Mark of the Berserker: Sarah Jane Smith's PC was made by Magpie Electricals.

The Eleventh Hour: Various aspects of the Eleventh Doctor's first console room were branded Magpie Electricals including the monitor, the typewriter and the keyboard.

The Beast Below: Magpie Electricals still seemed to exist in a similar form to it's original aboard Starship UK as there is a Magpie Electricals store on the ship.

Day of the Moon: River Song's scanner was made by Magpie Technology. She used the scanner a number of times during her adventures with the Doctor.

The Magician's Apprentice: The Twelfth Doctor owned a Magpie Electricals guitar amp which he used in Essex in 1138 on a tank. He kept the amp in the TARDIS and continued to use it (like in Before the Flood).

I am fairly sure that's the lot but there may well be some I missed. The Doctor Who team have a few of these ongoing jokes and I guess it's also a handy way to cover up brand names on electrical items!

Tooth and Claw "in real life"

This is the latest in a series of Doctor Who in “Real Life” posts. The idea is that I discuss how episodes work from a real world perspective. To celebrate it’s ten year anniversary, today I am looking at the Series Two episode Tooth and Claw. 

 

This image comes from a book called It's a Mystery by T. Wilcox. It is from a story called "Terror From the Sky". Here's an extract:

"In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth... an almighty fire did burn in the pit."

 In October, 1540, the monks at the Glen of Saint Catherine Monastery were going about their daily business. A simple diet of haggis and water, prayers, a vow of silence, charity work. Little did they know that their lives were about to change forever! Nobody knows for certain what fell to Earth on that fateful night. Was it a meteorite or something... worse? 

Torchwood House dates back to the fifteenth century. It was extensively rebuilt in the 1600s and then again in the 1800s by Sir George Macleish who was good friends with Prince Albert. Sir George also built the famous Torchwood Observatory.

After the death of Sir Robert Macleish in 1879 the house was purchased by the Crown. Queen Victoria is known to have stayed at the house and you can still see her room today.

  

Torchwood House is now a visitor attraction and is open to the public between April and September. One of the most popular exhibits is the House of History Exhibition, opened by Prince Charles in 2006, which charts the history of the house through photographs, personal accounts and newspaper extracts. 

The house is also now a wedding venue. A banquet of local delicacies is put on for wedding parties and an experienced photographer will capture the day. Some couples choose to stay at the nearby Glen of Saint Catherine Monastery. 

 

For more information about Torchwood House, you can visit their website here.

[The content of this posts come from the Torchwood House website, part of the promotial material for Tooth and Claw. I'm not sure why there was a picture of Bernard Cribbins on the wedding page, nor where that photo originally came from!]

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Black Eggs of Khufu

Candy Books have been generously giving away free short stories to people who pre-order the Lethbridge-Stewart book and this is their Easter free story, although other than the eggs connection it has nothing to do with Easter.

Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. 

It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

As is often the case with Doctor Who short stories though, this is limited by it's length. We get little explanation for the aliens and I couldn't really work out what the Russians were hoping to achieve. I hope that at some point Dexter gets to write a full-length Lethbridge-Stewart novel because he brings some great ideas into these short stories but doesn't have the time to expand upon them. 

Another decent freebie that adds to the growing Lethbridge-Stewart series.

The Legends of Ashildr

This book gives us four stories featuring the virtually-immortal Ashildr, as played by Maisie Williams in Series 9 of Doctor Who. 

The Arabian Knightmare by James Goss: The least enjoyable of the collection in my opinion but not awful by any means. It sees Ashildr, here known as Ash El Dir, tell a version of the Arabian Nights which she was part of. The framing was awkward and I'm not sure the concept totally worked. I think if you are going to re-tell a known story in the Doctor Who universe you need to add at least a sci-fi twist, like in Time Lord Fairy Tales.

The Fortunate Isles by David Llewellyn: Ashildr stows away on a ship in 1485 as a way of escaping from a robbery. It turns out the ship is going on much longer voyage than expected. It starts as a great tale of explorers and has a massive twist where suddenly it becomes very science-fiction.

The Triple Knife by Jenny T. Colgan: Colgan has yet to write a poor Doctor Who story so far and this doesn't break that rule. Ashildr brings her three young children from France to London in 1348. But she brings the plague with her and only the mysterious scientists, based on the bird-like costumes plague doctors wore, might be able to help. The most emotional story here which is truly gut-wrenching. 

The Ghosts of Branscombe Woods by Justin Richards: It's gone 1600 and Me finds herself in the village of Branscombe somewhere near London. There ghosts haunt the local woods and Me decides to investigate. I liked the idea of the ghosts themselves but the lack of explanation for the ship that caused them was disappointing.

A good collection of stories featuring an enigmatic character. Lots to enjoy. 

The Doctor's Yo-Yo

Richard Bignell is the editor of Doctor Who research magazine Nothing at the End of the Lane. His Twitter feed (he's @NothingLane) is an absolute goldmine and earlier he shared a fascinating story about the Fourth Doctor's Yo-Yo which I felt I just had to share. Everything here comes directly from Bignell's tweets, I've just expanded things so they are a little easier to see.

This is a Louis Marx Lumar 99 Competition yo-yo- the type used by the Fourth Doctor, certainly from Genesis onwards:

Requiring reliable, quality yo-yos, BBC Enterprises sent Philip Hinchcliffe some Lumars to test.

They sent them to the wrong Phil Hinchcliffe:

 

When the correct Philip Hinchcliffe eventually got them, he sent back an equally tongue-in-cheek reply:

Time Lord Fairy Tales

"When I was your age — about, ooh, a thousand years ago — I loved a good bedtime story. The Three Little Sontarans. The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes. Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, eh? All the classics."- The Eleventh Doctor. 

The idea of fairy tales with a Doctor Who twist seems a ridiculous idea at first but the brilliant Justin Richards makes it wonderful. In this collection are fifteen fairy tales that are mostly based on our traditional fairy tales, only with a sci-fi twist and a Doctor Who alien as the villain. 

The Garden of Statues: The least fairytale like story of the lot, this is a creepy Weeping Angel story which is great. 

Frozen Beauty: Sleeping Beauty except with space travel cryogenesis and the Wirrn. A particularly clever idea. 

Cinderella and the Magic Box: This one is closer to the original fairy tale than most here. The big difference is that the role of the fairy godmother is filled by the Eleventh Doctor. Oh, and there's vampires too. It works very well. 

The Twins in the Wood: An odd one this where two royal twins escape execution from a rival to the throne and hide in the woods on Gallifrey. It managed to have a real fairy tale feel to it despite not being based on an actual fairy tale. 

The Three Little Sontarans: It's the Three Little Pigs only with sontarans. A rutan plays the role of the big bad wolf. It's quite silly but it's a lot of fun. 

Jak and the Wormhole: A wormhole instead of a beanstalk and Nimon instead of a giant. It strays a little far from the original tale but just about gets away with it. 

Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday: Clearly only existing because of the quote above, this was my least favorite of the collection. It had to somehow get that title to actually work within the Snow White story and what we're left with is a story that isn't really much like Snow White at all. 

Little Rose Riding Hood: A young girl called Rose visits her Grandmother only to find she has been replaced by a zygon. The Ninth Doctor plays the role of the woodcutter. It makes excellent sense for the wolf to be a zygon. It's hinted that this is meant to be a young Rose Tyler but if so it conflicts with the history of the character on the show. 

The Gingerbread Trap: Hansel and Gretel, with the witch being a Krillitane. Another excellent use of a Doctor Who alien. 

The Scruffy Piper: My favorite of the collection, it's the Pied Piper with the Second Doctor and his recorder and the rates being cybermats. So ridiculous but so good.

Helana and the Beast: A Beauty and the Beast-esque story where the Twelfth Doctor makes an appearance. It loses the magic of the original tale. 

Andiba and the Four Slitheen: Another that isn't based on a traditional tale, this is set in the fairy tale feeling location of a distillery. A decent story. 

The Grief Collector: A take on the rumpelstiltskin story, with the Tenth Doctor helping sort things out. One of the best stories of the collection. 

The Three Brothers Gruff: The billy-goats are made to be humans and the troll is a sontaran on this take on the classic. It sort of loses the wit of the original tale but worth reading just for the idea of a sontaran being confused for a troll. 

Sirgwain and the Green Knight: Presumably based on the Arthurian story, one I am not familiar with, this sees the role of the green knight taken by an Ice Warrior. The Ice Warrior is less villainous than we often see.

All in all, this works excellently. Doctor Who often has a feel of fairy tale about it and here Richards takes that further than ever. They are written in the style of fairy tales and the book itself is beautiful, with a great cover, thick pages and lovely illustrations. It all comes together to be a wonderful thing

The Future of Who

As I'm sure you are aware by now, Steven Moffat is leaving Doctor Who to be replaced by Chris Chibnall. I thought I would discuss what this means for the next few years of the show.

First off, there will be no series of Doctor Who in 2016. The only episode will be a Christmas special. This is of course sad news and means 2016 will see the least Doctor Who since before the show's revival in 2005. There are some good things about this though. For a start it's hard to deny that Series 9 did see a dip in the viewing figures, even if scheduling had large part to play in that. It will certainly do no harm to rest the show for a year on that side of things.

Steven Moffat

It will also mean that Doctor Who will go back to airing in the spring. This is where the show has worked best in the modern era but fell apart when Series 7 didn't start to air until the autumn. It should also be good for scheduling. Part of the problem of Autumn scheduling is that the show has to fit in alongside another BBC Saturday night show, Strictly Come Dancing. With the BBC losing the rights to The Voice, Doctor Who will likely be the main feature of Saturday nights on BBC1, which means the scheduling is likely to be more favourable.

The next thing for Doctor Who to do is introduce a new companion. It's still unclear at this point whether that will happen in the 2016 Christmas Special or the start of Series 10. If it isn't the 2016 Christmas special then we would have an episode of a solo Doctor or a one-time companion. Might I suggest it would be the perfect time for Moffat to bring back Captain Jack Harkness for an episode? There will still be some new Doctor Who content in 2016 in the form of new spin-off Class of course.

In the news of his resignation Steven Moffat suggests that the third series of Broadchurch, written by the incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall, will be the last. The crime drama starts filming in May so might just make it onto ITV by the end of 2016.

Broadchurch

In Spring 2017 a 12-episode series 10 will air, Moffat's last as showrunner. There's been no mention of a 2017 Christmas special as yet which is interesting. Chibnall is clearly stated as taking over from the start of series 11 in 2018 so it looks like Moffat will still be in charge for Christmas 2017. I suspect this is when we will see Peter Capaldi regenerate. He's likely to leave the show at the same time as Moffat, a la David Tennant, and would certainly have done the traditional three series tenure by then. It's plausible that we may even get more than one episode of Doctor Who over Christmas 2017, like we did with the The End of Time.

The Twelfth Doctor regenerates (from The Witches Familiar)

This would mean that when Chris Chibnall takes over in 2018, Series 11 will begin with a new Doctor. It's all speculation really but given the timings and what happened at the last handover this makes the most sense.

I'm intrigued by the sort of Doctor Who Chibnall will bring us. He's not written for the show since 2012's The Power of Three. It seems clear he is more character-driven that Steven Moffat so I would guess the next era will be closer to the RTD era than the Moffat one. So far I would say five of his six Doctor Who episodes are underwhelming (the other, The Power of Three, being certainly his best). It is a little worry that he hasn't yet written anything stunning for the show like Moffat had before his time as showrunner.

Chris Chibnall

It is worth remembering though that Chibnall was effectively the showrunner at Torchwood during it's first two series. I would say of his eight Torchwood episodes only one of them wasn't great and he wrote the excellent closing episodes of both the first two series and the opener to series two. Then there's Broadchurch which is fantastic, especially the first series. There's is certainly potential in Chibnall and I am cautiously optimistic about the show's future under him.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Mutually Assured Domination

The Dominators would hardly be described as one of the better 60s Doctor Who stories yet it is still well liked, largely because of the brilliant little robots the Quarks. In this book the Dominators and the Quarks are back and this time they have come to Earth. 

Journalist Harold Chorley (from The Web of Fear) stumbles onto mysterious goings-on at Dominex Industries, a plant on Dartmoor where no-one really knows what they are doing. Chorley and Lethbridge-Stewart investigate and soon discover that Dominex aren't all they seem. But with the whole thing sanctioned by the government, Lethbridge-Stewart doesn't have the back-up he would like. 

In many ways this is better than the original TV story. The Quarks are given an upgrade, as seen on the cover, which manages to keep in with the TV story yet make the robots more of a threat. The Dominators here also come across as proper individual characters and their plan is more developed. 

I felt this was one of the better books of the series so far. By having Lethbridge-Stewart effectively working against the government he is working only with a few people at a time. I think these books shouldn't feel too much like UNIT stories and this one certainly didn't. I also felt that this was the first book that really made use of the time of its setting, with the hippie movement and worries over nuclear power. 

Another great edition to a high-quality series.

Series 10 Writers Speculation

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has teased little about Series 10 so far but this is one of the few things he has said:

"We're already moving [on Series 10]- we've had meetings today with two writers who've never written Doctor Who before. If I told you their names, your brain would explode." 

As to their identity, all he would say was that they are "brilliant, prominent and amazing". I love a chance to speculate on this sort of thing so here are a few possible names I could come up with.

Stephen Fry

Fry is better known as an actor and TV presenter but he is also a writer. He was supposed to have written an episode in the early days of the revived series, initially series 2 and then series 3. Details on what went wrong are fairly sketchy but it is though one major problem was the expense of the episode. BBC Wales are far more experienced now and may well be able to make that episode in their budget. Now that Fry has left Qi he potentially has more time to polish that script or write an entirely new one.

J.K. Rowling

Rowling is of course the famous author of the Harry Potter books. She was offered the chance to write an episode of Doctor Who way back in 2004 when the show's comeback was being planned. Back then she was still writing Harry Potter so turned it down. She's since had more experience with writing in different formats, having worked on a Harry Potter play and written the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She's probably more likely to write for Who now than she ever has been.

Joss Whedon

The creator of cult TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly has been very busy over the last few years making the Avenger's films. But he's definitely not working on the third and little is known about his current plans. Given that he has spent so much time writing for TV and has written a lot of science-fiction, it's perfectly plausible that he should write for Doctor Who.

Charlie Higson

Higson is a big fan of Doctor Who and has recently even written an ITV show aimed at a similar audience, Jekyll and Hyde. He's certainly connected with the show, having interviewed Peter Capaldi in a recent issue of the Radio Times. He has written comedy, fantasy and books for teenagers so has lots of potential for a Doctor Who episode.

Charlie Brooker

He is probably best known to many as the presenter of Screenwipe but Brooker is also a writer. He created the popular anthology show Black Mirror and the zombie-infested Big Brother drama Dead Set. He's also written crime comedy A Touch of Cloth. He's a Doctor Who fan and is likely to be on the production team's radar but given the adult nature of his works he might be more of an outsider than others on this list.

Sally Wainwright

Wainwright must be very popular with the BBC at the moment having written hit series Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley. Halifax has come to an end and Happy Valley Series 2 has passed the writing stage so it's possible a Doctor Who episode is next on her list. I can't find any evidence that she is a Doctor Who or sci-fi fan and science-fiction certainly seems to be out of her usual remit. However, she is a big writer and would be ideal for an episode focussing on a new companion as she often writes strong female roles.

Dominic Mitchell

I wouldn't say Mitchell is that prominent but he did write the excellent BBC3 zombie drama In the Flesh. It's certainly of a similar genre and it seems that Mitchell has written science-fiction for the stage. It's unlikely at this early point in his career but it would be great to Mitchell write for Who.

Anthony Horowitz

Creator of popular teenage hero Alex Rider, Horowitz has also written lots for the small screen with show's like Foyle's War and Poirot. He's written several Sherlock Holmes novels which is the sort of thing to do to get attention from Steven Moffat. He's due to have finished his latest novel by the time he would need to start writing a Doctor Who episode so it would certainly fit the schedules.

Noel Clarke

Clarke is of course known as playing Mickey Smith, Rose Tyler's boyfriend. He is also a writer and has written an episode of Torchwood as well as several feature films (Kidulthood and it's sequels, Fast Girls). He's certainly more familiar with the Doctor Who world than most and given that Series 9 saw Torchwood writer Catherine Treganna write for Doctor Who there's a prescient.

I will be quite pleased if at least one of these people end up writing for the show! Do let me know your thoughts on my speculations and if you have anyone else you think might be possible.