The Death Pit

This is the first in a new series of Doctor Who books under the title "Time Trips". It features the Fourth Doctor landing on a golf course in 1978. In terms of chronology to the TV show this is during the short time the Fourth Doctor is travelling by himself, between The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil.

The story is essentially about a golf bunker which eats people. It's a bit silly but it kind of works. There's some of the best, most well-rounded characters I've ever seen in a short Who book given to us in Bryony and Patterson. They both seem very real and very Doctor Who-ish at the same time. Everything about this story is good except the basic fact that the monster is a golf bunker which eats people. It just doesn't quite feel like much of an epic story!

The style is brilliant, it really fits well with the Fourth Doctor and feels kind of Douglas Adams-esque. As much as I can kind of imagine it as a TV episode, this works brilliantly in the written form as it delves into the thoughts of the characters, including the Doctor. It's always a challenge to get into the mind of the Doctor and A.L. Kennedy does a good job by not going into too much depth.

All in all this is a great start to the new series and although the monster is good fun it is a little underwhelming. Great fun!

The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage

This is the e-short for the Tenth Doctor and sees him travelling with Martha Jones. From what I could gather from the references it is set somewhere towards the end of Series 3. In it the Doctor and Martha arrive in a place that looks strangely familiar to Martha, and she soon realises that is because it looks like the setting for a book she read as a child. It seems the Doctor and Martha are in a land of fiction- although not the Land of Fiction that the Second Doctor visited!

This is not the strongest of the e-shorts, largely as the plot feels a bit rushed, but it does everything these e-shorts should do- good characterisation of the Doctor and companion and a few cheeky references to the Doctor's era (here we get a quote from "Blink" and a nod to "The Shakespeare Code").

A good effort from Derek Landy for this e-short with a Famous Five-style start and a modern version of The Mind Robber to finish but one of the weaker ones of the series.

Plague of the Cybermen

This book sees the Eleventh Doctor face his old enemies the Cybermen. It is not entirely clear exactly where it is set in the Doctor Who continuity but it sees the Eleventh Doctor companion-less so it is probably after The Snowmen.

The Doctor arrives in a 19th century village to discover the locals dying of a plague or being taken away by "Plague Warriors" and the dead apparently walking from their graves. It's obvious from the title what the real cause of all this is and it soon turns into a generic Cybermen story. It's certainly a good story but it doesn't really cover any new ground. A big chunk of it was based on "Tomb of the Cybermen" which is certainly no bad thing. In fact if you are a fan of that excellent Patrick Troughton story there are a few little treats for you in this book.

As someone who has been writing Doctor Who books since the series returned in 2005, Richards has no problems in characterising the Eleventh Doctor. In fact I would say this is the most accurate prose version of the Eleventh Doctor out of all the books starring him I have read. We have a one-off companion here named Olga who makes a decent companion, although she is pretty much a copy of Clara.

Overall a good quick read for Doctor Who fans but not the most innovative Doctor Who book you can find.

4 Stars

The Beast of Babylon

Charlie Higson has created my favourite e-short so far. In it the Ninth Doctor picks up a girl called Ali and they head to Babylon, under the rule of Hammurabi, to face a god-like power.

The Ninth Doctor is captured perfectly, in his speech and in his characteristics. Higson uses the Ninth Doctor's cheeky grin to brilliant effect and I couldn't help but feel transported back to 2005 when a 12 year old version of me sat watching the first episode of the revived series.

The story is also great in many ways. Higson gradually reveals more as the story goes along and everything you think you know at the start of the story is wrong. He also does a good job of putting a bit of history in, with an appearance by Hammurabi and the Doctor mentioning how he stood for law and order. Plus this e-short is perhaps the most tied-in with the series as it is set during Rose.

Fantastic!

Shada [Novelisation]

Shada was originally going to be a six-part Doctor Who serial to end series seventeen but thanks to strikes at the BBC only half of Douglas Adams' story was filmed and the story was never broadcast. There have been various attempts to complete the story but this is the best one by a long way.

The story sees The Doctor, Romana and K9 attempt to stop the villainous Skagra from taking over the universe using an ancient Time Lord book stolen from Cambridge Professor Chronotis, who happens to be a retired Time Lord. It is quite complicated for a Who story of the age and with the addition of students Chris Parsons and Clare Keightly, obviously in love but yet somehow not together, it almost feels like too much. This is probably because it was intended to be a six episode story, rather than the more common four-episodes, and often these six episoders have to complicate the plot to make it last for the extra episodes and Shada does this.

Many elements of the story are classic Douglas Adams, from the forgetful retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis to Skagra's desperate to please spaceship. It is also a particularly original story being a Time Lord story yet not being set on Gallifrey and the revelation about what Shada actually is, is wonderful.

Credit must be given to Gareth Roberts here though for turning it into such an effective book. He matches the Adams style well and manages to fix a few of the weaker plot points. There's a very late '70s feel to the setting and lots of fun mentions for die-hard Who fans from the Doctor and Romana's past adventures to a few subtle nods to the revived series.

Overall this is a really successful novelisation of the missing story and compare it to the likes of The Creature from the Pit, a story from the same series, and it is wonderful. But for a work by Douglas Adams it is a little disappointing- this story is nothing on the virtually perfect Doctor Who serial City of Death. It remains a must read for all fans of this era of Doctor Who though!

Spore

In this e-short the Eighth Doctor arrives in the Nevada Desert to find a nasty pathogen killing the inhabitants of a local town. He soon realises what it and that Earth is in terrible danger.

It's a simple story really but the idea of what the pathogen can do is great, making it a real menace for humanity but no real problem for the Doctor. Scarrow had a difficult job of writing the Eighth Doctor book with little material to go on, just the TV Movie. Yes, there are lots of Eighth Doctor audio stories but their canonicity is debatable and most new fans won't have heard them.

Scarrow characterises the Eighth Doctor reasonably well but he is probably the most bland Doctor so actually virtually any of the incarnations could have been shoved into this story. Still, it is set in the USA and the Doctor mentions his Mother so it does feel quite Eighth Doctor-y. The e-short is one of the few occasions a one-off companion actually works quite well, she is needed otherwise the Doctor would have no humanoid to talk to for virtually the entire story, although why he becomes a little attached to her I can't fathom.

An enjoyable story for the Eighth Doctor, Alex Scarrow does a good job of writing the most difficult story!

Who is Peter Capaldi?

Yesterday the identity of the Twelfth Doctor was revealed to be Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. Join us for a special edition of Time Vortex as we investigate who Capaldi is imagine what sort of Doctor he may be!

 

First of all I must mention how wonderful Capaldi is as an actor and the fact that the Doctor Who fanbase has largely accepted him into the family shows you what a great Doctor he will be! Now Capaldi is not that well known outside of the UK Doctor Who fans will know him as Caecilius from the Series 4 episode The Fires of Pompeii, a clip of which can be seen below.

And that wasn’t his only part in the Whoniverse! He also played John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth, although things didn’t end so well for that character. Some people have complained that he shouldn’t be the Doctor because he has already been in the show before but these people are wrong. Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, was in the show before he was the Doctor as were Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan (Karen is also inThe Fires of Pompeii). It’s no real issue and there are so many people in the time and space that look like different incarnations of the Doctor anyway!

Peter Capaldi is best known though for playing the sweary spinster Malcom Tucker in political sitcom The Thick of It and it’s spin-off film In the Loop.

You may also recognise Capaldi from the recent zombie film World War Z where he played W.H.O Doctor. What a coincidence! If you want to check out Capaldi in a genre role he is the Angel Islington in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere TV series which is really worth a watch.

I’ve been trying to work out what sort of Doctor Peter Capaldi will be. His age means he will certainly be very different from the Eleventh Doctor. Capaldi is 55 years old, the same age as William Hartnell, the First Doctor, when he took on the role. Capaldi will only be 64 days younger than Hartnell on their respective debuts- that is if the regeneration does take place during the Christmas special and we are not given a surprise regeneration in the 50th anniversary special.

I initially imagined Capaldi’s Doctor to be a bit like Patrick Troughton’s incarnation but realised the Eleventh Doctor is quite Troughton-esque so that is unlikely. It seems very unlikely too that Capaldi will be much like the First Doctor because that would just be a step away from the character we know today. I imagine the Twelfth Doctor to be a bit like Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor but with a hint of the grandfatherly feel Peter Cushing gave in his film version of the Doctor. Then again maybe Capaldi will manage to bring something completely new to the role!

When Steven Moffat was asked what sort of Doctor Capaldi would be he had this to say:

“Magnificent! The truth is, we don’t know. I’ve seen him do ‘Doctor-ish’ stuff and it’s worked. I’ve seen him deal with the technobabble, I’ve seen him deal with the nonsense… I wrote scenes [for the audition] that were deliberately impossible -- deliberately impossible dialogue, just to see, ‘Can you do the impossible, even without gunk being poured on you?’ and now we’re going to pour gunk on you, and throw a lizard at you, and ask you to say all this stuff and explain the plot… So we don’t know [what he'll be like] yet, we’re going to work on that. Matt developed hugely as he approached the part over the first few episodes and we’ll do the same with Peter.

As for the outfit I’m stumped. Moffat answered the question of what will the twelfth Doctor wear by saying:

“Clothes. Anything else would be just really shocking!"

Having an older actor playing the Doctor will be interesting in terms of how it affects the Doctor’s relationships. River Song’s story is pretty much finished but I expect her to make an appearance or two with Capaldi’s Doctor and don’t imagine their relationship changing much. Alex Kingston is only five years younger than Capaldi so it will feel perfectly normal.

Clara’s relationship with the new Doctor will be interesting. Clara and the Eleventh Doctor have been quite flirtatious but we don’t really know how they feel about each other. It’s difficult to imagine Jenna Louise-Coleman being as flirtatious or even in love with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. Now the Doctor is always hundreds of years older than his companion so technically it shouldn’t make much difference. But surely someone in their twenties in a relationship with someone in their fifties doesn’t feel right. I guess we will have to see how Clara copes with the regeneration- it should be pointed out that as she has been down the Doctor’s timestream she at least knows about the idea of regeneration and probably saw the Twelfth Doctor so it the process itself won’t be as much as a shock as it usually is to the companion!

In summary, lots to look forward to and Peter Capaldi is a fantastic choice for the Doctor!

The Name of the Doctor

Wow! I am still recovering from the dramatic finale to series 7 of Doctor Who and scratching my head trying to work out what is going to come next. Join me as I discuss the episode and try to work some things out. If you haven't seen the episode yet (er, why not) then do not read on…

The finale begins with a sort of montage of Clara meeting the classic Doctors. We see the First Doctor about to steal the TARDIS, the Third Doctor driving in Bessie and many more. Clara tells us she was born to save the Doctor, but how? Well we now know that she followed the Great Intelligence into the Doctor’s time stream and continually tried to save him. I found this a satisfactory explanation to the mystery of Clara and it was great to see classic Doctors properly appearing in the show- I particularly liked a version of Clara telling the First Doctor which TARDIS to steal.

This was another episode where the Doctor didn’t make an appearance until a good ten minutes into the episode. Instead we see the Paternoster Gang joined by Clara and River Song in a “conference call”.  According to Vastra “time travel has always been possible in dreams”. I was once again convinced that the Paternoster Gang need their own spin-off show. One day perhaps? The highlight of this great scene was the chilling line from Jenny saying “I think I’ve been murdered”. Fortunately all three of the Paternoster Gang survived the episode so the spin-off series can still happen.

Once Clara told the Doctor what she had seen, he knew he had to go to his grave at Trenzalore. The TARDIS wasn’t too keen on this and the Doctor could only get there by using the planet’s gravity, cracking a TARDIS window in the process. I feel that the crack may well be an important clue because when we see the Doctor’s grave, the TADIS having grown to a huge size, the same window has a crack in! Does this mean the Doctor is going to die soon, before the window can be repaired?

The finale saw the return of River Song, after her death in Forest of the Dead. It’s the latest in her timeline we’ve seen and she is effectively a ghost, saved to the database of the library. Her appearance here is fairly understated, her role mostly being as an assistant to Clara, still connected through the conference call. There is a great scene though where the Doctor reveals he is connected to her and hasn’t contacted her since the library because he felt it would hurt him too much. Very emotional.

I feel that we have now come to the big talking point of the episode, the ending. The Doctor goes to get Clara from inside his timeline but before the two of them can leave they see a shadowy figure, who turns out to be legendary actor John Hurt and, as the caption said, “The Doctor”. But how can John Hurt be the Doctor? Well some rumours suggest he is a Doctor that fits between the Eighth and the Ninth Doctors. This seems most likely as we have very little idea of what happened between the TV Movie and Rose. Perhaps what this new Doctor said can give us a clue:

John Hurt’s Doctor: What I did, I did without choice in the name of peace and sanity.

Matt Smith’s Doctor: But not in the name of the Doctor!

Well all we can know is that this new Doctor did something bad and didn’t have a choice. Time war? Seems the most likely. If this is the case and John Hurt is technically the Ninth Doctor our naming system is going to be messed up. Fingers crossed that he’ll be given a new name so we don’t get too confused.

Other possibilities? Well maybe he is the First Doctor, coming before William Hartnell, although this doesn’t feel right to me. Or perhaps he is the next Doctor, coming after Matt Smith. Possible but the fact that the Eleventh Doctor knows what he has done and the fact that it seems Matt Smith will probably be around for at least another series, this too seems unlikely. So I’m going for my first theory.

Still, even if that is the case there are still so many questions. What exactly did JH Doctor do? What has he got to do with the 50th anniversary special? And what about the Tenth Doctor? And the Zygons? Well I guess we will have to wait until the 23rd November to find out! How are we going to cope? This feature will be back on the 24th November to analyse the special but stay tuned as there might be the odd other thing before then too! Thanks for reading!

Nightmare in Silver

Uh-oh, the Cybermen are back and they are scarier than ever! Join me as I analysis the upgraded foes and prepare for the series finale! There will be spoilers so I suggest you run if you haven’t yet seen the episode!

Ah, the Cybermen, the Doctor’s greatest enemy with legs. The original Cybermen came from the planet Mondas, Earth’s twin planet. They gradually upgraded from being fairly rubbish half fabric/half metal monsters to terrifying adversaries. Fortunately they were defeatable, what with their weakness to gold and everything. In the new series the Cybermen were created by John Lumic, head of Cybus Industries, who made human 2.0 in a Parallel World, although they didn’t stay there for long.

Since The Next Doctor it’s been a bit confusing which type of Cybermen the Doctor has been facing. They have looked exactly like the Cybus Cybermen yet didn’t have the Cybus logo on their chest. Neil Gaiman, writer of this episode came up with a solution though:

“My theory is the Cybus Cybermen were sent to Victorian days and zapped off into time and space at the end of The Next Doctor. They met a bunch of the Mondasian/Telosian Cybermen, and there was some cross-breeding and interchange of technology, which is why you then get the ones that look like, but actually aren’t, the Cybus Cybermen. And then I thought well, they’re going to keep upgrading themselves – my computer doesn’t look like it did five or ten years ago, definitely not 15 years ago. It’s going to be faster and it’s going to be better.”

Fans, for once, are rather happy with this idea so although it has not been stated in the show I think it is going to effectively become canonical. Gaiman has made new look Cybermen are much more powerful than ever before. Firstly they’ve upgraded Cybermats into smaller, more covert version called Cybermites. They new Cybermen can be impossibly fast if they want to be and can also detach limbs to defeat their enemies, be that suffocating with a hand or tricking people by detaching their head from their body. I think it can safely be said that they are much more difficult to defeat now!

The episode largely focused on the Doctor’s internal battle with the Cyber Planner, the Cyberman version of himself. Matt Smith once again proved his versatility as an actor and was fantastic at being a villain. Clara spent much of the episode in charge of a platoon and she seemed to take to it rather naturally, almost as if she has been conditioned for fighting…. I also liked Porridge (played by Warwick Davis), who turned out to be the reluctant Emperor of the Universe!

Although the Cybermen were destroyed when the planet was imploded it is clear that won’t be the last we see of them. We were even teased with a way they can survive, a lone Cybermite floating through space. Suffice to say the Doctor will no doubt face them again in the coming years and if there isn’t a handy implosion device he may struggle to defeat them!

There was plenty of references to parts of the Whoniverse in the episode too with Webley’s collection showing various aliens we have seen before. It’s like a Whovian I-Spy! I managed to spot the following but their may be more:

• Spacesuits like the one the Doctor used in The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
• One of the dummies from The God Complex
• A Blowfish, like the one from the Torchwood episode Kiss,Kiss, Bang, Bang.
• A panbabylonian and an ultramancer from The Rings of Akhaten.
• A Shansheeth from The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Death of the Doctor.

So, the series finale approaches! Will we find out The Name of the Doctor? Well maybe the prequel will give us some clues:

So, it looks like the Doctor and Clara are going to find out each other’s secrets! The episode will involve Strax, Vastra and Jenny, the mysterious Whispermen and by the looks of it the Great Intelligence! Apparently it is going to change the show forever and will lead into the 50th Anniversary Special which will air in November. It’s going to be huge! Join me next week as I try to cope with it all!

The Doctor Who Experience

Today is one of those days where I get to report on a visit to somewhere exciting. In fact I’m not sure I’ve been as excited to be somewhere since I was a child. Last Friday myself and my friend Louise took the epic journey across to Cardiff, Wales, the home of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005. This time round we went to the Doctor Who Experience, a sort of museum dedicated to the show. And it was awesome!

After the long train journey, which involved several changes at some of the tiny stations in Cardiff, we arrived in Cardiff Bay amongst a mass of graduates from Glamorgan university. They were all dressed up in their robes with the silly hats and we had to meander through them to get some lunch. I became jealous of these lucky few who do not have to suffer another year of lectures and assignments as I do.

We sat eating lunch looking over the lovely view of the bay and then approached the weird warehouse that is the Doctor Who Experience.

The first section of the experience is interactive. Basically you get to travel through space and time whilst the Doctor (Matt Smith) appears on a screen telling you what to do. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos in the first section so I will have to use my excellent writing skills to put the relevant images in your head. Blimey, this might be testing!

The experience began in the museum of Starship UK (from The Beast Below). There are loads of props from the show like the telescope from Tooth and Claw. A node (from Silence in the Library) shared some of the props with us and then something dramatic happened and the Doctor appeared on screen, live from the Pandorica 2. “They had another one just lying around!”. I would have like a little bit more time here to spot some of the props but the large number of people in one go and the short time spent there meant you didn’t have chance to have a proper look.

Things got more exciting then when the TARDIS appeared in a puff of smoke and the Doctor insisted we went on board. It is a replica of the Eleventh Doctor’s first TARDIS console although sadly a barrier meant you couldn’t actually touch the console. There were some levers to pull attached to the barrier and the Doctor told us that it would be best if children used these. My immediate thought was “I am a child, no-one is stopping me using this lever!”. I loved it when I got told to use the lever and the TARDIS floor moved. For a moment a dream had come true.

Next thing we knew we were on board a dalek spaceship and daleks rolled out to face us. Despite knowing they weren’t real I was still a little worried they would exterminate me! What if the whole thing had all been an elaborate plan by the daleks? Fortunately before we were exterminated the old daleks turned up and there was a battle between the paradigms.

After a quick run through a forest full of weeping angels, which was quite frankly terrifying, we got to watch a 3D film where loads of monsters were floating through the time vortex. This looked pretty spectacular but all too soon it was over. Next was the museum part of the experience.

Keeping up so far? If you have never seen Doctor Who the whole last bit probably made very little sense to you. To be honest I’m just indulging my memories here more than anything else. As you might imagine, I took quite a few photos in the museum section so here are a few highlights.

Costumes! They had costumes for all Eleven Doctors (although some were replicas rather than originals)!

^{Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)}

The TARDIS! The console that the Ninth and Tenth Doctor used is in the experience and it is awesome. I loved being in there. As well as being an integral part of the show it is a work of art! It was restored but it is still showing some wear and tear after it was blown up in The End of Time.

Monsters! Lots of monsters from the show appear, although most of them are from the new series!

^{Varga (from The Ice Warriors), New series Sontaran, Cyber controller, Silence, Weeping Angel and Skaldak (from Cold War)}

There were also various other costumes and props used in the show and various bits about how Doctor Who is put together, like how they make the costumes and props. The bit I found most interesting in this was the set designers who design what they want the set to look like through small cardboard models. It was fun to see how these little models became massive sets on TV.

All in all the experience was great fun, if a little expensive for what it was. I imagine children would really love it though as that is the audience in mind for the interactive bit. I would have liked there to have been more from the Classic era of the show because there was very little at all but I suppose that was to be expected with the experience being right next to the current Doctor Who studios. Also I got to control a dalek which was awesome. Great day out!

After the experience we explored Cardiff a bit. I have been several times before but I particularly love the bay area and think the whole city is lovely now that a lot of work has been put into modernising it. As a Doctor Who novel I once read said: “Never been to Cardiff? You haven’t lived?”

That’s all for today,  thanks for reading!

The Crimson Horror

This week the Doctor and Clara take a trip up North and are joined by Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax to fight Mrs Gillyflower and the Crimson Horror! As usual there will be spoilers so if you haven’t yet seen the episode I suggest you look away now!

The episode began with the Paternoster Row gang deciding they should head up to Yorkshire after the image of the Doctor is imprinted on a dead man’s eye. And it is no ordinary corpse as the man’s skin is bright red. They begin to investigate, sending Jenny in to pose as a potential worker at the mysterious Sweetville factory. Eventually she finds the Doctor, virtually paralysed and with bright red skin. It turns out Mrs Gillyflower has a symbiotic relationship with an evolved form of an ancient leech and is planning to wipe out humanity with leech poison, preserving only the best looking for her new world using a diluted version.

All in all, a bonkers episode! Interestingly fans seem to have a rather split opinion on it. The thing with this episode is that it didn’t try to do anything particularly new and had no part to play in the plot arc, it was just a jolly good romp. Should Doctor Who be allowed to do that? Well that’s up to you but for me it has always been part of the show and always should be!

The episode had a heavy focus on the Paternoster Row gang. We first met them in 2011’s A Good Man Goes to War. Back then Strax, the Sontaran, had been forced to be a nurse during a war by the Doctor, knowing how much of an insult he would see it as. Jenny is a Victorian Chambermaid with a very intimate relationship with Silurian Madame Vastra.

The trio then returned to fight the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen and made their third appearance in this episode. It’s not the last we’ll see of them either as they will be back in the series finale, The Name of the Doctor. The trio are great fun- Vastra and Jenny are pretty bad-ass, as Jenny demonstrated today. Strax is hilarious, largely because he is a warrior who doesn’t get to do much fighting. The funniest moment of the episode involved Strax, when a small boy told him detailed directions much like a Satnav. When asked his name the boy said it was “Thomas, Thomas”. TomTom, geddit?

The great guest cast was rounded off by Diana Rigg and her daughter Rachel Stirling. Rigg is best known for her role as Emma Peel in British spy drama The Avengers and as a Bond Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but the modern audience might know her better for her role in Game of Thrones. Diana Rigg was excellent as the sinister Mrs Gillyflower- interestingly this is the first time in her whole career where she got to speak in her real accent. Mark Gatiss wrote the episode especially for the mother and daughter.

As with the rest of this run, tonight’s episode featured some references to the show’s past. The first came when talking about the eye of a dead person retaining an image of the last thing it sees. The Fourth Doctor discussed this is the fantastic story The Ark in Space and he too said it was not impossible and managed to access the last image. A bigger reference came when the Doctor spoke to Clara about a gobby Australian. This harks back to the Fifth Doctor era when companion Tegan was desperate to get to Heathrow Airport to become an air-hostess. She eventually made it there in Time-Flight. The Doctor even says “Braveheart, Clara” just like he used to say to Tegan.

The final scene of the episode was a little unusual as it seemed only to serve the purpose of setting up the next episode. Angie and Artie, the two children Clara nannies for had found photos of her from Cold War and Hide.That’s the trouble with only travelling to the fairly recent past, you might get noticed! Angie and Artie will join the Doctor and Clara in next week’s episode, which is written by Neil Gaiman and sees the return and re-invention of the Cybermen. Gaiman’s last Who episode, The Doctor’s Wife, quickly became a fan favourite and from the reviews so far this looks like it will do the same.

More on that next week though! Angie and Artie also managed to find a photo of the Victorian version of Clara. It is the first time modern Clara has any inclination there might be another version of her. The Doctor has not exactly been subtle about it either, visiting a empathetic psychic and trying to get back to Victorian London to solve the mystery. It seems possible that during the course of the next episode Clara is going to find out about the other hers, or if not then than in the finale.

That’s all for today but do join us next week for Nightmare in Silver!

Hide

I misjudged my calculation on my TARDIS and have ended up a day later than I meant to. Still, better late than never, here’s some thoughts and discussion on the latest episode of Doctor Who, Hide. It’s a spooky one. Kind of. It will contain spoilers of course so if you haven’t yet seen the episode, I suggest you hide (see what I did there?)

So, Hide. This was one of those episodes of Doctor Who that continually messed with your expectations. The Doctor and Clara arrive in 1974 in part of a ghost story. After an appearance from the “ghost” we learn it’s no ghost but a time traveller trapped in a pocket universe, being chased by a monster. Eventually the gang manage to rescue her and then the Doctor finally realises the monster isn’t chasing her, it is trying to get home to be with it’s partner. So it’s not a ghost story, it’s a love story. Only Doctor Who could make that happen!

Part of the love story comes from the guest characters, Alec Palmer and Emma Grayling. It’s rare that we get such a well characterised guest cast but writer Neil Cross managed to do it this week. The unusual approach of having the Doctor already know who they are worked a treat. Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott) was formerly a spy and he caused lots of deaths during his time with the service. A bit like the Doctor, he was trying to do something to counteract his past. Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine) was an even better character, an empathetic physic, a woman who can sense feelings but therefore lives a difficult life. The two characters were made for each other and finally became an item thanks to Clara and the Doctor. Incidentally, Jessica Raine will play Verity Lambert in the upcoming Doctor Who making of drama An Adventure in Space and Time.

The other part of the love story came from the hideous creature that is apparently called “The Crooked Man”. It was a great example of the old saying “never judge a book by its cover” and just because it is an ugly creature doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of love! How sweet!

This episode contained a direct reference to the Third Doctor era with the blue crystal from Metebelis III. The Doctor first picked one of these crystals up during the course of The Green Death and it was a central part of the plot in Planet of the Spiders which led to the Doctor’s regeneration. The crystals have psychic powers, hence there inclusion in this story- although it does mean the Doctor has returned to Metebelis III since that regeneration. Some fans noted Matt Smith’s mispronunciation of the name, although I would have to question whether he got it right and it was actually Jon Pertwee would pronounced it wrong…

We had some more development with Clara relationship with the TARDIS. Clara still senses that the TARDIS doesn’t like her but there’s no real evidence that it true. If the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara, is it just because she’s new like the Doctor said or because of what she is- the same way that it tried to shake off Captain Jack because he’s an anomaly. Maybe Hide was the end of this dislike though as the TARDIS did open it’s doors to let Clara travel into the pocket universe to rescue the Doctor. I’m sure we will find out for certain next week in a story largely set within the TARDIS!

Once again we didn’t really find out anything to explain the mystery of Clara. Emma Grayling decided she was a normal girl and nothing out of the ordinary. It did spark off a new mystery which we will be seeing much more of as time goes one. Emma said the Doctor had “a sliver of ice in his heart”. Steven Moffat has said that the 50th anniversary special will reveal a dark secret that the Doctor has. I haven’t the slightest idea what that might be though!

Next week is an exciting episode as we take a Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Join us then!

Cold War

It issss once again time to analysssse another epissssode of Doctor Who! Thissss week it’ssss time to board a sssubmarine with an Ice Warrior! OK, enough of speaking like an Ice Warrior, it’ll soon get boring and I’ll wear out by “s” key. As usual there’ll be spoilers so if you haven't seen the episode yet I suggest you don’t read on!

Before anything else, I feel a little bit of history on the Ice Warriors is necessary. They first appeared in 1967 when the Doctor Who team weren’t allowed to use daleks as the pepperpots were being used in films. Various monsters were created and Ice Warriors were quite possible the best. In The Ice Warriors the Second Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria found the Ice Warriors frozen in ice in the Earth’s future where a new Ice Age had occurred. It was actually Victoria that named them Ice Warriors and the Martians don’t seem to mind. The trio faced them again in The Seeds of Death when they tried to use the trans-mat system to take over the Earth and then the Third Doctor bumped into them in The Curse of Peladon where they had renounced their old ways. In The Monster of Peladon though a rogue faction of Ice Warriors had gone back to the old ways.

That was in 1974 and the Ice Warriors haven’t been seen on screen since. Until now that is. Mark Gatiss had been desperate to bring the Icw Warriors back in the new series but showrunner and friend Steven Moffat wasn’t so sure. Then Gatiss came up with the idea that made the Ice Warriors scarier- they can come out of their armour. Yep, here Skaldak leaves his armour and runs around the Soviet submarine finding out about humans by killing them. The master-stroke was the creepy hands hanging over people’s heads. Suddenly the Ice Warriors have become a whole lot scarier!

I’ve been scratching my head trying to work out a timeline for the Ice Warriors. This is technically the earliest in time we’ve ever seen them and Skaldak had been in the ice 5,000 years. All the other episodes were set far in the future, though Varga and co in The Ice Warriors had been there for “centuries”. Maybe Varga and Skaldak come from a similar time? All we know is that they were once a great empire, they weren’t for a huge proportion of humanity’s life and then they were again. There’s still plenty of room for expansion of their story and I hope we get some of that in the not so distant future.

This episode is the first one where Clara was in real danger. It’s the first episode of Series 7 Part 2 where we actually had some deaths, and even then there were only three, a relatively low body count for the show. It was great to see how terrified by it all she was and how much she enjoyed the whole saving the world thing. There is pretty much no further clues to help solve her mystery. The only thing I picked up on was when the Professor asked her what hobbies she had and she couldn’t come up with an answer. Clara’s life before the Doctor seems disturbingly empty. She was quite scared at the time though so it could mean nothing!

I have noticed something which may be vitally important to the series arc or might be a coincidence. In this episode there is a direct quote from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”:

“What do you want from me?”

“Much”

In The Rings of Akhaten there was a quote from “Alice in Wonderland” and someone I was watching with reckoned there was a quote from “The Woman in Black” in the preview for next week’s episode, Hide. I don’t remember any book quotes in The Bells of Saint John although there was the obvious mention of the book by Amelia Williams. Are these book links a clue? Or is this just another Doctor Who coincidence?

For me the highlight of Cold War, apart from Skaldak of course, was David Warner’s professor. Most of the submarine crew weren’t particularly fascinating characters but the professor was great. He was good fun what with being an old Russian man who loved Ultravox and Duran Duran but he was also a caring character who was really sweet. The two-hander with him and Clara was brilliant! Definitely guest star of the week!

One final thing is when the Doctor talks about resetting HADS on the TARDIS he pretty much repeats what he said way back in the 1969 story The Krotons! Few other shows can do continuity like Doctor Who does!

That is it for this week but do join us next week for the creepy ghost story, Hide!

The Rings of Akhaten

Hello and welcome to another post new Doctor Who episode discussion! This week the Doctor takes Clara to her first alien planet. As usual there’ll be spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet I suggest you look away now!

The Rings of Akhaten was written by Neil Cross, who is based in New Zealand and wrote Luther and quite a few episodes of Spooks. The episode has split the fandom, with some absolutely loving it and some absolutely hating it. Personally I am more leaning towards the hating it side of things but there were still plenty of things to love!

First of all, the pre-credits sequence, which saw the Doctor pretty much stalking Clara’s Mum and Dad. He was making sure Clara was definitely human and normal and it seems she is. The secret of the leaf is revealed and it turns out not to be something sci-fi at all but simply a symbol of her parent’s relationship when said leaf hit her Dad in the eye. And then we discover that Clara’s mother died when she was a child, giving us some great emotional context for the new companion.

The Rings of Akhaten are an asteroid belt, full of many varying alien races. And it’s now time for alien safari- here’s all the alien races that are ‘named’ in the episode:

The story itself revolves around saving a little girl from being sacrificed to what is pretty much a god. I must mention what a brilliant little actress and singer the girl is- her name is Emilia Jones and she is the daughter of infamous Welsh choral singer Aled Jones. The currency in Akhaten is sentimental items and Clara gives up both the leaf and her mother’s ring to save the day. For once the companion has some empathy with the idea of the Doctor’s loss of his own people. And speaking of which, what an incredible speech Matt Smith gave on that subject:

“I have lived a long life and I have seen a few things… I walked away from the last great Time War, I marked the passing of the Time Lords, I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment until nothing remained, no time, no space, just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I watched universes freeze and creations burn, I have seen things you wouldn’t believe, I have lost things you will never understand - and I know things, secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken… knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze! So come on then! Take it!”

OK, now some things to notice in this episode. Firstly, the Doctor mentioned he’d been to the Rings of Akhaten before, with his grand-daughter. The Doctor’s grand-daughter, Susan, appeared with the First Doctor and was left in London in the year 2164 to help rebuild civilisation after a dalek invasion with her new boyfriend. Maybe she’ll make a return one day?

The Doctor claimed he had nothing of sentimental value on him, except his sonic screwdriver, but that’s not exactly true as he must still have Amy Pond’s reading glasses on him (he had them when he was watching Clara’s parents after all). The Doctor simply cannot part from them!

There wasn’t much in terms of solving the mystery of Clara in this episode, although maybe there is a clue when she says that the TARDIS doesn’t like her. The TARDIS is a living thing and theoretically could try to stop someone getting in. As it can see through time and space it probably knows the secret behind Clara and might not like it. But then again you always need a key to get into the TARDIS and Clara doesn’t have one yet. In fact she’s not really reached companion status yet and is dropped home at the end of the episode, which seems a bit odd. The part-time companion thing worked well for Amy and Rory in the first half of series 7 but it doesn’t feel quite right with Clara. Maybe next episode will see her enter the TARDIS permanently?

That’s all here for this week but join me next week as I discuss The Cold War, where the Ice Warriors are back in their first appearance since 1974- expect some Doctor Who history within it!

Doctor Who Book Club

Today I am discussing a selection of Doctor Who books which have been released recently.

The Silurian Gift by Mike Tucker (Quick Reads)

As a quick read, this is great! It sees the Doctor use his UNIT connections to investigate an Antarctic power station claiming to have a new fuel to solve all the world's energy problems (although why the Doctor doesn't just go in the TARDIS is beyond me). It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems (it never is) and the Silurians are involved. As usual, there's conflict between the humans and the Silurians and some indivduals of each species just make matters worse. There's a nice surprise half way through and the return of the Myrka which is good fun.

This isn't that original but it doesn't need to be. It's action packed and almost feels like it could be a Second or Third Doctor story but for the presence of the Eleventh Doctor, who is characterised well here. As with most solo Doctor stories we get a temporary companion, in the form of a journalist called Lizzie. Lizzie is an interesting character who has some major flaws which the Doctor is very disappointed to discover.

As a full length novel this would be a disappointment but as one of the Quick Reads series this is excellent- lots for fans of classic Who, lots of action and some typical witty lines from the Doctor. A great and easy read. ★★★★★

 

The Dalek Project by Justin Richards

This Doctor Who graphic novel sees the Doctor comes face to face with the daleks in the middle of the First World War. Initially the story is not that dissimilar to the Series 5 TV episode "Victory of the Daleks" but after a while it does take a different direction as the daleks plan is much bigger than it first appears.

The daleks are at their manipulative best here and look brilliant, as does every part of the artwork. For some reason their speech just doesn't quite work the same in comic form- that feeling probably wasn't helped by the fact they do talk quite a lot. The Doctor's characterisation isn't great here, probably because it's quite hard to put the long speeches into speech bubbles so they are limited. Considering he is really supposed to hate the daleks, for the most part he here he doesn't seem that bothered.

It has fantastic art and some brilliant dalek moments but the relatively weak plots lets this down a bit. For the most part, it's just the same old threat that's easily beaten. ★★★☆☆

The Nameless City by Michael Scott (50th Anniversary E-short #2)

This is much better than the First e-short, A Big Hand For The Doctor. When Jamie brings the Second Doctor a book, he doesn't realise it will lead to terrible danger as the TARDIS is dragged to a glass city where the Archons want to get revenge on the Time Lords.

It's a great adventure which feels very much like it belongs in the Second Doctor era. Jamie is characterised well, and Scott uses the medium to share some of his thoughts and they feel right. The moment the Second Doctor arrives it feels just like Troughton is on screen. Scott is clearly a big fan of the era.

Scott does mess with a few things though, some of which is good and some not so good. The archons claim to be behind Time Travel which perhaps conflicts a little with "The Three Doctors" but is sort of acceptable. There's an appearance from (view spoiler) who of course never actually met the Second Doctor but only Jamie meets him here so it works rather well. Something that doesn't work so well is the TARDIS speaking records. The TARDIS has never ever done this and it doesn't fit very well in the book. There is also a link to the new series with there being a mention of a swimming pool somewhere in the TARDIS.

All in all a great adventure for the Second Doctor and Jamie, a little rushed perhaps but on the whole a great short read. ★★★★★

I’ll leave you with an exciting promo image for the new series (note the monsters shown in the shards of glass):

Top 10 First Doctor Stories

Everyone loves a list! This one contains my ten favourite First Doctor stories- I’ve only selected them from the complete stories. For those not in the know, the BBC had to store all it’s programmes on film. To save space, and I mean real space, not virtual space, they threw a load of stuff out including a fair chunk of early Doctor Who (almost all the third series is gone!).

10 The Sensorites: The Doctor and his friends meet some creepy aliens who turn out to not be as creepy as they seem. The basic concept is something which Doctor Who has used numerous times over the years.

9 The Aztecs: A great historical story. Back in these days historical stories were purely historical, not an alien in sight. Except the Doctor. This sees the first mention of re-writing time and the Doctor accidentally gets engaged.

8 The Time Meddler: The first time another Time Lord appeared, although the name itself was never used. The Doctor meets another of his species who is disguised as a monk and is messing with time.

7 The Romans: A comedy story with Nero finding companion Barbara very attractive and the Doctor having a fantastic fight.

6 The Tenth Planet: The first appearance of the Cybermen and the Doctor’s first ever regeneration. Regenerating was a fantastic idea and is probably the reason the show is still going strong today.

5 The Edge of Destruction: A short story set entirely in the TARDIS, this sees the Doctor finally become friends with his unwilling companions Ian and Barbara.

4 The Dalek Invasion of Earth: It’s the year 2164 and the daleks have taken over Earth. It’s up to the Doctor and some humans to overthrow the deadliest race in the universe. Also the story where the Doctor’s hearts are broken when his grand-daughter Susan remains on Earth with her new lover.

3 The Chase: Daleks chase the TARDIS through time and space. Some good bits, some silly bits, all brilliant. Also Ian and Barbara finally make their way home and it’s still one of the best companion leaving scenes the show has ever had.

2 An Unearthly Child: The very first story. The main story is pretty rubbish but the first episode is brilliant. It’s where fifty brilliant years have spawned from and it still stands up as great TV.

1 The Daleks: The second story and the Doctor’s greatest foes are introduced. Their very first appearance still remains one of their scariest and it began years of Doctor/dalek battles.

I expect that there might be huge debate about this list among the Who community so if you have something to say about it, please leave a comment!

Review: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer

The first of a series of short e-books to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, this sees the First Doctor rescue his grand-daughter Susan from the Soul Pirates, who steal children to sell their body parts. I liked the premise but over such a short space of time it felt too simple.

Colfer does a fairly decent job with the characterisation, with the First Doctor being fairly grumpy, but he is certainly more adventurous than in the TV show, although this is sort of explained by his desperation to save Susan. There were some very clever references- lots of mention of the Doctor being a Time Lord (something never mentioned during the First Doctor era), a reference to the Second Doctor and a mention of Hogwarts, proving even the First Doctor was a Harry Potter fan.

A good effort with some witty lines in it- it's just a shame the e-short format limits what the author can do.