Doctor Who Unlocked: Twice Upon A Time

The episode opens with a recap of the 1966 First Doctor story The Tenth Planet, the story which introduced the Cybermen. The episodes lists this as '709 episodes' ago which refers to the first part of the serial. No footage is shown from Part 4 in the recap as this is one of the many episodes which doesn't exist in the archive. The regeneration scene is shown and that only exists because it was part of an episode of Blue Peter. 

In the original script for The Tenth Planet the Doctor refused to give in to his regeneration but it was not cut as director Derek Martinus was running short on time.

Mark Gatiss plays The Captain, his second credited role on Doctor Who- he played Lazarus in The Lazarus Experiment though he has had several uncredited appearances too- Gantok in The Wedding of River Song and the voice of Danny Boy in Victory of the Daleks and A Good Man Goes to War. He has also written a number of episodes (The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks, Night Terrors, Cold War, The Crimson Horror, Robot of Sherwood, Sleep No More and Empress of Mars). He was the only Doctor Who writer to have appeared in the show until this episode.

Gatiss is joined here by fellow writer Toby Whithouse (School Reunion, The Vampires of Venice, The God Complex, A Town Called Mercy, Under the Lake/ Before the Flood and The Lie of the Land) who plays the German soldier.

The Captain's name is revealed to be Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, an ancestor of long-running Doctor Who character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his daughter Kate Stewart.

The First Doctor complains that he thought his future self would be younger, a play on the fact both Peter Capaldi and William Hartnell were fifty-five years old when cast as the Doctor. Hartnell was 55 years, 10 months and 15 days old on his first appearance whilst Capaldi was slightly younger at 55 years, 7 months and 9 days old. Capaldi stayed in the role longer than Hartnell though and is nearly a year older than Hartnell was when he regenerated. David Bradley is much older than both at 75 years old.

The role is David Bradley's second in Doctor Who having played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. He played William Hartnell in the 2013 docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time about the early days of Doctor Who. It was his role in this that led to Peter Capaldi's suggestion that he appear on the main show as the First Doctor.

Rusty the dalek returns here after his appearance in the Twelfth Doctor's second story Into the Dalek. His first line in Twice Upon A Time is the same as his last line of his first appearance: "I am not a good dalek. You are a good dalek".

This is not the first time the Doctor has been to the planet Villengard. Back in The Doctor Dances the Doctor noticed Captain Jack's weapon blaster came from there and said he destroyed the weapons factories and a banana grove replaced them.

Professor Helen Clay is from New Earth in the year 5,000,000,012 which is eleven years before the episode New Earth and 41 years before Gridlock.

The Twelfth Doctor has several nicknames for the First Doctor. Mary Berry refers to the former star of The Great British Bake Off who now makes various programmes for the BBC and Corporal Jone refers to Clive Dunn's character in Dad's Army. Mr Pastry was an accident-prone comedy character played by Richard Hearne, who was considered to play the Fourth Doctor.

On the First Doctor's console the name 'Bernard Wilkie' is fixed on tape. Wilkie was a visual effects designer in the early days of Doctor Who and also worked of other BBC series like Quatermass and the Pit.

We see a montage of clips from Doctor Who's past which includes footage from Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Arc of Infinity, The Happiness Patrol, The Parting of the Ways, Journey's End, The Waters of Mars, Night of the Doctor and The Day of the Doctor.

We also hear a number of the Doctor's nicknames. The Oncoming Storm (first used in The Parting of the Ways, the Imp of the Pandorica (referring to The Pandorica Opens), the Shadow of the Valeyard (the villain of The Trial of a Time Lord was a version of the Doctor), the Beast of Trenzalore (referring to The Time of the Doctor), the Butcher of Skull Moon (based on a Time War event mentioned in Hell Bent), the destroyer of Skaro (the Seventh Doctor helped destroy Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks, though the planet has been seen several times in the new series) and the Last Tree of Garsenon, which we've not heard before.

In his final speech the Twelfth Doctor also uses the phrase "never be cruel or cowardly". This was first used by Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks in his book The Making of Doctor Who: "He never gives in, and never gives up, however overwhelming the odds against him. The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly".

He also says "never eat pears" which is a reference to a line cut from Human Nature (Martha fast-forwards through it) which was originally used in Paul Cornell's novel of the same name. He also told Clara in Hell Bent not to eat pears as "they're too squishy and always make your chin wet."

The Doctor talks about children being able to hear his name and this is something that comes from Peter Capaldi himself. In April 2017 a young fan asked what the Doctor's real name is this is Capaldi's reply.

"I don't think human beings could even really say his name. But I think we might be able to hear it. At a certain frequency. If the stars are in the right place, and your heart's in the right place, you'll hear it"

The episode ends with Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor falling from the TARDIS, the interior of which is exploding. She should survive the fall as the Tenth Doctor showed in The Christmas Invasion that Time Lords can still heal for a while after their regeneration. The TARDIS is likely exploding so that it can be given a revamp for the new series.

Twice Upon A Time

This episode is the end of a Doctor Who era. Peter Capaldi's last as the Doctor and Steven Moffat's last as showrunner.

The episode opens with a 'previously' that only Doctor Who could get away with, looking back to 1966. Suddenly grainy footage of William Hartnell's First Doctor turns into high quality footage of David Bradley as the same character.

The episode sees the Twelfth and the First Doctors, both refusing to regenerate, bumping into a Captain from the First World War. He's been removed from time by the Testimony whose intentions are unclear.

The cast are superb here- Capaldi is such a great Doctor who I fear has been underated by much of the audience and he's at his best here. David Bradley is also brilliant as the First Doctor- if you weren't quite paying attention you might think the  BBC had resurrected William Hartnell.

There's also fantastic writing, Steven Moffat's last on the show. It's everything a good episode of Doctor Who should be- really funny, exciting and emotional. He plays with Doctor Who lore well and let's Capaldi's final speech be like a greatest hits speech from his time as showrunner.

The episode ends with Jodie Whittaker making her first appearance as the Doctor. Suffice to say she is immediately brilliant.

I think this is Steven Moffat's best Christmas episode and right up there with his best. A fitting end for the Twelfth Doctor.

The Shining Man

I enjoy reading the Doctor Who tie-in books. Many are of high quality but I think this is probably the best of the many I've read over the last twelve years.

The Shining Men are everywhere, scaring children on street corners with their long hair, blank faces and shining eyes. But surely it's just a hoax, idiots dressing up for fun. Except people are going missing and the link is the shining men. Cue the arrival of the Doctor and Bill.

Clearly the idea of the shining men came from the real world 'killer clown' craze. There's plenty about the police dealing with idiots dressed up and the fear caused by them. Mostly though this book imagines what it would be like if the creepy things were actually terrifying killers rather than people dressed up.

In terms of Doctor Who continuity this book is set after the first three episode of Series 10 (The Pilot, Smile and Thin Ice). There's also lots of references to things discussed and shown in the Torchwood episode 'Small Worlds'. I think it really adds something if you've seen that episode.

If you know said episode, you'll know it's about fairies. Indeed this book explores the idea of fairies in some depth, using some scientific Doctor-technobabble to explain some of it but still essentially being something from fantasy. Actually this has very few Doctor Who elements to it other than the Doctor and Bill being present and as well characterised as they are they don't do much. The Doctor is largely used as the character to explain the idea of fairies.

This had everything I wanted from a Doctor Who book. A good sci-fi/fantasy idea, warmth, humour, drama and a portion too ambitious to have appeared on TV. If you are enjoying Series 10 of Doctor Who and want some more, this is the place to head.

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.

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. 

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.

A Companion Piece: Clara Oswald

As 2015 draws to a close I thought it might be an appropriate time to look back at someone who had a big impact on the Doctor in 2015, and for several years previously, Clara Oswald.



Clara first met the Doctor as a child, although neither party realised it at the time [The Bells of Saint John Prequel]. This shows that the pair were also destined to meet- indeed the Eleventh Doctor had already met two version of her previously that had died [Asylum of the Daleks/ The Snowmen].

The Doctor finally met Clara properly when she rang the TARDIS, believing it to be an IT helpline (the number given to her by an undercover Missy) [The Bells of Saint John]. At the time she was nanny for the Maitland children and unlike many companions she didn’t simply run away from her life to board the TARDIS. Her adventures were occasional, the Doctor turning up for a quick trip here and there. I suppose this shows that she was a strong character who had a real life that was important to her too.

Her travels with the Doctor did put pressure on her real life at times. The Maitland children found out she travelled in time and space and ended up accompanying her to an abandoned theme park and getting kidnapped by cybermen [Nightmare in Silver]. She used the Doctor as a ‘boyfriend’ at a family Christmas dinner only for him to turn up naked [The Time of the Doctor]. Then her relationship with Danny Pink was severely put in jeopardy by the Doctor’s regular appearances [Listen, Time Heist, The Caretaker].



For the Doctor, Clara was at times a troublesome companion. She fell out with him after he left her on the Moon with Courtney to make a difficult decision [Kill the Moon]. She even betrayed him completely in an attempt to bring back the deceased Danny Pink [Dark Water].
The Doctor desperately needed Clara though. She did more for him than perhaps any other companion. She dived into the Doctor’s timeline to fix problems caused by the Great Intelligence. Versions of her saved the Doctor throughout his life [The Name of the Doctor]. Then it was Clara who convinced three versions of the Doctor not to use the Moment to end the Time War, saving Gallifrey and removing the Doctor’s guilt [The Day of the Doctor]. She refused to let the Eleventh Doctor die alone [The Time of the Doctor] and supported the newly-regenerated Twelfth Doctor [Deep Breath].

As Clara continued to travel with the Doctor she became more and more like him, much to the Doctor’s concern. This eventually led to her death when she took on Rigsy’s execution to save him [Face the Raven]. Her life was extended somewhat thanks to the Doctor and she eventually became even more like him by stealing a TARDIS and travelling the universe [Hell Bent].




Most companions become better people after spending time with the Doctor but Clara was already amazing before that happened. She saved the Doctor throughout his life and changed it forever. Without Clara the Doctor, particularly in his Twelfth incarnation, would have been a very different man.

Haunted

Every year the Doctor Who website runs an "Adventure Calendar" during December and as part of that releases a new short story. This year we have the brilliant Haunted, released in three parts. 

It's really good. 13 year-old Ross is dared to go into the school basement where a ghost is thought to exist. Next thing he knows he meets a man called the Doctor and finds out whether ghosts are real. 

The plot of this is rather good. You can't do a traditional Doctor Who story in a short story, there isn't really time, and Lidster wisely gives us something a little different. It's well told, both managing to be convincing as something written by a 13-year-old but still flowing well. 

The characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor is perfect. He's that grumpy version of the Doctor, but still Doctor-ish. It's also completely in continuity after the Series 9 finale so there's a couple of neat little references to that.

I suspect these short stories aren't read by that many people but this one deserves to be because it's excellent.

Download for free:  Part One    Part Two    Part Three

Deep Time

A Twelfth Doctor Glamour Chronicles novel by Trevor Baxendale

I've loved all of Baxendale's Doctor Who books and this one was no different. As part of their mission to track down the mysterious Glamour, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara join the crew of the exploratory ship the Alexandria. They crew are following the last Phareon road, a wormhole created by an ancient, mysterious race.

For Doctor Who, this is pretty hard sci-fi. It features dangerous and gritty space travel, time fluctuations, an alien planet and a fair bit of pretty up to date psychics. This may put off some people but I thought it worked really well. For me it felt quite like the Alien-prequel film, Prometheus, with a similar atmosphere and mission, although the crew here are considerably more competent and likable than the crew of Prometheus.

The Doctor and Clara are well portrayed here, especially Clara. Baxendale really manages to get inside her head, something you can't do on TV, and it works wonderfully. What really makes the book are the other members of the crew. There's an element of Firefly about many of the characters, which is definitely no bad thing. Ray Balfour, the billionaire funding the mission, is fairly typical of sci-fi books whereas 'astrogator' Jem is considerably less so. Together the crew feel like real people with real histories and goals. 

In summary, I loved it. There's no way that all Doctor Who should be such hard science-fiction but on occasion it's great. For me, this felt like a high-budget TV episode, which is exactly what you want from a Doctor Who book.

Four Doctors

A Multi-Doctor event! In comics! 

Here Titan Comics three main Doctor Who issues come together. The Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors along with their companions Gabby, Alice and Clara team-up, which you know means bad shit is going down. Here it's a picture of the three Doctors arguing which is going to cause the end of the universe. 

The plot itself is OK- I loved the first four issues but the resolution is not great. The main enemies are the Vvord, monsters from the classic 60s story The Keys of Marinus, although their look has been improved somewhat. It also focuses on the person leading them, a character I didn't really like in that role. 

What makes this shine is the usual things you get from a multi-Doctor event. For one, it's the joy of having the Doctors and their companions interact with each other. Twelve has yet to meet any past incarnations so it's fun to see how he deals with his immediate predecessors here. It's also good to have Gabby and Alice, the two Titan Comics original companions, involved as much as Clara. 

The other thing you want from a multi-Doctor event is a celebration of the show and we certainly get that here. Cornell re-uses the Reapers, the monsters from his TV episode Father's Day and both the War Doctor and the Ninth Doctor make quick cameos. It really has that celebration feel that a crossover event should have. 

The biggest downside of this is the artwork. It's not bad and the monster and landscape pages look brilliant. But the characters often don't look much like the actors that play them (especially Matt Smith, who I get the impression is especially difficult to draw). It's not all the way through, so I suspect it's less a case of a poor artist and more a rushed one.

A really great crossover event, but I'd suspect nothing less of Paul Cornell!

Series 9 Prologue

A prologue to series 9 has been released, showing the Doctor visit the Sisterhood of Karn once again. You can view the prologue here.

It raises far more questions than answers. The Doctor is hiding from an old enemy, though it's never revealed who that enemy is. You would assume it was the Master but given the fact they are described as 'he' makes you think it's unlikely to be the Missy-incarnation of the character. It's also suggested that the Doctor and this person have been enemies all their lives, which seemingly rules out virtually all other contenders- hardly any enemies have appeared more than a handful of times.

I have one theory on the subject- it's Death. It would make sense that the Doctor has been enemies with death all his life and if he's going into great peril it also makes sense the way the Doctor says "an enemy is just a friend you havn't got to know yet". It would also work with the gender problem, as Death is usually described as male.

If this is true, I doubt it means we will actually see a Grim Reaper-type figure on the screen- I suspect it's more the concept of death that the Doctor is fighting.

There is also going to be another prologue, a US exclusive it appears (until the box set presumably), entitled The Doctor's Meditation which looks to follow straight on from this prologue.

Also, I'm really pleased the BBC are finally calling these things prologues instead of prequels!

The Blood Cell

A Twelfth Doctor Book written by James Goss

This is a rare case of the a Doctor Who novel doing something that the show just couldn't do. Generally these books feel like an episode of the show, albeit one with an extremely high budget. Goss uses the format to his advantage here though and tells a story in the first person.

The Governor of a prison on an asteroid is intrigued by new inmate Prisoner 428- the Doctor. He's a prisoner who keeps escaping and his friend Clara is really quite friendly when she comes to visit. But something is going on deep in the prison and the Governor is struggling to keep things under control.

The first-person narration is great because we get to see the Doctor and Clara through the eyes of a third party. The Governor is an interesting character, almost Doctor-ish in many ways, yet much harder and easily exploited. I also thought the setting was rather good, although the plot itself wasn't great. It's one of those cases where there was a good basic idea but a limited plot to put in it.

The other big problem was that we wait half the book to find out why the Doctor is in the prison and who the Governor really is but it's an underwhelming reveal and lessens the pace. I would have much preferred it if this had been done at the very start of the book- it would have been an intriguing start and would have set up the context of the prison much better.

Characterisation can often be an issue in these tie-ins. Clara is great here, although she barely appears in the first three-quarters of the book. This book was written before any Twelfth Doctor episodes were aired, so presumably Goss had only a few scripts to get the idea of the newest Doctor's character. Whilst there are some obvious Twelfth Doctor traits, it's a watered-down version of the Doctor- any of his incarnations could be shoved in here with little change to the dialogue.

I really enjoyed the book but it's a fairly middle ground when it comes to Doctor Who tie-ins. It's by no means one of the worst, but equally a fair way from the very best too.

Doctor Who at Comic Con 2015

Doctor Who has become a staple of San Diego Comic Con in recent years and this year was no different. Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez and Steven Moffat were all in attendance and we were given some real treats. 

First up was more details on Doctor Who's role in the upcoming Lego Dimensions game. I think most people who knew about it were quite excited about the prospect, but this trailer really blew us all away:

The game sees a Lego version of the Doctor interact with a crowd of other famous characters, like Batman, Scooby-Doo and Homer Simpson. Capaldi, Coleman and Gomez all lend their voices and you can play as all thirteen incarnations of the Doctor. The attention to detail is superb as the TARDIS interior will change depending on which version of the Doctor you are playing as.

There are a number of Doctor Who levels in the main game and an additional level pack, and fun pack, will be available to purchase separately. The game is released across all the main consoles on 27th September.

 

Then the excitement grew when we were treated to a trailer for Series 9 at the Doctor Who panel. It looks like the BBC has listened to criticism from previous years and has released the trailer shown at the panel online and given us a firm airdate, September 19th. 

It all looks very exciting, although frankly gives very little away. I've taken the liberty of taking a few screenshots of some of the most interesting moments.

The Doctor rocks out!

A daleks are back!

We are told that a dalek city appears in Series 9 and given that this resembles the dalek city seen in the original 1963 dalek story, we'd guess this is it.

We don't know what this is, but it's terrifying!

We get a few glances at Missy

Maisie Williams in Series 9

The moment that caused the most speculation is the final scene featuring Maisie Williams. "You!" exclaims the Doctor. "What took you so long, old man?" says the mysterious character. But who is she?

Potentially she could be a new character but the dialogue and the fact we are teased at the very end of the trailer suggests differently. Now given that Maisie Williams hasn't appeared before it seems likely this is a character in a new regeneration. The number of female Time Lords that have appeared is pretty small so let's speculate:

- Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter. Last seen left on Earth to start a new life and clean up after a dalek invasion. The age works well- you can imagine Williams as Capaldi's granddaughter. She was also present in the original dalek city, so given that the city is being revisited why shouldn't the character too.

- Jenny, the Doctor's (accidental) daugher. Last seen flying off in space, believed dead by the Doctor. She's a more recent character which may be in favour. However, although we know Jenny can regenerate life-force as she does at the end of The Doctor's Daughter, we have no evidence that she can regenerate into a new body. I think. And I suspect if Jenny does ever appear, Georgia Tennant nee Moffat would be the one to play her!

- The Rani- A female evil Time Lord. Unlikely, given the Master now fills that role, that Williams is very unlike Kate O'Mara and that Steven Moffat has said he doesn't want to bring the character back.

- River Song- As far as we know we have seen all of River's regenerations- small child, then Mel, then Alex Kingston. We don't know for certain that the child did regenerate into Mel but that seems likely.

- Romana- Companion to the Doctor. Given that Jenna Coleman is likely to leave in the near future this is the other possibility for Williams to take on a companion role. Williams doesn't come across like the well-spoken, elegant Romana we know and love though. And as far as we know Romana is still on Gallifrey, wherever that is these days.

- Another Doctor relation- Given we don't know who Susan's mother and grandmother were, could Williams be playing one of them. It would be a bit weird if she played the grandmother, considering then she would have a romantic connection to Capaldi. But the Doctor's original daughter, mother of Susan, is possible, if unlikely.

These have pretty much been ordered in terms of likelihood. I still think Susan is the best bet.

I guess only time will tell...

The Doctor and the Dalek

I realise I am a bit late on this one but having recently purchased a new tablet I finally downloaded the excellent game “The Doctor and the Dalek”.

Ostensibly this is a computer programming game aimed at children- programming is a big part of the latest National Curriculum. However, the programming aspect is only a part of the gameplay and like the show the game is child-friendly but equally enjoyable for adults.

In a plot written by Phil Ford, the Twelfth Doctor (actually voiced by Peter Capaldi in the game) finds himself teamed up with a dalek which has malfunctioned and is now “good”. You control the dalek, sending it through the tombs of the cybermen, the clone chambers of the sontarans and the belly of the dalek-infested Time Lord ship the Starbane to collect the pieces of an ancient artefact.

The story is fairly simple but there’s a great twist at the end which I didn’t really expect. Most of the game features fairly standard 2D platforming as you travel through the various levels, hovering and exterminating enemies which get in your way. Most players will be familiar with this type of gameplay- it’s like a Doctor Who version of Mario.

During each level there is a programming section. In these sections you select instructions for the dalek so it can either collect an object or exterminate all the enemies. It starts off fairly simple with a tutorial but gradually increases in difficulty throughout the levels. The best thing about it is that their is always an obvious solution but the challenge is in putting in the fewest number of instructions to complete the level. The programming challenges are also available outside of the main gameplay by clicking “TARDIS Training” on the home screen.

My only complaint about the game really is the length- there aren’t that many levels and if you know what you are doing it won’t take very long to complete. Still, considering this is something for nothing it is really rather good and I recommend it to all Doctor Who fans. I really hope the BBC do more of this sort of thing in the not too distant future!

You can play on your computer or on a tablet by downloading an app from the Apple, Amazon or Google Play stores.

The Return of Missy

It was today confirmed that Michelle Gomez will return as Missy, the Time Lord previously known as the Master, in Series 9 of Doctor Who. Not that this was a huge shock to most of us seeing as though Gomez revealed the news in an interview a few months ago.

 

What is bigger news is the details of her return. She is going to appear in the first two episodes of Series 9, which will be a two-parter. We already knew that the first part would be called The Magician's Apprentice and it was today revealed that part two will be called The Witch's Familiar. 

This brings lots of questions to mind. Obviously a major one is how did she survive her death in Death in Heaven? I'm not too sure on the answer to this but I suspect it'll be fairly simple, given that Steven Moffat had always planned that she would return. It seems likely her "escape" was planned at the same time as her apparent death. 

The title is intriguing. Now I have assumed that The Magician's Apprentice refers to Clara, being the apprentice to the Doctor's magician. Now The Witch's Familiar sort of makes me think that "Witch" refers to Missy. But then who is her familiar? Could it be that Missy is getting a companion of her own? Or maybe in typical cruel Moffat fashion, both titles could refer to the same person- maybe Clara, or maybe a new character. 

It's also interesting to note that it's a two-parter. The first block of filming was a Toby Whithouse two-parter, which I think is supposed to be episodes 3 and 4 of the series. This suggests then that Series 9 might only consist of two-part stories- six two-parters?

It was also confirmed today that Jemma Redgrave will return as head of UNIT Kate Stewart. It's fun to see the Master vs. UNIT theme coming back after how good it was back in 1971. I wonder maybe if Series 9 will replicate Season 8 of Classic Doctor Who in that the Master/Missy will appear in every story? This seems possible from what we know so far.

Well there's a few things to think about. Whether my suggestions turn out to be true or not, I can't wait to see Missy back in action!

Things the Daily Mirror got Wrong

Yesterday British "newspaper" the Daily Mirror published an article about Doctor Who with the headline"Doctor Who to go back in time as BBC ditches 'edgy' adult plots following ratings slump". The article can barely be called journalism at all and as such I thought it would be highly amusing to point out everything they got wrong.

It opens with the promo image for Series 8 with the following caption below it:

It is ridiculous that a professional newspaper can not spot such a silly mistake, unless of course it was intentional. Twitter user @ellardent speculated that "It's a new villain. A mad chemist fused himself with Tumblr" whilst @NicklebyWelks said "'Chemistr' is actually a rarely used abbreviation... ChemistRANIvoratrelundar".

The article then says some fans want changes and some want Steven Moffat to be sacked. This is perhaps the one thing the article has got right. There isn't really anything to make a story here though as you could find similar comments on the internet during any series of Doctor Who, and there's plenty of fans writing about how much they have enjoyed the series.

Next we have a quote from a "senior BBC source". There's also 'quotes' from "another insider" and "one [fan]". As any good historian knows, it is difficult to trust how reliable a source is when the actual source isn't revealed. Maybe someone did say these things, who am I to distrust? But actually it looks suspiciously like these quotes were simply made up. The irony is that it would be pretty easy to go on Twitter or a Doctor Who forum and find some genuine negative quotes from fans, but it looks like they couldn't even be bothered do to this.

The article then goes on to talk about ratings with the following paragraph:

 

Now that final part about Eccleston's debut is obviously irrelevant- of course it was going to have a huge audience when it was revived and the ratings were nowhere near as high for the rest of the series. Only one of the episodes of Series 8 actually had between six and seven million viewers (In the Forest of the Night with final ratings of 6.92m) with the rest being over 7 million and Deep Breath having 9.17 million viewers. They are pretty impressive figures anyway but when you consider that these figures only include people who watched on the night in the UK you realise how high they are- they don't include repeats, iPlayer viewings or the millions who watched acrosse the world. 

So Series 7 had 8 million viewers did it? I think that's what that sentence is supposed to mean, although with that grammar it is difficult to be certain. Well only three of the Series 7 episodes had over 8 million viewers and only one of those was in 2013. It is difficult to average out the number of viewers across a series but the numbers are probably very similar between series 7 and 8. The BBC even declared series 8 a "ratings success", although the Mirror seems to have forgotten about this.

I end with my favorite part of the article, this bit: 

The lack of chemistry thing does seem odd- from what I have seen on the internet most fans seems to like the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman. The amusing part here though is the fans calling for the return of the Daleks and Cybermen. I had to read this several times because I was a little confused. Did I somehow watch a different series to these fans? Or have the Mirror made up this fact too? The daleks appeared in the second episode of the series, titled Into the Dalek (no question that there were daleks in that!) and the cybermen appeared in both episodes of the two part finale, Death in Heaven/Dark Water. 3 of the 12 episodes of the series had either daleks or cybermen in them- that's a quarter of the episodes! It's just nonsense.

In summary, ignore this article. It's badly researched, full of errors and gives absolutely no clues to what is going on in the production of series 9. It's pure click-bait, which is why I haven't even linked to the article.