Brett Domino- Doctor Who Song

This is the history of Doctor Who in a rap, by YouTube stars Brett Domino, which featured on Blue Peter.

Doctor Who Unlocked: Deep Breath

Every episode of Doctor Who has much more than meets the eye so I like to put together a little post exploring links to the past and other things you might not have known about! 

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

 

The episode sees the return of the Paternoster Row Gang, Vastra, Jenny and Strax. They previously appeared in A Good Man Goes to War, The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror, and The Name of the Doctor, as well as several mini-episodes.

Madame Vastra says “Well then, here we go again” when she meets the new Doctor. This echoes the Brigadier’s line “Well, here we go again” at the end of Planet of the Spiders when the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) regenerated into the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker).

The new titles were actually designed by a fan. Youtube user billydakiduk posted this video on the site which was seen by Steven Moffat, who liked its originality. The titles vary only slightly from the original video.

The new Doctor says he needs a “long scarf”. This is of course a reference back to the Fourth Doctor.

When Clara enters the TARDIS at the end of the episode she says “You’ve redecorated, I don’t like it”. This line has been used lots of times in Doctor Who including- the Second Doctor in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, the Eleventh Doctor in Closing Time and the Tenth Doctor in The Day of the Doctor.

Brian Miller plays the homeless man the Doctor has a strange conversation with. He also Dugdale in Fifth Doctor story Snakedance, voiced daleks in Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks and appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures story The Mad Woman in the Attic. He was married to Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah-Jane Smith.

Paul Hickey returns as Inspector Gregson after playing the character in the prequel to The Snowman, Vastra Investigates. Gregson was a character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle in adventures including The Greek Interpreter, Wisteria Lodge and the Red Circle. 

There are several more Sherlock Holmes references in the episode too. Vastra mentions the “Paternoster Irregulars” a play on Holmes band of helpful youths the Baker Street Irregulars. Jenny says Vastra is investigating the “Conk-Singleton forgery Case”, a case Sherlock Holmes mentions in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.

The episode is heavily related to Series 2 episode The Girl in the Fireplace. In that episode Clockwork droids from the spaceship SS. Madame de Pompadour seek rebuild their ship with human parts. In Deep Breath the droids are from the sister ship the SS. Marie Antoinette and rebuild themselves as well as the ship with human parts. In both episodes the Doctor comments on how stupid they are.

The new Doctor says he has seen his face before. That is because Peter Capaldi played Caecilius in Series 4 episode The Fires of Pompeii. He also appeared in Torchwood: Children of Earth, which is set in the same universe, as civil servant John Frobisher.

At the end of Deep Breath we find out why the TARDIS phone was off the hook at the end The Time of the Doctor- the Eleventh Doctor rang Clara before regenerating. Matt Smith filmed the scene on the last day of shooting of The Time of the Doctor.

There is strange scene at the end of Deep Breath apparently set in heaven. The woman who appears is actress Michelle Gomez, who plays the character the Keeper of the Nethersphere. Very little is known about the character but she has a big role to play in the series finale, the second part being titled Death in Heaven.

Review: Engines of War by George Mann

This book focuses on the War Doctor, that mysterious older Doctor who protested about the name and was played by John Hurt on TV. From his perspective it is set shortly before The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary special. The Time War is raging on as the Doctor accidentally rescues human refugee Cinder. The pair discover the daleks have a devastating new weapon that could wipe out Gallifrey. He tells the Time Lords of the discovery but their solution involves genocide of the local human population. Can the Doctor save the humans and prevent the daleks from destroying Gallifrey?

This starts rather slowly and generically as it essentially tells of how the Doctor meets Cinder. Cinder is a great companion, made tough by the Time War but discovering a better life with the Doctor. She fitted the companion role really well and it was a good tactic to see this little explored Doctor through her eyes. 

The second act of the book is the best one, as the Doctor goes to Gallifrey. I don't think I've ever read a Doctor Who book as stepped in continuity as this one. It follows on from the Fourth Doctor Gallifrey based adventures and quite a lot of time is spent in the Death Zone from The Five Doctors. There's also a reference to that climactic scene in Genesis of the Daleks ("do I have the right?") and of course it serves as a prelude to The Day of the Doctor. Not only that though is it sets up The End of Time really well too, how the Time Lords became the Doctor's enemy. Whilst the daleks are great monsters their lack of personality makes them limited for story-telling, especially when you can't see them like you can on TV. So what Mann does is make the Time Lords the main enemy with the daleks an additional threat. For me it worked perfectly, acting as the perfect bridge between the Time Lord stories of the classic series to The End of Time. 

It would have been nice to see how the War Doctor differs from the other Doctors a little more. There are moments when he does things the others just wouldn't but they are few and far between. I would probably let this go if it was addressed in a future novel but for me his character was just too Doctor-ish for the "one who broke the promise". 

Overall though a really enjoyable book from George Mann, a fitting debut in novel form for the War Doctor. My only hope now is that he gets some more! 

New Doctor Who Comics

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Comic #1
Written by Nick Abadzis, Art by Elena Casagrande

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Comic #1
Written by Al Ewing and Rob Williams, Art by Simon Fraser

Earlier in the year the license for Doctor Who comics moved from IDW (who had been doing a wonderful job) to Titan Comics. Last week the first issues of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor Comics were released, with a Twelfth Doctor series to begin later in the year. Titan have opted to create their own companions for these two series, an unusual move.

The Tenth Doctor comic is set around the time of the Specials and issue #1 barely features David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. It focuses instead on new companion Gabby Gonzalez, a Mexican waitress living with her family in New York. I had mixed feeling about this as though it's an interesting move to have such a different companion but it almost feels so different its not very Doctor Who-ish. Even the first arc has a Mexican theme, involving monsters on the Day of the Dead. The issue itself was not particularly inspiring but it did feel like it set up a potentially good series.

The Eleventh Doctor comic is set between Series 5 and 6 and whilst it focuses on the new companion, Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor appears a fair bit. British library assistant Alice Obifune is mourning the loss of her mother when the Doctor shows up. There's a great use of black and white as colour is only only introduced to the issue when the Doctor turns up. Unlike the Tenth Doctor issue #1, this is a self-contained story about an alien dog which feeds on sadness. It's not the greatest plot ever but a useful tool for starting the series. I thought the issue was properly excellent and immediately left me gasping for more. Alice is already a strong companion and she worked well alongside the Eleventh Doctor. I'm intrigued by the long-term plans for this series, with glimpses of a Time Lord appearing a couple of times. What is that all about?

The art styles for the two issues are actually fairly similar and although I really liked the artwork I felt that the character likeness needed work. Although the only two existing characters are the Doctors it was quite noticeable that they didn't really look much like the actors that portrayed them!

Salt of the Earth

The Third Doctor is perhaps my favourite Doctor thus far and whilst he and companion Jo Grant are characterised fairly well here this doesn't feel much like a Third Doctor story, with no UNIT, no Master yet still set on (virtually)contemporary Earth. The TARDIS lands on a salt lake in Australia in 2028 where they discover strange statues made of salt which look worryingly like people.

I really liked the setting and the idea of the Third Doctor 'blokarting'- being a man of action I could picture Jon Pertwee doing that- but this lacks in some of the key elements a really good Doctor Who story needs. The first of these is a villain, or at least a strong sci-fi element, which this story doesn't really have. Another is a strong guest cast- here we only really have one woman and a dog and oddly quite a high proportion of the story is told from the dog's point of view.

I could see that Trudi Canavan had chosen a place that she knows and loves because the setting is really strong here but it feels a bit like he had a setting and then tried to build a Doctor Whos story around it, and didn't do a terribly good job. In fact the solution is almost identical to one of the Ninth Doctor stories.

Not a complete failure but my least favorite of the Time Trips stories so far

Tales of Trenzalore

Tales of Trenzalore tells some of the stories of the Doctor defending the town of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore during his long stint there. You really need to have seen the Eleventh Doctor's final story "The Time of the Doctor" for the context.

Let it Snow by Justin Richards: This is a decent story featuring the Ice Warriors as the aggressors. It's great that we get a well characterised Ice Lord and they have a decent plan but it does feel like any alien race could have taken their place, like the Cybermen. Seeing the Doctor's relationship with the people of Christmas also works really well in this story. It's a strong start to the collection.

An Apple a Day by George Mann: Having the Krynoids is an interesting choice for this story. They are the least well known of the aliens to feature here, having appeared in just one TV story, and the seed pods can't germinate in the cold and Trenzalore rarely reaches above freezing temperatures. Somehow though Mann manages to make it work wonderfully well and he just about gets away with his way round the temperature issues. My favorite of the stories.

Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch: Perhaps the weakest of the stories, largely because it doesn't reach it's potential. It's an Auton story and the Nestene Consciousness' plan is to send in Auton replicas of the Doctor. Strangely though the author decides to make the plan not really work- barely any Autons survive and the replica side of things never comes into play, and that's really the main reason for having the Autons around outside of an environment when there are shop dummies.

The Dreaming by Mark Morris: Morris shows his horror credentials in this story featuring the Mara. It's genuinely creepy and I felt the story really got into the Eleventh Doctor's character and his thoughts about being stuck on Trenzalore better than the other stories here. My one issue with it though is that it feels like it drifts a little from the character of the Mara shown on TV in the 80s.

Overall this is a good collection and I'm really pleased that Justin Richards and BBC Books have been coming up with lots of clever ideas for e-books which tie more directly into the TV series than most Doctor Who books. A great idea with four decent stories which make it work.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

The latest Time Trip e-book is set during the period the Tenth Doctor is travelling alone, definitely after the special "Planet of the Dead" and I would speculate before "The Waters of Mars". In the story the TARDIS is damaged by a leftover weapon from the Time War and the Doctor finds himself in a Welsh town called Jonestown where a version of Christina De Souza appears to live. And there's a storm coming.

The Tenth Doctor is characterised well here, although because we follow his thoughts for a while at a time it is exhausting to read. It's fine when we get a fast speech from the Doctor but pages and pages of his thoughts are just too much. I'm not happy with the lack of a proper companion here. Christina 2.0 is not really much like the original Christina and even she was it would have been an odd choice. If you are going to write a Tenth Doctor story surely it would be best to have Rose, Martha or Donna in it. The story mentions Jones in the title yet there is no sign of Martha whatsoever.

There isn't much of story here and when the mystery is solved I can't help feeling a bit flat. It was just a rubbish explanation.

If I was a teacher marking this I would write "Good try Nick but I think we need to do some more practice at this".