@Phaseshift yes all those intro threads are interesting. The Maldovarium is a Star Wars tribute, from beginning to end, as has been pointed out before, so perhaps <laughs> this is the Who version of “Did Solo or Greedo shoot first?”

The Doctor sending his last will and testament to Missy  (and Clara fully expecting it to be for her) was perhaps…[Read more]

Well I know some of you lucky things saw an advance screening of The Magician’s Apprentice up at the Edinburgh Festival. Thanks for keeping us spoiler free all this time!

Heartily agree with @Craig that Michele Gomez is fantastic. Missy’s incarnation of the Master is charming and chilling, with just the right serving of psychopathy on the side.…[Read more]

Hello All <plops self on the sofa with some fine sweet-meats and an intergalactic slushie or two to share>

I’ll second your desire for more Gallifrey @janetteB – I like those stuffy old Time Lord collars 🙂

@bluesqueakpip and @purofilion and others, thanks for mentions whilst I’ve been on hiatus. I’ve got a tonne of catching up to do, I…[Read more]

Aww – thanks @jimthefish and @janetteb – lovely to “see” you both, here and in the “other place”.

I’m back from summer hiatus now and looking fishily forward to TARDIS adventures with everyone!

<Pours some especially sparkly and be-jewelled glitter on the re-watch sofa for @ScaryB> I’ve got some catching up to do! Looking forward to seeing the end of the story. Troughton is great and I want to watch more of him in action now.

I think Capaldi would be great in a thriller-spy style Who story – I’d love it if they filmed one episode in…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip and @JanetteB Isn’t it wonderful? So glad this was rediscovered. It’s made me want to watch more Troughton Who – I’ve only seen the odd one, as it was before my time.

@everyone What are your favourite Troughton Who stories, those of you who have seen more of them? @ScaryB I know you’ve probably got some, Yeti and all 🙂

Excellent rubber/ leather guards uniforms and Troughton is suitably scary as the nefarious Salamander.

I enjoy the spy-thriller element a lot and would be very happy to see Capaldi dabble in local politics a bit more.

@Phaseshift Gods love you – what a lovely exposition of fan relationships to Doctor Who.

And @Barbaralefty Gods love you too – I suspect you’ll be posting fan fic on A Teaspoon and an Open Mind http://www.whofic.com/ before you know it 🙂

Indeed, in terms of the transfer from fan fiction to text,  Xena had two episodes written by a fan,…[Read more]

Thanks @ScaryB I know the song well 🙂 Seems so sweet and innocent doesn’t it – just right for me 🙂 xx

@ScaryB Brother Juniper – “Renowned jester of the Lord”? I love it!

Thanks for the spit roasting (oh no wait – that came out wrong) and the flagons of divine nectar!

Brother Juniper looks rather like Friar Tuck in the cartoon. I’ve always had a soft spot for Friar Tuck. And he would have approved heartily of roast pig and grog.

Our good…[Read more]

@Craig Oooh thanks for posting.

Well, this is just gloriously sixties – the wallpaper design, Astrid’s wonderful thigh boots, the skin tight rubbery uniforms and the received pronunciation. I have a huge soft spot for sixties design, so I’m swooning.

The musical score is pretty great too – listen to that anxiety inducing electronica as the…[Read more]

Well Russell T Davies is back on C4 with his three interlinking shows Cucumber, Banana and Tofu.

SPOILERS

To begin with, you should know that the title refers to different stages of the male erection – so I suppose the fact that the shows are mostly about the search for cock/ anxieties about cock has fair advertising.

Cucumber is about a…[Read more]

@ichabod

Creativity — the readers’ as well as the writers’ — wins hands down, because stasis is not a sustainable state.  As a writer I can “fix” my story in verbal amber, but time will unfix it, assuming I am lucky enough to write something that actually lasts a while

Exactly – nicely put. I’m always rather appalled by writers who hate the fac…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty – no need to apologise – being opened to an idea is always great!

Russell T. Davis argues that once a text is out there it belongs equally to audiences, who may do with it what they wish (in terms of both interpretation and textual re-working in fan works). I like his attitude:

‘Once a script has been made and transmitted, I h…[Read more]

Well the pub is lively!

@Ichabod The Vampire Tapestry looks great! How exciting.

@Pedant and @JimtheFish

I believe twas I, not @Barbaralefty who said, upthread, that one might think of Moff and Gattis’ Sherlock as fan fiction. I stand by that. I disagree @Pedant that something becomes a somehow loftier “adaptation” rather than fan-fic if it is…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty I am dropping in to defend the honour of fan fiction!

I think it is a wonderful, creative gift economy, where people (mostly women) write stories for free for one another. Sure, there are sexual stories, and some of them are really well done in fact. But by no means all fan fiction is erotic. Yes, the quality of writing varies…[Read more]

Has anyone else seen BBC 2’s “Winter Watch” to date? Last one is on tonight.

If you are a nature lover, the team are up in the Cairngorms and there is some spectacular bird photography, from feasting owls to flocks of geese by night, not to mention red squirrels, pine martens and otters. Plus, a whole lot of proper snow. Lovely.

Hi @AGirlCalledKill Welcome to our merry space! We hang out here to share jelly babies, jammy dodgers, fish fingers and custard and the like.

Then there are, as you can see, any number of other spaces, from the DJ box (the music thread) to episode discussions. Right now some of our comrades are doing an entire Buffy re-watch, plus there’s a fan…[Read more]

@Lisa Oooh are we playing Led Zep – I also love…

I discovered the Allah-Las recently – they are derivative of seventies garage sound and the lyrics of this one are rather retrograde too, but I love that guitar sound (they’re no Led Zep, but retro-pleasant…)

Ha ha – someone at the Radio Times has been surfing the more curmudgeonly corners of the Who inter-webs and come up with top things that annoy (a certain kind of) Who fan. I fear they have been reading the comments section under @DanMartin ‘s blog.

There are actually a whole lot of other things which annoy Who fans in different spaces. The…[Read more]