Why adapt The Star Beast?

The story was written in the first year of Doctor Who Weekly in 1980. Very different times. I was 10 for a start! Living in the industrial Midlands in a mining town.

Obviously @jimthefish has talked enthusiastically about the production transition from comic to screen and I share his awe. 10 year old me would have been…[Read more]

I’d been meaning to come back to this story for a while, and then Tuesday saw the sad news that Ian Gibson, noted comic writer and artist had passed away. I’d touched on his and Alan Moore’s Ballad of Halo Jones in a blog I’d done for our retrospective of the 2007 episode Gridlock and its relationship to the comic 2000AD. I thought I should cha…[Read more]

@scaryb @jimthefish @craig

Gutted to hear that myself. If anyone doesn’t know about the impact Halo Jones had on Andrew Cartmel’s run on Doctor Who can I post this link to the blog on 2000AD I wrote back when we were doing retrospectives?

2000AD Doctor Who (Gridlock edition)

@whohar

The Toymaster did go full Prince Ludwig from Blackadder @ps1l0v3y0u, @phaseshift. But showed his sinister side with that “sunnier climes” comment. With the excellent “I was born in Cheltenham” as the response.

I thought that was particularly well handled myself, and although RTD went for it in the behind the scenes stuff I think he shou…[Read more]

There seems to be a lot to unpick in this episode and I’m away from home. I’m looking forward to rewatching it when I get back home on Tuesday so I’ll post some thoughts then.

I’m pretty certain there is a lot of evidence that RTD is going to lean into the more fantasy arm of Doctor Who history as we discussed last week. The question of who the…[Read more]

@mudlark

@devilishrobby beat me to it, but the start of End of Time Part one has flashbacks to the scene indicating it was ‘The Cult Of Saxon’.

Time to break out that copy of Lord Voldermorts Bumper Book of Resurrection Spells again!

This is interesting. On the commentary to this episode you have RTD and Phil Collison on talking and suggesting this ‘biregeneration’ has echoed back through all the other regenerations.

I’ve had a go at transcribing:

RTD: So then, the whole timeline bi-regenerated. Sylvester McCoy woke up in a drawer in a morgue… and Jon Pertwee woke up on…[Read more]

@craig

It’s almost like RTD can never let David Tennant go

@juniperfish

I think you’re right @craig, that RTD can’t quite ever let Tennant go. But honestly, what’s not to love about that?

I honestly don’t think it’s that controversial to be honest but I think it’s bound to be read by some as a lack of faith in N’Cuti. They have Tennant in rese…[Read more]

@jimthefish

are you suggesting that there’s a link between the Fendahl and the Great Vampires — maybe relates species or sub-species? Cos I like that idea a lot.

Yes, although I blame Steven Moffat who had Missy musing that maybe all lifeforms may hit a technological point that they think “let’s give cybermen a go! What could go wro…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

And @phaseshift, I suspect RTD2 may continue to refer to him as the Celestial Toymaker, in keeping with the dictionary definition of being from the heavens or the stars.

It would be nice to think he had the choice. I don’t want you to think that I buy the criticism is any way, but it has been fashionable for the past decade…[Read more]

@whohar

Yes to a bit of Blackadder! That’s exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about. Having the Doctor mock him in that way would definitely work.

(Talking of Blackadder, I watched the millennium special ‘Back and Forth’ a while ago for the first time in a decade. I actually found it a lot funnier than when broadcast for some reason. The…[Read more]

@juniperfish @miapatrick

Did anyone else think about E-space from Tom Baker’s day, and the Great Vampires?

Actually your musings on salt and mythology reminded me of something else from Tom’s era. If you fancy looking at it on i-player, it’s in season 15 and called ‘Image of the Fendahl‘. It shares a link with ‘State of Decay‘ in that the F…[Read more]

Sorry I couldn’t comment last week. I enjoyed it as I enjoyed this one. It’s actually a pleasure to be faced with Doctor Who that I actually want to watch a second time (or even more). But …

I’m actually finding myself weirdly disconnected from the episodes to the extent that I’m wondering what they are for exactly.

When the Disney deal was ann…[Read more]

I’d been meaning to pop in before tomorrows return, but it was the new blog by @jimthefish and the mention that finally woke me up.

Happy 60th to you all.

I’ll definitely respond to the blog in depth. To be honest I’ve struggled to organise my thoughts when approaching the Chibnall era, so maybe having your thoughts to bounce off may be helpf…[Read more]

As I’ve not been a regular for a while I thought it best to bring a gift. A brand new Sofa! This snazzy little number is from IKEAs kerplunk range. Enjoy! Oh, and…
HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY DOCTOR WHO FORUM!
Yes – it was 31st December 2012 when @craig very kindly set up this place to kill time and celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. We’d just watched…[Read more]

@jimthefish & @blenkinsopthebrave

Hi and Seasons Greetings!

Yeah, I really enjoyed the trailer and was delighted to see the comic characters you mentioned Jim. If you’d told 10 year old me that we’d have this 42 years later … well, I would have probably dropped my Curly Wurly!

It’s fascinating really – on the one hand it’s a big statement of i…[Read more]

Talking of ‘The Timeless Brenden’ I can remember on that thread probably confusing a lot of people with talk of Sony negotiating with the BBC to obtain rights for Doctor Who. The main point was that the BBC may have suddenly been keen on this radical change to lore to facilitate this move. Well, a year and a bit later and Bad Wolf is announced as…[Read more]

Hi all,

I’m playing catchup as well and I’ve just binged the first two episodes.

I have to say I probably enjoyed them more than I was expecting, but confess that I started with such low expectations that I probably had a lot of room for manoeuvre. I thought the Halloween Invasion was interesting in terms of structure (although I thought it may…[Read more]

@jimthefish (+ everyone else, big wave!)

Really unexpected development that really makes you wonder what’s been going on behind the scenes. Not only Russell “The” Davies, but outsourcing production to Bad Wolf Productions (first time since the Eighth Doctor movie, fact fans) would seem to indicate that the BBC may be admitting they’ve screwed…[Read more]