It’s a stunning opener for 7. There are so many good elements crammed into the running time, that you can see it as that idea of a condensced film. Fill it out with sweeping establishing shots, lingering looks and pointed silences and you’d probably be at 90 minutes. Instead it’s breakneck pace and looks spectacular for its TV budget.

Every time…[Read more]

I do love the central partnership of the Second Doctor and Jamie. The mutual ribbing makes it an easy relationship to watch.

“Try to make it a smooth take-off – we don’t want to scare Victoria”
(on Victoria’s skirt) “A bit short? I don’t know – look at Jamie’s”.

Capped off by the business with the Doctor grabbing Jamie’s hand as they enter th…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Yeah, I think it’s important to realise we’re probably getting a very simplified story of a much more complicated scenario. Philip Morris is a professional archive hunter and as Mark Gatiss said in his intro yesterday “dares to tread” in what can be hostile territories. As a middle man for Worldwide, I’m sure he’s able to grease t…[Read more]

Well, I’m delighted by the news. Really happy it’s content that completes/near complete stories.

Practically wore out my target book of Web of Fear when I was a nipper, and it only seems a short while ago I was talking about the (very good) audio version with @HTPBDET. So that was immense news for me.

Also looking forward to the Enemy of the W…[Read more]

@scaryB made a comment on the Terror blog about the target covers @JimTheFish and I posted, which made me want to share this. The earliest Who books were released in Japan and had some astonishing covers by people who clearly had never seen the show, or didn’t give a wet slap. I mean – everyone knows that British telephone boxes are red, don’t…[Read more]

@craig

Great – Tomb sounds like a plan. Loved the vid – got me properly excited.

Oddly apt as well. Whatever is announced on Friday, Tomb was one of the last big finds that put a whole story together.

@craig

No – it looks smashing (hence not finihing the quote). Startled me because I logged in and everything changed. I thought I’d pressed a button, or something 😉

“Lord President” is cool, but a Dalek motif could also be quite funny. “Emperor” would go with your avatar quite well.

Some interesting points I’d probably want to come back to when I have more time, but on one..

@bluesqueakpip

And it’s entirely possible for the audience to pick up a reading that the writer/actor/director didn’t really intend.

While certainly true, these things are always a bit difficult to evaluate because sometimes creatives can be a bit obl…[Read more]

@Craig

“ooh you’ve redecorated…”

It does look very clean, my Lord.

@craig @bluesqueakpip @pedant

Well it’s now officially official that something has been found..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24448063

I can now put away my disbelief of the story, and await what been found with a profound sense off anticippointment! 🙂

@janetteB

I agree with Fires of Pompeii. I think with that, and Planet of the Ood, Donna actually gets a lot of strong material to begin with. The trip to the future shows her the worst of humanity, and Fires actually introduces her to the real hard decisions that life with the Doctor will take.

@shazzbot

Aaahh. The amount of kneejerking over…[Read more]

Any ideas for Troughton?

I think @arkleseizure msuggested The Mind Robber (at 5 eps) and I suggested Tomb of the Cybermen (at 4 eps, although for people with access to the Watch TV channel, that story will be featured in the UK showing of The Doctors Revisited). If you don’t fancy B&W, he does feature in The Three Doctors (10th anniversary 4…[Read more]

@pedant @craig

Yeah – it’s the same story we discussed on an earlier Sofa. I tend to disbelieve it because it’s just too good to be true – Anniversary year, all the missing episodes returned, etc.

The earlier rumours just said “Aftica” and this names Ethiopia. Ethiopean TV channel ETS did have access to early Hartnell (up to the Chase, If I…[Read more]

@shazzbot

Ah…If you have the tickets, and get no takers here, there are other forums which we can direct you to.

Agreeing with stevethewhistle and @bluesqueakpip, yes, the anticipation in The Doctor at the end looks very weird, especially in retrospect as The Master being on Earth inevitably led to a lot of deaths.

As time goes on you do see The Master and Doctor are basically fighting old childhood battles of one-upmanship, with Earth as their playground.…[Read more]

@shazzbot

Many thanks for the generous offer, but unfortuantely (and with more than a little regret) I’ll have to decline. To arrange my weekend I had to agree to take on a pretty fixed appointment on Friday morning.

I hope others who are interested will see this though. An amazing opportunity.

@shazzbot

I’d do it as a Post this time. The Forum updates for the Next Doctor were just a formating experiment, which I did learn from so I’d be a little more prepared this time.

On the saucy pictures side, I’m sure it depends on how long you spend in the pub!

OK – I still think Christmas Carol and Snowmen are better, but watching this again made me remember how strikingly different this is, and why I do enjoy it.

It helps to watch it shortly after the madness of Wedding of River Song, rather than have a gap. This is quite a good understated Coda to that episode, with the Doctor obviously keeping as l…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

I should have guessed Cineworld because they have a track record of showing niche stuff like the occasional Bollywood picture and BBC/C4 Films. If you are all in the mood, it might be worth keeping an eye on.

There was a rumour (for anyone in or near Bradford) that Pictureville, which is associated with the Media Museum was in…[Read more]

After the announcement that plans to show the 50th special in cinemas were confirmed in general, this might be of interest to anyone who is actively seeking to watch the spectacle surrounded by people you don’t know, with colds you’ll inevitably get, munching loudly on popcorn, and with annoying mobile phone ring tones (which sums up my last…[Read more]