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27 February 2026 at 14:04 #78554
congratulations!
18 February 2026 at 20:32 #78548some eps and entire stories have gone. Film was expensive in the past and the bean counters didn’t seem to think twice before recording over it.
It was a different world. BBC I player has everything extant except (bizarrely) the first ever story… which is obviously important but (honestly) not particularly sparkling. The Daleks is a great starting point.
Bear in mind in 1963/4/5 no-one had any idea thst the show would last… and then it was reinvented! Hence the issue with continuity.
18 February 2026 at 10:04 #78546Wilf is great. As is Donna’s interaction with her mum. Loved part 1. Part 2 dragged on.
Harold Saxon divides Whovians, especially those who adore Roger Delgado, but I think John Sim’s foul and irredeemable Master is wonderful. Especially his burger-van-lady ‘special’ burger. And ‘I LIKE you! I bet you’d taste great!’ The theme also crops up in a later ep IMHO. Spoilers.
Best of all is the entire Master Race sequence. Chutzpah and Awe.
18 February 2026 at 09:51 #78545This was the usual eye-rollingly crazy RTD season closer… but a great season. I found the whole Osterhagen Key/exploding diamond/Davros in the cellar thing faintly ridiculous I’m afraid… that’s before we got to The Tardis towing Earth home. The metacrisis on the other hand was hilarious.
The ‘failed’ regeneration… The Doctor loses his hand in The Christmas Invasion and Captain Jack recovered it in order to track The Doctor down… now, it must have been on The Tardis the whole time that The Master turned it into a paradox machine wasn’t it? I can’t remember. Does that qualify as a plot-hole?
Anyway 10 has vanity issues, so he siphoned off his excess regeneration energy into The Hand, and remained 10, or 11, 12… depending how you count. Effectively he regenerated as himself. You need to watch Waters of Mars to understand 10’s self inflicted problem.
16 February 2026 at 11:51 #78541Online… BBC Sounds does have audio Dr Who on ‘4 extra’… if you can get it. You may need to register. It might mean declaring a TV licence; in the UK, live broadcast is free to air; not sure about streaming, cos I’m in the UK. Or you may find audio books on libraries, then rip to mp3 for your phone? I haven’t checked You Tube but I’d be amazed if you couldn’t find something there. Might be rather a lucky dip.
The thing with Who is it’s laden with continuity: you might either call that problematic, or rich and heady, like the world-building of Tolkien.
So, the best way might be to make a note of your favourite stories, villains and monsters in nu who and then investigate them in classic: so the Nestene Conciousness in ‘Rose’ and ‘The Pandorica Opens’ references ‘Spearhead From Space,’ and ‘Terror of The Autons’: all great stories.
Or, if you’re also interested in the current series, an investigation of The Mara stories is definitely worth it. Unless there’s another complete reboot coming up, they ought to feature soon; and the original stories were excellent, about the only thing that saved that particular era of Classic Who.The ‘Earth Societies’ of Robots of Death, Caves of Androzani, Voyage of the Damned and Doctor Widow and Wardrobe also seem related, rich and rewarding.
16 February 2026 at 08:41 #78540I was quite excited by The Colourised War Games. Such an important story canonically, but 10 eps (250mins) was a bit long: the mad charging about, scenery chewing and interminable sonic screwdriver action, tedious. Nonetheless, the contraction to 90mins seemed too drastic. Two 1hr or 75 min films (The War Games and The Time Lords) might have worked better.
But… is the chief Time Lord played by Bernard Horsfall, none other than Goth? Where does 2 and Jamie’s (future) adventures with Androgums fit in? Was there an (unseen) bigeneration? If ‘War Chief’ can be said to translate as Raja… was that The Rani?
5 February 2026 at 18:37 #78528My bf was/is a huge Bab 5 fan. And I preferred DS9. Fair to say B5 gave late DS9 it’s raison detre… forgive the font. B5 gave Trek the excuse to be dark… and NOT gunboat politics.
Lots to grind your teeth at tho… I mean DS9 and not just the Ferengi episodes. The cast was mostly (but not entirely like) as many Patrick Stewarts as you can fit on the screen. Sorry TNG.
But I still can’t judge 5.
5 February 2026 at 08:25 #78526Nu Who and Classic Who both went through highs and troughs. People carp about occasional Doctor lite eps, shipping and bad taste in the 9-10 era but it was consistently good. The end of seasons were mad. 11 & 12 showcased some amazing writing and performances but occasional quite indifferent eps too. I struggle with 13; a missed opportunity.
Classic is going to be an investment in time; there’s a lot and they’re long seasons. Also the production values are really quite different. The best seasons? Season 5-7 (docs 2 & 3… a lot of 2 is missing), 12-14 (doc 4), 25-26 (doc 7). Lots of other good stories though. Watch out for ace writers: Terry Nation, Terrence Dicks, Robert Holmes, Chris Boucher, David Fisher, Chris Bailey, Ben Aaronovitch.
5 February 2026 at 00:02 #78523The Doctor is known to regenerate as a result of trauma… 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13; poison/exposure to radiation… 3, 5, 10 (twice); forced regeneration or sacrifice… 2, 9, 14; and old age… 1, the War Doctor and 11.
But there have been occasions when The Doctor ages unnaturally within an incarnation… the thing you mentioned that The Master does to The Doctor, but also with 4 in The Leisure Hive. The aging was unnatural and they recover.
As for Jack, no one knew for sure that he was The Face of Boe. It seems likely that he is, and the ‘unnatural’ vortex driven nature of his apparent immortality caused some kind of long term metabolic deterioration (??!) Who knows?
btw both Clara and Ashildr are also functionally immortal, though Clara is in fact trapped just before the instant of her death, and Ashildr has a limited consciousness of her life because she’s run out of memory.
4 February 2026 at 09:18 #78520You misunderstand. My character analyses were for a putative reboot for OUR time: crooks are creeps, ruthless dictators are also venal idiots, freedom fighters hopelessly naive. MY kind of dystopia.
I just think you could have much more fun with the idea of The Liberator. Could a bunch of polynesians have done nothing with an C18th sloop without instruction from at least some of the existing crew? Let us not forget Chib’s useless ‘Sontaran’s have three fingers’ running joke.
Ok. The Liberator’s controls are obviously telepathic… why? Why would you want a bunch of aliens take over your ship? Or is the ship actually taking over the alien crew?
As I say… fun.
3 February 2026 at 08:53 #78515@dentarthurdent @janetteb @whohar
I am thinking ORAC. Don’t remember the others. Future AI will surely be inanity we’ve got used to or think cool for some reason. How long have people been saying ‘ooh no it’s coming for you… SO clever and snarky’ and I say ‘for them maybe’ and ‘why do you think that? Oh you spent a lot of money didn’t you? Cui bono?’
Seriously, The Liberator is a problem. Even on the original show. It’s like ‘my lord, I have discovered the purest Unobtainium! Let’s celebrate!’ That has to be rethought.
Was Avon actually a crook originally? He could be really sleazy and unpleasant. Servalan a very very obvious venal and self important stuffed shirt. Blake a hopelessly naïve idealist with dark secrets. For our time…
2 February 2026 at 21:19 #78512Female Blake? Cyborg Avon? Canine Servalan??
I definitely recommend Trojan Horse Liberator… actually a Von Neumann machine, with brain wipe reverse isomorphic controls. Your dystopia has nothing on mine.
…. riffing on that, a Galactic ‘Pleuribus’ crisis, even? Canine Servalan develops disturbing (for the Telegraph) Rigellian pentasexual tendancies…
Annoying computer just churns out rubbish cat based AI: everyone believes/goes ahhh/giggles inanely.
I’m rambling…
31 January 2026 at 11:02 #78509I must have seen virtually all of B7 in the first run. I remember the everybody dies finale. At the time I assumed, whatever Michael Grade might say, that tv sci fi was going to look a bit rubbish compared with Hollywood. And obviously the writing was pretty consistent and good. Wouldn’t have known who Chris Boucher was now I realise he clearly knew his stuff and – can I say this? Happy NOT to be working with Tom, who apparently wound him up.
In hindsight… problems. How to reboot?
The Ship. Well, that’s fortunate! An alien trojan horse might be a more convincing scenario…
Disappearance of Blake. It’s called Blake 7 stupid.
They had a rubbish computer didn’t they? I mean it was apparently a neat computer but so was K9. In need of C21st upgrade.
The resolution of deadly conflict in dystopia. Not saying ‘everybody dies’ can’t be done, but you do need Fortinbras and The English Ambassador.
29 January 2026 at 09:33 #78506You get the impression of people jockeying for position… but actually he’s making a general point that money doesn’t necessarily make shows better, and there isn’t as much anyway anymore!
‘Something went wrong.’ Really with Who and from a writing point of view, that’s only true of the season ends. The ratings are another issue, and it’s difficult to see how the show can continue without change.
Any other show would reboot. That is, reinterpret the ‘classics’. But Who is in a state of continual reboot. This is why continuity is a boon or a curse, depending on whether you’re a fan/writer or The Corporation. Was Disney and/or another streamer a way to duck the issue of preventing writers producing uncomfortable material? ‘We are no longer your paymasters. Talk to The Mouse.’
So, does that mean Russ/a n other is freed from control? Clearly not. Probably still under discussion. I’d like to know what Head of Drama Commissioning thinks.
15 January 2026 at 20:03 #78495@thane16 @nerys @mudlark @whohar @whisht
Much (though far from all) my knowledge of Classical comes via the prism of Prog. Mind you first time I heard Tapiola by Sibelius it was a ‘building a library’ program… basically a Head of David like 1/2 hour wall of sound interspersed with two terribly educated gents asking each other… ‘which one do you think is noisier?’
Thank you for the New Year effort whisht. Two options after Tom Waits (I laughed) was Fred and Rita cutting the rug to Led Zep. I laughed.
14 January 2026 at 11:00 #78491Howard Goodall (of multiple tv theme contributions) presented an interesting program a decade or more ago called ‘The Story of Music’, about the Western Classical Tradition. Not sure if it’s still in circulation.
However, I found I parted company with his narrative after Beethoven. Not because I don’t like Romantic Classical but I just had a different narrative in mind. I can see that after Ludwig, composers must have been forced to kick around for a new direction (in my mind they’re Spike Milligan and pals advancing on the camera saying ‘what are we gonna do now?)
So, Howard calls Berlioz psychotic (ok maybe he’s a little crazy), spent far too long discussing Liszt (Howard was lining up a good kicking for C20th tonalism) and ignored Tchaik and Sibelius. Can’t remember what he said about Brahms; maybe that Wagner had the good choons (though I’m sure he also repeated the line about Wagner having brilliant moments and terrible quarter hours). He quickly hurried on to Satie, Debussy and Ravel.
The Beeb have just done a brilliant Composer of the Week about Aaron Copeland; I somehow found the biography of a C20th composer much more engaging than some German/Frenchman/Russian/Scandinavian being tortured by their pretty piano students.
10 January 2026 at 17:19 #78478Floyd… ah, that’s Rog that is. The music became his idee fixee because the rest gave up. Money was a huge issue, everywhere. There is such a sharp distinction between the post rock collective approach of Radiohead (and others but not everywhere) and the nastiness that preceded.
Even bands like Cream, a band formed specifically to write, but Jack Bruce did seem to undermine that.
That may not seem all that relevant now. Music today is about streaming not writing and contracts. And rewarding talent is a very different matter…
9 January 2026 at 22:57 #78473Hipgnosis covers are very cool.
DSotM was a breakthrough; Floyd had some success earlier but, as a band they were unaccountably down on it. Lots of sterling work, largely the setlist of their ‘69 stage show, was frittered away on movie soundtracks and b-sides.
Richard Wright had been Syd Barrett’s biggest collaborator, but Waters and Mason could barely tolerate his compositions. DSotM supposedly featured his last major contributions though his work on Wish You Were Here and Animals sounds stunning to me.
1 January 2026 at 14:32 #7846030 December 2025 at 16:26 #78452<p style=”text-align: left;”>@dentarthurdent</p>
if they’re clouds, and you see them, presumably they’re not vapour but condensed droplets not yet ready fall like the gentle rain from heaven21 December 2025 at 20:14 #78429Only watched as far as The Deep (ep 3) so far. Interested to see the various resolutions, if Russ manages that, because there’s a lot of tropes and peculiar soft sci fi genuflections which I’m sure can’t be all they seem to be. But by the time you read this, you’ll know.
It’s interesting that this longer form seems more successful than the ‘combined’ effect of the various episodes of the last two series. Though there were real short form triumphs there too. Whether this is down to a rush in writing and editing, or because Russ is now less in sympathy with an episodic structure I’m not sure. Cos he mastered it effortlessly before.
Some critics have been moaning about UNIT too. I recognise the issue and hope this is part of the same question of resolution. ie I think the world of ‘The War’ is distinct to the world we’ve been looking at in Who.
Does that make sense?
Sorry, I watch ‘The War’ on I Player in Britain. Surely it’s on Disney+? Good luck. I think it’s worth watching.
10 December 2025 at 09:33 #78425Yes, I suppose writers’ relationship with the show was different after the gap, because of the gap. But there are loyal writers who were apparently cast aside before. And writers who were obviously commissioned, delivered and slid away after; Maxine Alderton almost made the Fam and T’floox work for ooh 45 minutes or so. Where is she?
Is it a case of ‘try anything once’? Or ‘not working with that guy again,’ or ‘it’s a madhouse!’
Obviously I think in a madhouse, one writer is as good as any other and anyway it’s a kid’s show.
tWBtLatS… it’s not a disaster… yet. 3 out of 5 is about right. As opposed to the (anticipated) complaints about heavy handed eco virtue signalling, I am worried that there are good ideas here which will be sold short. It does have a hohum feeling but NOT a glazed eye feeling.
I do hope it’s not Stockton Rush who’s going to deliver Barclay to the abyssal plain.
Stompy Robot? Husbands of River Song? Only problem is the final freeze frame. Not sure if Michael is being taken. I can take End of Time. ‘I like you. I bet you’d taste great!’
9 December 2025 at 17:39 #78421Hope this doesn’t give too much away. Overall, yes watch it!
Positive:
Acting… though Russel Tovey does his best, Barclay the character could become annoying.
Theme… why ARE we specularly failing to control plastics?
Effects… those are great rubber suits! No really it’s fine and we’ll be watching that water flow down the big tube many time I’m sure (sigh)
Unsure:
Bit slow… the ‘naming’ thing takes up lots of verbage. Maybe there will be a point at which Barclay will actually ask ‘what do you call yourselves?
There seem to be some clumsy Checkhov guns yet to be let off. Not sure how RTD can stop the overall effect being quite silly
It’s the new UNIT with all that entails… but not all the Who interns, so far anyway.
The villains/antagonists and the conflicts among the humans tend to the cliched comic book level. The overall effect may also become quite silly.
We’re dealing with marine reptiles with retro evolved gills. I think there should be more of… ahem… a ‘barf’ factor. But maybe not all of Checkhov’s arsenal is deployed yet.
2 December 2025 at 13:45 #78412Why do writers leave Who?
Robert Holmes, series 16
Ribos: The last but one Holmes story before he was apparently exiled for 4 years. One received well, the other rather less so. Need to be careful here because there are people who get touchy about this era. But new team of Williams and Read had a problem: the Hinchcliff/Holmes formula was verboten, they just delivered one stinker in Underworld and Invasion of Time was rather more miss than hit. On top of that Liz Sladen refused to come back. So, someone cooked up the Key of Time arc. Not a fan myself. 4 himself dismissed the concept of The Guardians in-show 2 series later.
But Ribos obviously has the design to inspire much Nuwho continuity, from ‘lots of planets have a North’ to the Time Lords own Visionary in Day of the Doctor, and the Mire-like helms of Graff Vynder-K’s mooks. Holmes does his sparkly gab and deft broadstroke characterisation, though Mary Tamm is rather let down by the ice queen in the ivory tower Gallifreyan trope; I’m sure she vould have been far more acid and Tom might have handled The Doctor being taken down a few more pegs. Oh and now Yappy-Sue K9 can dissolve solid rock… without draining its battery! It’s Sunmaker level, which is fine, maybe not from the very highest tier, but this gallops along. Even the critter is ok by virtue of not being a variety of man in gimp-suit.
Kroll: Read and Williams had already been ticked off about bad laughs in Invasion of Time. David Fisher seems to have been allowed the odd sly joke in his brace of eps, and Ribos had it’s own a slew of permissible risibility, but Holmes excuse for Kroll is that it was boring because Read insisted.
The exteriors are shot in the Suffolk marshes; squelching in the mud had to replace any humour. Actually, Kroll itself isn’t too bad for the effects of the time. The Swampies’ green dye wouldn’t come off. Embarrassin’. The human ‘dryfoots’ are rather boring and ridiculous cannon fodder. Some details in the plot, like how The Doctor learns about Kroll or The Doctor resonating a window til it shatters in true Fat Lady tradition, are just stupid.
It’s an inferior reworking of Fury from the Deep which ought to be fine, considering Holmes is already working on the elements that would come to glorious fruition in Androzani four years early, but the overall impression is Holmes gave up on the script in disgust.
1 December 2025 at 21:19 #78411In the age of ‘rage-bait’, malicious blatantly revanchist/irredentist sites and posts, of funded social media stooges, of bots and fake foreign avatars of known personalities, can we really claim the new information order down to ‘matters of opinion’ or reactions to apparent ‘mistakes’ made in obviously exceptional circumstance?
That the pandemic should be quite such a catalyst is predictable… it’s a source of considerable stress, but not related to the main narrative. This seems to be lack of trust in governments, institutions and industries, possibly as we atomise around the illusion of our ‘intelligent’ devices, and new generations forget a time when they weren’t.
In terms of ‘pbs’… it’s very odd. The cost isn’t great. Do you or do you not want an element of broadcasting to be independently funded? In the case of The BBC the main problem seems to be that the License Fee is not a natural tax. I don’t mean ‘just’. You really might not think you have to pay it. There is no great cost. You pay for other stuff. Why pay for this too?
This is being exploited.
There is one common theme: don’t tax us. No state; Do as the uber rich say? Collapse state; exploit disorder?
Other dystopias are available.
29 November 2025 at 19:26 #78404I don’t know John McKay… and I’m sure I should … apparently hugely influential. You get the idea that there were so many musicians like Keith Levine, who hadn’t done the grammar school music thing and so didn’t launch into classical references and jazz, though jazz was anti rock (which in early 80’s was very cool…) most of the post punk would agree.
I did wonder if you meant John McGeogh (obvs you don’t) who joined Souxsie later. He was both a willing servant to the music and looked to other innovators he couldn’t quote directly (cos they were rock baggage at the time).
29 November 2025 at 15:00 #78402@nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb
This was the high water mark of S1. Only the finale (of the series) was a real problem, because those 2 eps dragged, and begged so many questions. That is, intelligent guesses can be made about to the arc but most people aren’t that interested. This means the show (or rather RTD and Gatwa) become a target to people who really aren’t interested in the show. Or even more of a target than they would have been already.
28 November 2025 at 19:37 #78397I have so so much admiration for those who, Pete Sinfield said of Ian McDonald, can pluck a string, hit a key or vibrate a reed and create a pleasing sound. Because I can’t. I can only admire and read.
The tritone is a dissonance, ‘mi contra fa’, avoided and ‘demonised’ by medieval sacred music: typically an augmented fourth. Romantic composers liked their musical pallet rich however: so naughty boys like Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz gobble it up; also Debussy and Bartok, and you hear it in Mars and Uranus from Holst’s Planets.
‘The Inner Light,’ ‘Blue Jay Way’ and ‘Within and Without You’ by Harrison all feature Tritones. I think he may have started writing on the Hammond organ around this time; obviously ‘Without’ may have been written or adapted for Indian traditional instruments, but George seems to have searching for new musical colours in 67.
Then Hendrix, Black Sabbath and King Crimson hijacked the tritone to develop ‘metal’ tunings.
I think. It’s the less cuddly one.
The BBC have bigger problems than some dissatisfied customers. That is dissatisfied customers want to know why they’re paying the license fee.
How do you fund a public sector broadcaster? If parties in favour of the private sector want value for money, cos they want people to pay for their own product, how do you get them to commission original drama and documentary? What if the third parties you decide to purchase from on the cheap don’t comply with your editorial standards?
ie Watch Out!
27 November 2025 at 21:55 #78395three tones apart sounds like the tritone, long described as ‘the Devil in Music’ and rejected by musical theorists until C19th. Significantly, George Harrison did use it more than once.
Disney+… I can hardly say it was satisfactory but S1: 3-6 worked; also S2: 2-7. Only S1: 7-8 were abject failures.
The main problem is we don’t know where the show goes next. Or what the legacy will be. We seem to be mid arc. But if the arc is VR… and Poppy is Belinda’s very human child, who is to say Poppy doesn’t REPRESENT Susan’s mum? So, maybe that clip WILL be used yet!
Also, the Doctor apparently has several wives. River is last seen in a VR reading bedtime stories to (the magic number) THREE children (one of whom is Charlotte Lux). Bet she LOVED that.
So Time Lords meeting in the right order isn’t necessarily relevant, but even so there’s something about ‘the causal nexus’ invoked there (whenever that was)… what the hell is THAT? Got my own suspicions about Saxon and Missy.
But, will that story be developed now? Maybe without Disney’s proscriptions, things will seem less fevered.
27 November 2025 at 10:13 #78391@dentarthurdent @devilishrobby @nerys
I must admit of all this series, 73 yards is the most erm… enigmatic.
The distance is about the Tardis in some way: who the woman is; what she says to third parties at 73 yards, I’ve no idea. Nor why Mad Jack should be imprisoned in the ring BEFORE he manifests Roger ap Gwillem…. but that’s magic… or timey wimey or whatever.
I did have theories re Rog…
1. echo of Harold Saxon… name, missile obsession, toxic masculinity… which makes me wonder anout his other obsession… DNA. Obviously, half the genetic heritage/history social media posts are stirring the alt right pot. But could it also be about Gallifreyan dna?
Also, what did all the Zygons do?
2. Then the interpretation (translation) of the name… ‘renowned spear’ and ‘helm of domination’… the rod and coronet of Rassilon?
But that would make the arc a ‘Mindrobberesque’ Virtual Reality… eventually including other Virtual Realities in a recursive loop reminiscent of… Castrovalva?
RTD has a new (brief) interview. The Special has been written ‘in his head’ since 2021… because it was the initial idea apparently. So, resolution of the arc, or a tease?
Wonder if there are some surprises in tWBtLatS that may feed in?
25 November 2025 at 17:01 #78385Goblin King… NOT the Jagrafess??
Music… it was a thing. Then it went away. It’s as if Russ wasn’t really interested. Contractural obligation? Exhibiting to the Head of Drama the error of his ways? Like it will make a difference.
24 November 2025 at 14:18 #78379@nerys @whohar @dentarthurdent
@whohar… that prescience got you at least one other returning classic Who villain… do you have a source or is it rude to ask? btw if you do, and the 2026 special looks precarious, then it IS bad news for bonkerising of all kind.
But you might want to think about Oct 5th. Boom wasn’t broadcast on that date. 3 and 3 only Who stories were: Mind Robber (Virtual Reality) Paradise Towers (?? toxic masculinity and the Great Architect) & Remembrance of the Daleks (Hand of Omega). But, if there’s a handover after 2026 it could all be in the air.
The same goes for the return of Villengard. It cropped up in Twice upon a Time… and we’ll see it again, but ‘Twice’ a shout back to Moff’s first era or hints of Cartmel 2.0 being seeded?
Villengard…
V’linx…
Valeyard???
Anyway, Boom was brilliant, powerful, topical.
24 November 2025 at 09:06 #78373Ok. I knew about new showrunners choice and the rationale. My response was a bit Carry On.
Though coming straight after Dharwan stepped out in Whitaker’s it was uh… THERE.
Really, 13>14 WAS more loaded than 12>13. Again, does this reflect the unrelenting blandness of 13?
23 November 2025 at 23:21 #78370Dharwanmaster got 13’s clothes. The revived 13 got his! 14 in that clobber would have been hilarious, but they went for the long goodbye didn’t. Fairly sure that’s the hand of Chib. RTD wouldn’t have turned that chance of a laugh.
23 November 2025 at 17:29 #78368Safe to say, the historical costume thing is a mixed bag. Queen Victoria made a lot of assumptions about Rose on the basis of some rips if I remember. 6 wearing his full regalia in late Georgian Geordieland is quite funny: but he wouldn’t be entirely sane again until Terror of The Vervoids. I’m sure someone should have said something: like ‘wahay! Is tha Circos in toon?’
Sarah Jane managed to scrounge some suitably ragged drab gear for the early Middle Ages but that was not preplanned. Bill DID plan for the same time period, but then there were other aspects of Thin Ice which were a tone deaf.
Aside from JNT’s ludicrous sartorial instincts, there’s not much consistency. They say time moves at the plot. Maybe fashions do too.
More concerned about why 14 COULD NOT wear 13’s clothes. Anybody understand that? This before 15 DID NOT get 14’s trousers. Do we know if 14 still have his shirt or… let’s not go there…
23 November 2025 at 15:02 #78366The Christmas Invasion
Is THIS really 2nd tier? Well no. This is the start of the tradition. You might say Daleks’ Master Plan had a Christmas themed episode for the day, but it was part of a story not designated a special. And it’s 10’s first romp.
So, this is Independence Day. But the Doctor is having a post regen crisis, which means things get out of hand before 10 recovers thanks to a spilled thermos of tea shorting out some gizmo on The Tardis. Hey, that turned up on Wild Blue Yonder. Could be significant?
At the time I was a bit annoyed about pathetic humans farting about while 10 belched Artron energy. That seemed to take a long time. As it turns out the Predator like aliens are ignorant grifters if not ‘a bunch of pansies’ as King Julian might (incorrectly) say. It’s slright. Naughty 10 pushes the big red button, gets his hand cut off in a fight, regrows it, gets thoroughly hammy and overwrought, then defeats alien leader with a tangerine. Hint of the demise of The Toymaker?
Welsh Voyager designer blames himself for for his clever science attracting the scammers, then 10 says more or less the same thing. But surely they turned up BECAUSE The Doctor is Tom & Dick, or why the pilot fish thing?? Because the robots do actually then try to murder him. Hints of a rewrite perhaps? Surely not the Empress of the Racknoss getting some retaliation in early? Or Harold Saxon even? Cos it does appear to be the same tacky gear as in Runaway.
A quibble. It’s fine. IMHO the breakneck beginning of Runaway Bride is better. But the Sycorax’ giant garbage tip spaceship is far funnier than the Christmas Star.
These 2 eps are of a level. The concept isn’t quite cooked and we now know that Moff’s soufflé will blow us away, but Invasion is the template, so I give it leeway.
Voyage of the Damned is the best though.
Doesn’t David Tennant look young?
23 November 2025 at 14:58 #78365The nature of the attack on human culture by an ‘implosion’ of the musical instinct was undersold… Both those two early eps had great potential and maybe in a full season ‘chord’ could have been a two parter… because the idea is worth exploring, maybe with more than one musical number? Would have loved a Sharks vs Jets pastiche. Could have rocked some Dave Clark ‘Having a Wild Weekend’ innuendo too…
The Beatles? I love em. Not everyone does, though Please, Please Me officially started the sixties. Before that young fellahs had bebop records nestling against their r and b imports. Seriously, Lennon and Harrison were Magpies. Maybe no one had yet heard of Mr Zimmerman and his interesting words but those four would.
The problem is, why do these guys look more like The Rutles?
23 November 2025 at 10:33 #78358@whohar @nerys @translatorcircuit
I suppose you have to say Chib and… what would you call it… gender avoidance (?) was a reasoned response to a particular narrative problem. The Doctor is always challenged by regeneration. He’s never the man he’s assumed to be, so SHE might not turn out to be convincingly feminine… uh. This is a case in point isn’t it? But I am reminded of JNT shooting the show in foot with the choices over Colin Baker.
Anyway both RTD and Moff went to great lengths to sidestep or disarm the question of gender after Rose. Most recently the whole question was retconned quite differently for Gatwa. But getting Whitaker wrong COULD have been the source of much controversy and/or bad taste, leading to show imperilling criticism. I don’t HAVE to invoke suspicion of Corporation censorship, but I’m sure it was there.
So can you blame Chris? Yes, cos the writing and production decisions he did make were woeful. OK anything more daring would have been a tightrope. We obviously don’t think it was unwalkable. At any rate it was disappointing and appeared to justify all those who said it couldn’t/shouldn’t be done. Quite a fail.
22 November 2025 at 19:23 #78355@whohar (i think) mentioned that Chib didn’t tell the (other) writers in series 11 that 13 was a female Doctor. Not seen this source myself. Was the female doctor really a secret that long? Also Chib wrote or co-wrote all but 4 eps anyway.
Series 12 of course has the ep with Byron behaving badly: that was NOT a corseted era and Jodie wore sans culottes, rainbow top and trench coat. BUT it was fun: thanks for dialogue Martine, I’d forgotten you could do that.
Chib may have been exercising his own puritanical impulses but, yes, I suspect he had been told quite strictly what he could had couldn’t do. And the result was deadening.
22 November 2025 at 10:39 #78351I’m investigating why Who struggles to hold on to good creative people. For instance, JNT was famously reluctant to work with Robert Holmes. Chris Boucher wrote Face of Evil, Robots of Death and Fendahl… all ‘A’ imho, but he left Who to edit Blakes 7 and the Beeb wouldn’t let writers do two shows simultaneously.
Looking at David Fisher next (The Leisure Hive is my guilty pleasure)
But Sutekh retconned as Fendahl might make a bit more sense of Empire of Death and the Pantheon but money is still on VR.
22 November 2025 at 07:55 #78349Here’s an interesting thought… Pyramids of Mars was hinted by Doggo in Space Babies and the desolate world without music… BUT I wonder if there is also a link to Image of The Fendahl, 2 years later?
Evidence…
There are 12 deities in the pantheon; The Fendahl is a Gestalt being with 12 components Fendahleen and ‘the core’.
The Fendahleen are disrupted by salt.
The Fendahl drains and destroys all life (on a planet not the whole universe).
The Time Lords destroyed the fifth planet, leaving the asteroid belt, and The Doctor discovered they had hidden what happened…
When asked about the fifth planet, The Doctor says something like ‘the Fendahl came to Earth probably by way of Mars.’ Was Sutekh so scary because he’d gone Fendahleen?
21 November 2025 at 20:55 #78347A lot of strange reactions to this series; gen z-ers really seem to have a down on Dot say, but seem to be more forgiving of these last two eps. On the other hand everyone else execrates them. It is hard to say because social media is so divisive.
I need to rewatch the last two; got as far Legend, gave up, not good…
The new Unit…
The Time window is a yawn.
Sutekh is… very incorrect. And dumb.
Even if what is happening IS what I imagine, it’s just not good writing.
BUT things are explicable… Who, I’m afraid, is a sideshow. Worse stuff going down at The BBC.
Stories 3-6 were gems though.
21 November 2025 at 18:08 #78346So Voyage of the Damned says Christmas can take you anywhere. We’re looking at Russ vs Moff in the seasonal time. So I’ve done Next Doctor, and End of Time. One teases the end of 10 and delivers the Cyber King. Ho hum. A Dickensian message didn’t expect it to be very nice.
Then you get John Sim to do his best crazy stuff, but people don’t like him. Not beardy enough. So, 1 1/2 hours would be great and End of Time IS Russ’ best bosh… but it drags on. All those self congratulatory loose ends.
Less is more. And it’s not a BIG MEH story ostensibly… we get a City of Death stylee formation of Earth story but it’s not important because Runaway Bride starts off at a million miles an hour. The first half is breath taking… Russ at his finest. Remember Russ and relearn. Also though some people like their arm candy, Catherine Tate is quite fantastic.
But… it’s basically the same Christmassy stuff that wound Russ up the year before. Ok, I know what he means. It also has added WHO… and uhhh the Racknoss Queen is ridiculous, you know? IMHO. But, though the template isn’t there yet, this a cracking good yarn. Now we judge it by a standard that didn’t yet exist THEN. In the day it was just another Christmas Show.
Tennant in his pomp. Where would the show go next?
20 November 2025 at 15:49 #78339Do I mind the in fiction quotation of current ills/issues…? Not really. You may think Russ has reaped what he’s sewn, or he might argue he was on a hiding to nothing because the targets and statements aren’t really that different to the first run, it’s just the ratings are lower.
River… she has a damascene conversion in Hitler’s office and later sacrifices herself for 10. Rogue changes when he sees 10/14’s face in the scan, then sacrifices himself. Or Rogue could be Jack. Though Jack was only ever a con artist, not a bounty hunter/assassin. There are various mutiple parallels: Roger ap Gwillem may be reflection of Harold Saxon OR possibly Rassilon…
20 November 2025 at 08:35 #78337the central ‘2 quarters’ of this run were superb. With more than a hint of an agreeable ‘what the hell?’ More than a notch up on eps 1 & 2 anyway, though thematically they were also getting there.
My favourite is Dot and Bubble: though gen Z do seem to have taken it personally. Rogue is a marmite one and provoked lots of gnashing of teeth from the new philosophers. This was the point where Russ and Gatwa hate took off. Others execrate the goofy monsters. It’s an in yer face send up that may not have the impact of the previous 3 (73 yards still baffles me) but it’s more than competent. I enjoyed it more on 2nd viewing.
Who is Rogue? Jack is the obvious reference but what about River Song in Forest of the Dead?
19 November 2025 at 22:20 #78334The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.
This has a rep as a 2nd tier show, a year after the much loved Christmas Carol with its Blinovitch denying Timey Wimeyness. But, no companion, no arc… there really shouldn’t be a problem. It’s A Straightforward Christmas Show: a CS Lewis seasonal special derived from Lion W&W AND Magicians Nephew, with added Matter of Life and Death. LOVE Magicians Nephew btw… I can forgive a lot of dodgy philosophy just for that book.
What could go wrong?
The space suit? Maybe less incongruous than the fall in End of Time or Woman who Fell to Earth. Moff handles it.
Alexander Armstrong of entitled Spitfire pilot fame as the doomed airman? He’s mostly absent by account assumed death.
The waste of the talents of Arabella Weir and Bill Bailey? Arabella gave us the ‘woman no one can hear’ and Johnny Nice Painter’s long suffering wife. Bill is a man who should have been given a keyboard or a guitar based laser weapon.
Child actors: I wish they (and the script) been as good in the actual Narnia films.
The weak/strong thing? Just pretend you understand and let it go.
Strange details like Uncle Digby being sent to a home in Battersea during the blitz. That DID need zhushing up. Couldn’t they hint he was Mosleyite sent to the Isle of Man or something?
Grief. This the man who will later blow up cybermen to mark the start of WW1. No one knows that yet. The line, “the answer is they’ll be sad tomorrow” is as unglib as you can get. Less is more.
But Moff then messes it up. Who is up the tower? Who is down? And that Madge is a piece of work, pointing guns and driving tripods. The scatty house wife trope is rather heavily rotated; you might have annoyed some people, Steven. And Trau Morgus might be sending his timber harvesting minions to the eastern continent (Morgus then breaks the fourth wall).
Of course there may also be an element of self insertion in this… “I know!” smarms 11. So, is Moff actually saying ‘no I don’t know. Who does?’ That would be cool, if a little deep for your typical Christmas Day audience.
The happy ending happens and doesn’t, I’m afraid, gel.
But you admire the ambition.
Better than Time of The Doctor or The Next Doctor. Only really as uneven as The Snowmen. And not as barking as End of Time.
19 November 2025 at 12:32 #78330@whohar @nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb
design by committee? More dictact in my opinion, and contrary to the spirit of the show at that. I’ve probably said too much already.
The question is, with so much (supposed? imagined?) interference, why HAVE the main parties been so diplomatic? Well Andrew Cartmel wasn’t. Moffat has made the odd salty comment and apparently only sidled back at Russ’ behest. Russ had the show to run and he probably felt he could be magnanimous, save the soul of the show, shovel Disney out of the door and still enjoy breakfast at the end of the universe. Is that hubris, a death wish, or recognition that it’s all out of his hands? There is BBC blood in the water and the ‘gammonhead sharks’ are circling. OR have things have changed since even 2022, when he took it on? Well yes.
The writers also remember Colin Baker being sacked and Eric Saward resigning then launching into JNT. The show was gone in three seasons.
The most even Russ has said is that the ideas in TTC are sound enough (therefore were they broadly planned and not just by Chib?) There’s mention of the execution, which was of course woeful.
The biggest problem is the 8 Morbius faces, in that I suspect that whole scene was meant to be meta, showing National Viewers and Listeners Association that the show runners were ‘the monsters’ (ie Morbius) Not sure a single Hinchcliffe statement about the Doctor having an existence before 1 should be taken at face value; at that point there wouldn’t haven been A Plan.
But they can’t be ignored now. Or… could Morbius be another bigeneration of The Doctor? This is the problem: ideas suggest contrary alternatives. And NONE of it is actually REAL. Except for The Art, which, as we know, trumps Words and Deeds.
18 November 2025 at 13:43 #78327@janetteb @whohar @dentarthurdent
Final word.
My initial thought re Chib was that the undoubted mess revealed a degree of incompetence and that was it. BUT I was also aware of criticism of Moff, suspicious about incongruities in his story lines (though I suppose that could also be the way Moff rolls); also a little surprised that the Being Human team (Whithouse and Matthieson) didn’t get the gig. I can see now that was, ahem… wishful thinking: never going to happen.
The relative silence about the process: I can only put it down to the Ming Vase concept. You DON’T break it. So Russ says yes pass it to me! Woops. But it’s an impossible task. And he knew he would carry the can, because he understands the politics, and lo! See the approbrium he has garnered. On the other hand he has successfully shown that outside interference in the show’s format will be a disaster. So, time for a reset? Hmmm how will that play out?
Or what else could it be? An just an unfortunate series of events? The show has always had its knockers and it HAS been cancelled before. Hence the Ming Vase. No-one wants that. Or DO they?
Observation: Moff got the gig sixteen years ago with Piers Wenger as co executive producer. Moff went eight years ago, Wenger is still there, commissioning drama. Good job!
Continuity. Most ‘old’ shows would get a reboot… just start again and retell the old stuff with knowing jokes. Who didn’t do that: it twists the canon and changes the question; it wears change like a badge of honour. This is a problem. Twenty years in, writers realised that you couldn’t just come up with any old rubbish. You needed a plan. Thank you Andrew.
Now @whohar you make not like The Doctor being too special, but why are all the other time-lords such crashing bores? Yes all of them; if The Master wasn’t such a loon, he would be boring too. In fact he is quite one-note. No wonder the race keep falling off a cliff. So anyway, Andrew said the Doctor (and Omega and Rassilon) ARE special. It’s canon, and now part of the plan, IF there is still a plan.
Of course there is a Plan. The soufflé is not the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe. The Plan IS tricky. The theme is ‘Who?’ You can’t give everything away up front or the show ends; so you tease, you may need to introduce two new twists say for everyone you solve. Also The Plan may be hijacked. The Plan could even be a screen for other activity… though again tricky because the first rule of The Plan must be you don’t draw attention to The Plan.
So, did Chib do what he did under cover of The Plan? There was an intention to investigate non-human Cybermen; the Doctor’s parentage would always be questioned and explored; and why did the Doctor leave Gallifrey? Andrew Cartmel may be jumping up and down on the sidelines after TTC because it was obviously done so BADLY, but he’s not involved anymore. Russ and Moff are, and they don’t want to start a war. Or drop the vase.
But why was it done so badly? I don’t actually think Chib is THAT poor a writer. He must have known the Fam was a potential disaster. He might not be able to tell a joke but he was surely wincing at the sheer dullness of his tenure… until it became incoherent. Not sure if the incoherence wasn’t a bit meta either. Conclusion, Chib was under instruction. Moff refused to be instructed and he went quietly as it turned out. Don’t smash The Ming Vase.
What is SO dangerous about Who that you would want to sabotage it… so very carefully? I’m sure the Corp would prefer control. Keep the fans fed and let it die a natural death. Well, while the ratings are good the critics keep their heads down. But the premise… science fiction… is itself dangerous: ideas, which suggests other ideas; there is always an alternative and someone is going to find at least something uncomfortable. From bug eyed monsters to Mary Whitehouse to an… erm sexualised Doctor, THAT narrative doesn’t change. Time and again, the same demands are made of the show: give it more emotional impact (er… it IS sci-fi); make it a soap! Soaps involve continuity and shouting don’t they?; make it space opera… look at Star Wars and Marvel; go back to historicals (oh dear history is contentious too… tell you what, stick a monster in it).
Continuity is the killer though; it says you can’t control the past. If a public service broadcaster wants to stay away from scrutiny in a hostile climate, that’s a nightmare. And are the Corp under pressure now! The private sector is just going to sell you back something you thought you already owned. A streaming platform should be ideal: make them hold the purse strings, and keep the writers in line. And I think they’ve been trying since 2015.
17 November 2025 at 13:46 #78323@nerys @dentarthurdent
TTC… Russ at least was at pains to point out that TTC was as sound an idea as anything in Who. Of course Missy is shown as being heavily invested in Cybermen. In The Doctor Falls, The Doctor makes Gallifreyans ‘upgradeable’. Dunno what the significance of Ashad is. Anyway, that plot line COULD have been a slow burner.Can’t remember Moff’s exact response but he did say something a bit jokey along the lines that Chib would really appreciate him out of the way (!!) Then he wrote Douglas is Cancelled.
Andrew Cartmel was furious about TTC but got slapped down. He’s not carrying the Ming Vase anymore; Russ and Moff are.
Moff’s legacy:
Timelords rehabilitated
The Doctor gets a new regeneration cycle
1 is 1, he turns the cylindrical uncamouflaged Tardis into a police box.
All three are trashed in TTC. Not just (sarcastic) ‘cheers Chris.’ More… ‘Oh that’s a bit vindictive really… was that REALLY your idea?’
17 November 2025 at 13:25 #78322@dentarthurdent @translatorcircuit @janetteb
Sea Devil music was of course all by the Radiophonic workshop… KC’s The Devil’s Triangle features in Mind of Evil.
Tsk gonna have to watch that now.
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