Doctor Who

An archive of blog entries about British science-fiction programme Doctor Who.

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×2 – The Great Space Elevator

18 September 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Great Space ElevatorWell, there’s good news and bad news for this, the second of the now-monthly Companion Chronicles. The good news is that after two spectacular misses (Fear of the Daleks and Helicon Prime), we finally have a second Doctor Companion Chronicle that actually feels like a second Doctor story. The bad news is that it’s just not very memorable.

Told by Deborah Watling, who played Victoria during the second Doctor’s reign, it’s one of those future Earth stories that were so beloved by the era (eg The Moonbase, The Invasion, The Seeds of Death), in which some exciting world-changing doohickey has been invented and some aliens come along to take it over.

The trouble is that it’s pretty much that – a regular old second Doctor story – rather than something more exciting, such as a chance to give Victoria some decent characterisation.

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Thursday’s bloodier news

18 September 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

Books

British TV

  • Red Dwarf cast reunite for new episodes, John Cleese and Johnny Vaughan get new series – all on Dave
  • Mutual Friends‘ ratings down to 3.3m
  • Channel 4 could face £100m annual deficit

US TV

Tuesday’s Rusty biography news

16 September 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Doctor Who

Film

Art

British TV

US TV

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Torchwood – Lost Souls

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Lost Souls

JACK: Okay, listen up fucktards. It’s Torchwood here. We’re below the law, beside the government and over the top and we’re here to educate you about the Higgs Boson.

MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Yes, you idiots. You know nothing about CERN or the large hadron collider or really difficult science things. So Radio 4 have asked us to come and educate your asses for Big Bang Day.

MORE MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Shut it or I’ll make you smell my coat. I haven’t washed it since I first got it and I was buried in peat for 2,000 years.

GWEN: Ych y fi, Jack!

JACK: Right, the Higgs Boson. It’s… Hmm. Anyone know? Gwen?

GWEN (ON PHONE): Can I phone a friend? Rhys? Oh, Rhys man! What are you doing? I loves you. You knows I loves you!… But Rhys… Why her?…

JACK: Maybe not then. Tosh? Oh sh… she’s dead. Owen. Oh sh… he’s dead too. Christ, they were the only ones who knew anything. Martha?

MARTHA GIGGLES AND IMPERSONATES A PIECE OF WOOD

JACK: Ianto?

IANTO TRIES TO AVOID JACK’S EYE BY READING THE CRACK-A-JOKE BOOK AND LAUGHING UNCONVINCINGLY

JACK: Guess it’ll be me then. Erm, it’s a thing that you, like, see. Erm, inside rain drops. Protons? Are we clear yet?

MORE MURMURS, THIS TIME OF RIDICULE FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS WELL EDUCATED RADIO 4 AUDIENCE

JACK: What do you mean Torchwood know sweet FA about science, so much so it’s embarrassing? Oh…Look over there. It’s an eagle. No really. Look! Look!

AUDIENCE LOOKS STAGE RIGHT

JACK: Quick, Ianto – the rear entrance!

Excerpt from Torchwood: Lost Souls

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Sitting Tennant

Today’s Sitting Tennant: At the playground (from Rosby)

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

David Tennant at the playground

A Tennant a week: it’s looking good. This week’s Sitting Tennant (feel free to step up the pace, if you want, guys and gals) is from a playground and was provided by Rosby, who is clearly going to have her own empire one day with this degree of determination. I have no idea if she took it herself or whether DT was there specifically or if he was passing by at the time.

The current Sitting Tennant league tables stand (ho ho) as follows. For pictures, Ms Rosby has extended her lead and is now on six entries, while Persephone is on four. Poly on three and a half, Toby on three and Scott on two. Anna has one and a half and Marie and Rullsenberg are at the back with one each.

The Witty And Amusing Captions league table hasn’t changed but Toby has extended his lead as well. He’s now on eight captions, while Marie and Persephone have six, Rullsenberg and Electric Dragon both have three captions and Poly and Stu_N are on one each. Feel free to leave captions below for this entry, too. Will the rebel forces fight back against the new empire?

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. You can also enter the witting and amusing captions league table by commenting on existing photos in the gallery.