Liz Shaw

Steven Moffat and his heterosexual agenda

6 April 2010 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Karen Gillan in a mini-skirt

Dear God. Curse that Steven Moffat and his heterosexual agenda. Sexiness in Doctor Who? No. No, no, no, no, no. Since when has Doctor Who been anything more than innocent, unsexual fare for kiddies? I’m going to write a strongly worded letter to the…  

Oh hang on.

Wendy Padbury in a catsuit

Well apart from her. She was a brainy scientist type in a totally authentic outer space librarian outfit.

Liz Shaw in a mini-skirt

And her, cos she was a brainy Cambridge scientist type. They all wore mini-skirts like that in the 70s.

Leela in leathers

Oh definitely apart from her. She’s from outer space – that’s authentic outer space tribeswoman that is.

Tegan in Doctor Who

She doesn’t count – she’s Australian.

Peri in Doctor Who

She’s American. And the producer was gay, so it was entirely innocent.

Peri in a bikini

Oh bugger. Oh well, so much for that idea.

Meme of the week: Who’s your TV heroine?

3 June 2009 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Quite a simple one this week:

Who’s your TV heroine and why?

Heroine obviously has a lot of mileage, so it can be someone you admire (since your TV heroine need not be fictional), a favourite character, or even someone you think is a good role model.

I’m going to go for a combo of Verity Lambert, Kate Adie and someone else I’ll probably think of later once everyone’s started suggesting people (otherwise, I’ll end up picking Liz Shaw again). How about you?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×5 – Home Truths

26 November 2008 Rob Buckley 5 Comments


Doctor Who Companion Chronicles: Home Truths

How disconcerting. I thought they were going in Doctor order with these, but now we’ve skipped back to William Hartnell again. Wait a sec while I get my bearings.

Right. Whenever there’s a Doctor Who list-writing competition/meme (and these do happen very, very, very often), one of the lists is invariably "shortest-lasting companion", with the challenge being to identify who counts as a companion: anyone who travels in the TARDIS? Anyone in two or more consecutive stories who travels in the TARDIS? It all starts to become a bit tricky, when you consider that Liz Shaw, for example, never actually travelled in the TARDIS yet is undoubtedly a companion.

Fellow competitors in the ‘tricky’ stakes are first Doctor companions Katarina (Trojan priestess) and Sara Kingdom (future secret agent), both of whom pop up around the time of The Dalek Masterplan then promptly cark it after a minimal number of episodes in said story.

Which makes a Sara Kingdom Companion Chronicle an even trickier prospect for Big Finish. How exactly can you get Sara Kingdom to start recounting a tale of her life with the Doctor when she meets him and dies in the same adventure?

Sounds like a bit of a ghost story. Gather round, everyone…

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×5 – Home Truths”

Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×3 – The Doll of Death

30 October 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Doll of Death

It’s going to be interesting to see how the crop of companions from nu-Who are regarded in 30 or 40 years’ time. As much as Rose might be loved and Martha disliked now, will time swap them in future generations’ affections?

Take a look at Jo Grant, one of the third Doctor’s companions, for example. Brought in to appeal to kids in a way connoiseur’s companion Liz Shaw was unable to, Jo Grant was very popular during her stint on the show.

Now, she’s reviled as a brain-dead waste of space and a retrograde, anti-feminist step on the part of the producers, who had also wanted a companion who needed saving and had to have everything explained to her – and Liz Shaw is revered by anyone with any sense.

But Big Finish is here to save the unsaveable. It made Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford popular. Surely it can make Jo Grant interesting for one of its Companion Chronicles. Can’t it?

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×3 – The Doll of Death”