Alden Bates' Weblog

A tremendous end to an awesome series.

Continue reading "Doctor Who, Series 5, episodes 11-13"

This series is, so far, the best the new show's managed. That said, the latest three episodes have been variable...

Continue reading "Doctor Who, Series 5, episodes 8-10"

Yes, I'm slow about posting these. I blame RTD for sapping my interest in Doctor Who. Moffat is slowly winning it back, episode by episode, but it's a long, uphill struggle.

As usual, spoilers abound.

Continue reading "Doctor Who, Series 5, episodes 4-7"

A very lightweight start to the season. More comments after the cut to avoid spoilering anyone who might not have watched it.

Continue reading "Doctor Who, Series 5, episodes 1-3"

Like part 1, I pretty much knew what to expect, as it was typical of just about every Davies finale thus far. Despite it having many good moments, it felt ultimately like a bit of a let down. This was Davies' last chance to write a finale, and instead he more or less repeats himself.

Continue reading "The End of Time, Part 2"

To summarise in advance: The End of Time, Part 1 is an example of a typical first part of a Russell T Davies finale. If you're seen his previous finales, you'll know what to expect.

Right, from here on, spoiler warning apply.

Continue reading "The End of Time, Part 1"

Helpfully under the cut, in case you're one of the few people left who hasn't seen it. Spoilers included, obviously.

Continue reading "Doctor Who: Waters of Mars, in a nutshell"

This time, with UNIT fighting Cybermen. Seriously the BBC should give this guy a job!

previously: Doctor Who Anime - yes, I realise it's still halfway down my main page. I am so terribly slack of late.

Making a Doctor Who anime, part 2:

Smashing work!

Gee, blink and half the month goes by!

Good Monday was good because it brought me The Next Doctor on Prime (which I'd already seen) and Planet of the Dead, which I hadn't. The problem with Doctor Who doing a year with just 4 specials in is that there's not as much lee-way when you get a duff story. Planet of the Dead, the Easter special, is a bit duff, and it's all we're getting until some vague date in November.

Spoilers follow...

Continue reading "The Next Doctor/Planet of the Dead"

I have two links!

Back in the Village - an ongoing comic based on cult series The Prisoner

and

The last couple of weeks of Player Versus Player - have been full of Doctor Who goodness.

A while back I wrote about a fan-designed Police Box Transformer. I was unaware at the time that there was actually a canonical (in Transformers canon anyway) Doctor Who related Transformer. In a 1989 UK comic drawn by Lee Sullivan (who's not unknown in Doctor Who circles, having drawn Abslom Daak strips for DWM), one of the ruling Decepticon triumvirate, Octus, is quite clearly meant to transform into a Dalek.

Sadly Octus has never had a toy, but considering we've recently had the Transformers toyline cross-over with Marvel's Avengers, Star Wars, and Mickey Mouse of all things, I think it's time for Hasbro and the BBC to strike up a deal and bring us a toy version.

Although I'm not entirely sure how the transformation would work!

TSV 61 came out in December 2000 and featured the aforementioned article on the New Zealand performance of Seven Keys to Doomsday. It also featured one of my favourite TSV covers ever. See if you can spot which movie it's based on!

Festively, you can also read The Karkus and "the Two Santas".

I remember there was a version of this cartoon which appeared in RTP around the same time, featuring that 'zine's Cyber-guy character.

I had two audio adventure reviews in TSV 61 (by then I'd stopped getting the books): The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, featuring the sixth Doctor and Evelyn, and The Fires of Vulcan, featuring the seventh Doctor and Mel. Both great stories!

Also very interesting: Jamas' article on Religion in Doctor Who, which is a somewhat more complete overview of the show's history of the treatment of religion than previously published in the 'zine.

Next time, interviews with Colin Baker and Gary Russell, Beyond the Sofa tackles The Tenth Planet and Attack of the Cybermen, the first of a series of articles by David Lawrence on the New Adventures, and reviews of the Pertwee era on Prime TV.

Previously: TSV 60
See also: Entries by Paul and Jamas.

Must. Keep. Up. Blistering. Post. Rate.

So anyway, back in 2000, when I had an ISP which actually supported Usenet, someone posted a question in rec.arts.drwho about a production of the 1974 stage play Seven Keys to Doomsday which was put on in Wellington some ten years later. The question sparked memories for me of both an old newspaper clipping I'd kept, and of seeing a news item about the play on the evening news. Unfortunately I hadn't gone to the play itself (in fact, I have a vague memory that I turned down an offer by my parents to take me, as at the time I didn't think it'd be as good as the TV show). Don't regret what you do, only what you don't do, as the saying goes.

Surprisingly, the 1984 performance of the play wasn't common knowledge, and Wellington fan Graham Howard tracked down director Brian Hudson for an interview which appears in TSV 61. As it happens TSV 61 is the issue I'm currently getting ready to put online, so watch out for that within the next week.

Another wave of Robot Heroes has turned up, so it's time to play guess the Doctor Who title!

Can you guess the Doctor Who story title represented in this picture?

Edit: The answer was "The Unicorn and the Wasp", as represented here by Unicron and Waspinator (Not to scale).