Issue 2 of Tardis Base Magazine is here (finally), and what an issue I PROMISE it’s going to be. There’s so much crammed into these 62 pages, it’s practically bursting at the seams. We have our first magazine exclusive interview with the amazingly talented Justin Richards, the godfather of Doctor Who authors. Are there any Apple fans out there? If so, you’ll love our ‘Who’s In The App Store’ article, which counts down from the worst, to the best apps available for us Whovians to enjoy. There’s also a look at this year’s upcoming Christmas special, as well as a countdown of YOUR favourite Christmas specials from the past few years, as voted by you. We also review Series 6 - Part 2 of Doctor Who, Torchwood Miracle Day, and we bid fare-well to The Sarah Jane Adventures. There’s also another massive exclusive in the magazine, in our new feature, Fandomonium. A very kind reader of ours sent in a vast selection of pictures from the 80s Doctor Who conventions, featuring candid shots of Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison and many more famous faces! It’s a real treat! The Cyberman have invaded the Monster Mash, converting it into a metal, emotionless place. Sounds fun doesn’t it? If that wasn’t enough to feast on, there’s also all the latest news, a review of Elisabeth Sladen’s moving autobiography, an in-depth look at The Planet of The Spiders in the Vault, Web of Lies reviewed, and much more! If you don’t enjoy this magazine, we’ll give you your money back. In which case, you’d have to pay us so we could give it you back, because we’re free. Free as the wind. All this for free. Eeee, we are good to you aren’t you? So what are you waiting for? I hear by unleash you on Issue 2 of Tardis Base Magazine! Go! Explore! Have fun, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought at tardisbasemagazine @ g m a i l . c o m right after! •
NLESS you’ve been living under a Slitheen, you should know about the huge news that recently shook the Whoniverse. It has been confirmed by multiple sources that David Yates (Yates being the first one to break the news) will be directing a movie version of Doctor Who which is currently in early planning. According to reports, Yates will wipe the slate clean with Doctor Who, and start again with a brand new version of the show fit for the big screen. Yates recently said in a magazine interview: “Russell T Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch. We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too”. The current plan is to launch the film in the next few years, after being drastically reworked by Yates and the BBC, making it totally separate from the mother show. Many fans are in shock (including us) at the small (sarcasm) detail of them
starting “from scratch” with the show. If there’s going to be a movie with a huge budget a new story line and new mythos, won’t that make the TV show
redundant? Doesn’t that make the very idea of a show based on the same idea, but without the cinema production a bit pointless? An overwhelming amount of fans are saying that they just can’t do this and I have to agree. What is wrong with them just following the current canon of the show and extending that into the cinemas? Look at what happened last time Doctor Who was adapted for movies. The Peter Cushing movies
following the story of the Daleks were just a pale imitation of the show, and the 1996 was OK, it was just a very American version of the show. History proves, it hasn’t worked before, so why do they think it’ll work this time? I think we all know the main reason for that. David Yates. He directed the last half of the Potter series and took it right to the end. Personally, I thought Harry Potter was better before everything seemed to be shades of blue and grey (is that just me that noticed after the 4th film all the colour was sucked out?). It’s not just fans that are reacting badly to the news. Alex Kingston, who plays River Song said: “I can’t believe they’re doing it. Who are they going to get to write it? Who’s any better than Steven Moffat or Russell T Davies? They’re the best”. She does have a point. What are they going to achieve by changing everything? What’s so wrong with it now? Will it even work if it’s so different. Isn’t that the reason the show is the success it is, because of what it is. Matt Smith has also spoken up about it, saying he doesn’t know anything about the project and he highly “doubts” he’ll be involved in the slightest. Then there’s the flip side. What if this film is done in such a brilliant and respectful way that it’s hard not to love? What if Doctor Who films do become the next Harry Potter and a global smash. I’m guessing if this is Yates’ follow-up to Harry Potter, that it’s most likely going to be something huge. Even though a lot of us are dubious over this project, I think a lot of us (even me) are looking forward to Doctor Who in the cinema. The rumours have been flying around
for years of a big-screen Doctor Who film, and it’s finally happening (just not in the way that we all thought it would). With news like this, the first reaction is always going to be shock, but until we know full details, we can’t really judge it, can we? What if they pick the best Doctor ever? What if it translates perfectly onto the big screen and they don’t change too much about the concept of the show? What if...We all...Love it? I can guarantee, over the next year or 2, we are going to be drip fed the tiniest details of this project. As far as we know, the movie might even be axed. The world of film is very fickle and if they don’t think something will make a big enough profit, they won’t do it. With such a huge piece of news, I couldn’t just give you my views on it (how biased would that be?), So I turned to you guys to give me YOUR views on the subject and you really delivered with some interesting thoughts and feelings. On Facebook, Robert Grahem said: “[It] will be completely disrespectful to the tv show and a disaster waiting to happen unless it stars matt smith or whoever happens to be playing the doctor on tv and fits in with continuity.” Guy Lancaster also smells doom for the project, saying: “I don’t recall the Peter Cushing movies being all that great, and they tried the same thing; adapting the story outside of continuity for a bigscreen audience.” Lindsay had an interesting thought with “They could maybe do a movie based on a future incarnation of the Doctor using the same continuity, but a different actor.” I guess a future incarnation could work, but it’d be very hard to link that back up to the series if the actor doesn’t want to stay on as the Doctor full time. However, Ryan really isn’t keen on this idea, saying: “Unless it’s not really a reboot and for the 50th instead, they can jump off a cliff with this idea. I suppose we’ll have to wait to find out more.”
I think a movie for the 50th Anniversary would have been perfect, wouldn’t it? Owen Cunningham on the other hand came up with a very logical explanation on how the movie could work, stating: “I’m sick and tired of people slagging this off, and there’s nothing past David Yates own words on it. Its not a reboot. Its not wiping the TV Series clean. Its not re writing the TV Series own history. The TV Series will still run on along beside it. These movies are just developing their own canon, like the 2 Peter Cushing films. Look at them like Peter Cushing films without Peter Cushing. This isn’t a reboot one little bit. This isn’t taking over when Moffat leaves. Its just a plain simple movie, running along side the TV Series. A better way to put it is, think of these films taking place in a Parallel Universe.”
Nye Marks on the other hand, can’t see a fourth Doctor Who movie working, “There have been three Doctor Who films over the years: The Peter Cushing movies and the 1996 TV Movie. None of very good. Will a fourth film be good? Probably not.” Hmm, the track record isn’t looking very good. Could the 2010’s prove to turn that around? Michael D’Andrea is optimistic though: “I think if done properly ( with Yates along with a rumoured Johnny Depp) it could make this franchise a huge success and help it to conquer America.” One thing is for sure, whatever happens, it’s going to be an exciting and surprising journey, so bring on the next few years! •
ARCUS Wilson, the new Doctor Who producer recently revealed to Doctor Who Magazine that classic monsters from the 1960s and 70s will be making returns to Doctor Who next year in Series 7. Over the years, we’ve seen many classic monsters return to Doctor Who, revamped, including the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and Silurians, but it seems the monsters from the first 4 Doctors will be making some grand come-backs. Speaking about it, Marcus said:
“We’ve got a couple of returning monsters, some old fan favourites, but we’re going to move them on a bit, that’s how they were done in the 60s or 70s. Here’s what we can do with them now. Kids these days are really good at spotting bad CGI or prosthetics, so we can’t do anything substandard. One flick of the remote and you go from Doctor Who to Harry Potter. We’ve got to compete at that level, on a hundredth of the budget.” So what monsters would you want to see return? Fan favourites over the years have included Zygons, Ice Warriors, Sea Devils, Omega and many more!
The Zygons is our choice for return! There’s something rather creepy about them with their squashed faces and suckers, isn’t there? If they don’t come back they, we’ll just let Zygons be Zygons (excuse the terrible pun). •
T seems that some fans will pay just about anything to get a piece of the Doctor! During this year’s Children In Need event the 11th Doctor revealed that we would be selling his costume, as seen in The Doctor’s Wife and The Night Terror’s as well as a signed copy of this year’s mini-Children In Need Special. The Doctor also took all of his clothes off, and replaced them with hologram clothes which disappeared
when you pressed the red button. I bet Captain Jack was the one pressing the red button. After days of furious biding, the items, including the Doctor’s jacket, shirt, pants, boots, bow tie, braces, watch and the script sold for an impressive £50,000! The bidding started at 99p, BUT quickly jumped into the thousands as a bidding war ensued. The mystery £50,000 bidder now owns the very clothes off the Doctor’s back. In other news, fans across the
globe are now immensely jealous and are considering robbing banks to buy there very own suit. Or is that just me? •
EFORE we can celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who (which we are all dying to do), we have to get 48th and 49th out of the way first. So let’s raise a toast to Doctor Who, officially 48 (as of 5.15pm on 23rd November) years of age. How did that little science-ficition show end up becoming the how worldwide institution that it is today? The first episode of Doctor Who saw William Hartnell star as the Doctor alongside Carole Ann Ford as his granddaughter Susan and Jacqueline Hill and William Hill as Barbara and Ian.
I’m sure for some it only feels like yesterday, but for the rest of us who weren’t born then, it’s always fun to travel back in time to the days of the black and whites. Happy Birthday Who! •
VERYBODY knows that the companion is as much important to the success of the show as the Doctor. If people don’t like the companion, then they won’t like what’s going on around them. It’s comforting to know however, that Karen Gillan has said she’ll welcome the next person to fill those huge boots with open arms! Speaking to Grahem Nortan, Karen
revealed the future for her character, and her thoughts on her replacement. “I don’t really know what’s going on, I think that’s all up in the air at the moment. I know I’m going to be coming back, but I’m not really sure when. But I know that the time will come where Amy and Rory have to leave. It’s inevitable and sad, but that’s the nature of the show, and I’ll welcome the new companion with open arms. I think it’s important to do other things and establish myself in other ways.” In a recent poll held by Tardis Base, 57% of you wanted Amy and Rory to stay and 43% of you wanted them to go. So far, all the evidence seems to suggest that a new girl (or guy) is going to fill the full-time companion status and leave Amy and Rory as the old gang, popping up now and then. I have to say, I’m rather glad. I think it’s time for some new blood to travel with Matt Smith in the TARDIS. •
ATT Smith recently revealed in an interview with BBC Breakfast that Series 7 of Doctor Who would begin filming in February 2012. He stated that they would film the 13 episodes for the series, as well as the Christmas special and a 50th Anniversary special. It was recently confirmed that Doctor Who would move to Autumn, instead of a Spring launch, meaning that this year there will be a much bigger game in between the Christmas Special and the start of the new series. It is still unclear who the companion will be in Series 7. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill have already been confirmed for return, but not as full time regulars. Will there be a new companion in the seventh Series, or will the Doctor travel with Amy and Rory and solo for the rest of the time? Only time will tell. •
ver the years since Martha Jones left Doctor Who, she’s popped up quite a few times, and it seems she might be doing it again. Speaking about the 50th Anniversary, Freema said: “If they want to do a big group thing, I can’t really envisage anybody in the Who family saying no. It’s quite a marked occasion, and a good opportunity to rekindle… For the fans, it is exciting for them as well, and everyone gets together.” Would you want to see Martha Jones back for another appearance, or is it time to leave her character alone? •
A stunning first issue which has a real Professional feel about it. I myself am a fanzine maker, and for a first issue this is amazing! Brilliant in fact! Matt Tardis base magazine was brilliant to read. I read all the pages. It’s one of my favourite magazines! Daniel Incredibly impressed with this, top notch quality. Very professional. Frazer
It was one of the best fanzine I’ve read! Alan I thought that issue 1 looks absolutely fantastic, well done to everyone who contributed. I especially like the monster files feature Lewis Amazing! I love it! It looks so professional, the design is awesome and the content too. I’d definitely buy this if it actually got published! Mark Very well written and very informative.... Can’t wait till the next issue! Cas WOW! Even better than doctor who magazine and doctor who adventures! 10 out of 10. Thomas Great magazine! Can’t wait for the next one! A+++ Wendy Great magazine, love it! María
Love it! Can’t wait to read more. Darryl I love it! Very well done. Timothy
Looking good. Cannot wait for more issues Colin First issue is great - hope to see some more! David
but I was so wrong. I thought the Sarah Jane tribute was very good and I think that like yourself I grew up with her in the same way I’m only 16 but I’ve watched her in the classic series for years. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait for the next issue and the ebook. Luacwick
I really like the first issue. Thanks for all the work you’ve put in, its appreciated. Craig
Thanks a lot for sending me the advert for your new magazine, I read it and it was brilliant! To be honest I was expecting a badly edited mag with all the articles copied and pasted from the DW website
If you have feedback on Issue 2 of Tardis Base Magazine and want your views heard in our next issue send your feedback to tardisbasemagazine@gmail.com and we’ll get right back to you. We love hearing from you, and hearing your suggestions. After all, we’re all about making the magazine better for you! •
I would like say a huge thank you to all of the online Doctor Who fans that helped us make Issue 1 what it was. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Combom.co.uk and doctorwhonews.
net for posting about us and really getting the word out. We’d also like to thank planetgallifrey.blogspot.com for their support and kind words on the magazine. A huge thank you also goes out to anyone else who posted the magazine on their websites and pages. Thank you. I thought I’d just run through a few numbers for the magazine, so you can see how the magazine did. The magazine managed to get a huge 2,865 UNIQUE readers. I never in a million years expected the first issue to have such a
huge reaction, so thank you to everyone who supported the magazine and helped spread the word. We’d also like to thank all of diehard Facebook fans. You guys know who you are. You are always there when we drip-feed you information with your words of encouragement and excitement for the magazine. I’d also like to thank EVERYONE who emailed in their support, questions and submissions. Without you, Issue 2 wouldn’t be what it is, so thank you! Let’s make Issue 2 even bigger! •
Great layout! It’s the best fan product I have ever seen, really great job! Richard
ELCOME to the section of the magazine that is what Doctor Who Confidential is to Doctor Who. Oh...Wait...What? It’s been cancelled? Oh...erm. Let’s try that again. Welcome to the section of the magazine that is what Doctor Who Confidential WAS to Doctor Who before the BBC axed it even though it was one of the highest viewed shows. Politics aside, Issue 2 is finally here, and what a trek it’s been to get here. I honestly wish you guys could see all the time and devotion that has gone into this issue. First of all, it’s almost DOUBLE the length of Issue 1. Not just a few extra pages, but nearly twice as many. And we’re still free. We always will be. We do all this for you, so don’t say we don’t treat you right. Issue 2 of Tardis Base Magazine has been long time in the making. Literally. The day after Issue 1 launched and all the positive feedback was coming in, I started working on concepts for Issue 2. That’s how addicted I am to the work. Actual production didn’t begin on the magazine until mid-October though. Maybe I should have started a bit earlier, in heinsight. As you probably know, Issue 2 was pushed back 2 weeks so it could be finished properly, to a high standard. If I had to release it back on the 12th of November instead of the 30th, it would have been a mess. I don’t even think you want to know how bare the pages were... Issue 2 has really been a dash to the finish line. With all the marvellous content, double the amount of pages, bigger pages (literally, each spread is 400 pixels wider and 200 pixels longer!), I don’t think I quite understood how much harder Issue 2 would be than the first Issue. That aside though, I really think the hard work and dedicated does show. At least, I hope it does. I enjoyed working on this issue so much. I’m really not just saying that either. I genuinely had a blast making this issue. For some reason, I felt so connected to the content. I think above anything, the content has improved greatly since Issue 1. I think that was always my aim for the second Issue. Issue 1 was testing the waters, to see what worked and what didn’t work, Issue
2 is where the real hard work begins. Last issue, I wrote every single article myself, but this issue, you guys submitted some of your (brilliant pieces of work). There are two pieces by the very hard-working and devoted Nye Marks, and a very witty piece by the talented Guy Lancaster. There’s also the exclusive interview! That’s over the page. I think you’re going to love it. It’s with Justin Richards. Imagine him as the godfather of Doctor Who books. He has literally written so many over the years, is was hard to think of what to ask him about. He has achieved so much, and he has the best stories to tell, and he’s such a sport agreeing to the interview. I’ve done a lot of interviews in my time (working on Mad Doctor Who Magazine) and I’ve interviewed a lot of people, some big names (Nicholas Briggs to name one), and some smaller (but just as important) names, and then there’s the people that never replied to my emails. I won’t name names, because that wouldn’t be fair, but there’s a certain writer who has ignored dozens of my emails over the years, when his piers have all kindly replied. Like I said, I won’t name names, but he’s written a LOT of stuff for the TV show(s). Ooo, I feel like a bit of a gossip now. That’s what I love about writing this section of the magazine. I get to let you guys behind the pages, to what goes on behind the magazine. You could flick through the 62 (yes, 62!) pages of this magazine in seconds, but not realise the weeks and weeks of effort that went into it. I was talking about the planning of the magazine when I got so side-
tracked with thank-yous and name dropping, wasn’t I? The content of the magazine has been changing up until the last minute, literally. The cover has changed multiple times. I thought I’d include the original press release cover, and an earlier version you guys never got to see (that was about the 4th version I think). The direction of the magazine changed a lot, but it eventually clicked, all the content and designs slowly came together, and it just felt right. The strange things about magazines are, you pour everything you have into it, and it’s sometimes hard to realise how much work you’ve actually done. It’s insane. As I’m putting the finishing touches to the magazine, I’m also trying to finish reading Elisabeth Sladen’s autobiography because there are 4 huge blank pages in the magazine at the moment where my review has to go. As if I didn’t have enough work to do, I’ve also got to read a book at the same time. So far I’m half way through, and the launch date is 2 days away. That’s how close it is going to be. I will do it though (I hope). If I don’t, then you’ll notice 4 pages missing. I could always move it to Issue 3, but where would be the fun in that, eh? •
When did you first want to become an author? I’ve always been a writer – scribbling stories and telling jokes. Because jokes are a sort of short story really – they need a structure, a beginning, a middle and an end. But I don’t think I really believed that it was possible to be a writer as a job and career until I was quite old. But it’s something I’ve always done.
Doctor, as I suppose I feel more connected to the ongoing series then. But I enjoy writing for them all. I’ve not yet written a full novel for either the First or Third Doctors, though I’ve ‘done’ them in short
How did you get into writing for Doctor Who? Many years ago, when even Rassilon was young, I sent a proposal for a Doctor Who book to Virgin Publishing, who published the Doctor Who New Adventures series. I’d done quite a bit of writing already – articles for Doctor Who Monthly, as it was then, as well as lots of fanzine stuff – and I was working as a technical writer for IBM. So I guess I knew how to write. Peter Darvill-Evans at Virgin, who gave so many writers their first break into fiction and novels, liked the proposal and my sample chapters and commissioned me to write the book. That was my first Who novel, called Theatre of War and it was published in 1994.
stories. So I shall enjoy reciting that at some point!
Over the years you have written for many of the Doctors. Is there a Doctor that you favour when writing?
Not only have you written novels, but you’ve always written audio adventures for Big Finish. Does writing for audio differ to writing a novel?
I always enjoy writing for the current
It is very different - in terms of the
technique and how you go about telling the story. The actual mechanics of plotting and characterization remain much the same, though. There are different challenges, mainly to do with clarity with how the plot is progressed and how you keep the audience aware of what’s
to an degree that they didn’t before 2005. I have to say I’ve not had a problem with ‘toning down’ my writing to fit with the more stringent rule generally - I never wrote the more ‘extreme’ (and I don’t mean that in a demeaning way) novels. My Doctor Who is action-adventure first, and horror-violence second (or maybe third or fourth!). Do you have a preference? Writing for the classic, or writing for the new series? Oh I just like writing for Doctor Who. And in writing for audio or prose, the distinction is far less than it is perceived to be on television. The production values and technology for prose fiction - and generally for audio too - haven’t changed in the way that TV production has. The special effects in my novels were just as good back in 1994 as they are now! happening. There’s a lot less writing in an audio, in terms of the number of words. But as the audience is going to hear each and every one of them (well, not the directions!), then each counts for a lot more. You have to bear in mind also that the words will be spoken - performed. That alters things. The form of dialogue
easier or harder - just different. You’ve written a lot for the classic series, as well as the new series. How does writing for the new series differ to the classic? Does it differ at all? Yes and no!
The main differences are
You’ve also written the highly popular Doctor Who Monsters Books as well as other Doctor Who reference books. How do you go about compiling all the information for a reference book? I don’t keep a database, if that’s what you mean. Well, not apart from the inside of my head. I have loads of books, scripts, etc which I refer to - as well as the DVDs, videos, novelisations... But each reference book is different. The tricky bit is getting a structure for it. The you slot in the content - which I generate from my own knowledge and memory, or the reference materials I just mentioned. Then there’s new material, which usually comes from people more directly involved in the making of the series - so emails back and forth with RTD about the evolution of the Macra, or a day at Millennium FX discussing how to build a clockwork robot, or calls to The Mill about initial Werewolf designs... You also wrote the graphic novel, The Only Good Dalek. How different is writing a graphic novel to an actual novel, and how closely do you work with the artist?
in a novel is less natural than an audio, although on audio you probably use names more when addressing people so it’s clear who’s talking to who...So yes, they are different. I wouldn’t say either is
to do with the profile of the series these days, and adherence to the various BBC rules and guidelines for content, branding, editorial policy... And those now apply to the classic series fiction across all media
Mike Collins and I work very closely together. I start with a short outline, just as with any fiction. Mike has some comments on that - just as the production designer might on an outline for a script.
So, for example, I wanted a desolate planet location and Mike and I discussed whether a desert or snowy wastes would work best on the page. As you probably know we went for the icescapes, which was a design decision - the plot could work equally well with either. From the outline I break the story down into 2-page spreads, each fulfilling a narrative function. If there’s a surprise in plot terms, then I try to arrange for it to be over a page turn. Cliffhangers work best at the end of the right hand page so the reader has to turn over to see it resolved. Then to that I add the detail - I work out what each panel on the page will show, describe it, add dialogue and any sound effects. And Mike changes and tweaks it as he feels works best on the page. Then Mike takes over. He produces character studies and designs for any major elements - like if we had a new type of Dalek... And I give him back any comments on those and then on the rough pages, the pencils, and the final colour pages. So it’s very collaborative - and the BBC Wales people give input as well at various stages which is hugely helpful and encouraging. You’ve written a lot over the years, is there anything that stands out for you as your favourite piece? Oh, that’s tricky. In fact, impossible. I love them all as much I think. I’m very proud of my standalone novels like The Chaos Code and The Skeleton Clock. But as series go The Invisible Detective was a great breakthrough for me – and such fun to do. The I sort of moved on with the books about the Department of Unclassified Artefacts. That was never really devised as a series, but there are three of them now (The Death Collector, The Parliament of Blood, and The Chamber of Shadows) – all of which have been great fun and very exciting to write... Then I’m also proud of the work I’ve done with Jack Higgins – which was such a privilege, working with a literary hero of mine. And for sheer enjoyment, my younger children’s spy series Agent Alfie made me laugh the whole way though – even though writing funny is very, very difficult! You wrote the first novel to feature the ninth Doctor, tenth Doctor and the first novel to feature the eleventh Doctor. How does that feel? It’s exciting, and it’s a challenge. In all
three cases we were writing those first three novels without really knowing the Doctor we were writing for. We got scripts - but they only tell us so much. There’s no sense of the actor’s performance in there, and that can be key. I remember sending Russell an email with some sample text for a sequence in the TARDIS from The Clockwise Man and saying: ‘Look, if I’ve got the Doctor and Rose absolutely right, then there’s no problem. But I think probably you’ll read this and you won’t recognise them. In which case we need to see more than scripts!’ A few weeks later, the three of us - myself, Steve Cole and Jac Rayner - sat in Russell’s office and watched the first rushes from the first day’s shooting with him. Then later - much later! - We saw rough edits of several of the episodes. Invaluable. For the 10th Doctor, we did the same. But by then the schedules - TV and publishing - were such that we didn’t see The Christmas Invasion and New Earth until a week before we had to have finished novels ready to go to print! So that was a fairly brisk rewrite to make sure the Doctor really was the Doctor. I think we did very well - and those three 10th Doctor novels are among my favourites. It was a similar process for the 11th Doctor, though the timing wasn’t quite so hectic! What would be your dream Doctor Who story to write? Dream Doctor/ companion/monster? I love writing for the Daleks - and I’ve not yet managed to write a Dalek novel. Graphic novel, short story, audio... But not a full novel. I keep getting close and then it doesn’t happen! My favourite Doctor Who story is probably The Evil of the Daleks, so I guess my dream combination - if there is one - would be a
Second Doctor Dalek story. With Jamie, obviously, but also Victoria I think - rather than Zoe, because Victoria would have so much emotional involvement with meeting the Daleks again. These creatures held her prisoner, killed her friends and her father, destroyed her life. Without ever meeting the Daleks, Victoria would be such a different person. And while it’s not really been explored, I don’t think Victoria was ever really happy travelling in the TARDIS. There have been other unwilling adventurers, of course. But Ian, Barbara, Dodo, whoever always had something to go back to. Maybe Vicki is similar, but her life was in upheaval before the Doctor found - and rescued - her. The whole point of the daleks’ plan is to get to the Doctor - he is the reason why they’ve invaded Victoria’s life, so there has to be some resentment there, deep down. He’s not only taken her away but he’s the reason why she has to go away at all. And meeting the Daleks again would surely bring that to the fore... Are there any Doctor Who related projects coming up that you can tease us on? Not if I want to keep all my limbs attached and all my organs functioning properly! Needless to say, we’ve got loads of exciting projects on the go - and such an amazing publishing schedule for next year and 2013. As you know, there’s a lot going on - Target reprints (how amazing are they?!), Shada as a novel, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds, and even (Oops - nearly said something I shouldn’t there). And then there’s more tie-in novels, reference books, another exciting - (Opps, nearly did it again). We would like to say a HUGE thank you to Justin Richards for taking the time out answer our questions! •
HEN the words App Store and Doctor Who meet in your brain the first new words you think of will probably be ‘Mazes’ and ‘Time’. If you’ve played The Mazes of Time, a new sentence might form in your head: ‘That was a bit of a disappointment, wasn’t it?” or “Wow that game was scary.”...or, whatever you thought of the game. Here’s a fact you may or may not have known: The Mazes of Time is not the only thing for Whovians on the App Store. There are TONS of apps. In fact there are too many, most of them are just rubbish. This is a list of all the Doctor Who Apps in the App Store, and which one’s not to buy.
Dr Who
Price: £0.69 Rating:
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide
Price: £2.49 Rating:
What is it? Lot’s of Doctor Who trivia which you already know. What we thought: Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide was the first Doctor Who App on the App store for a long time. Well, let’s just be glad that it’s reign of terror ended eventually. Before I go on a rant about how useless and badly designed this App is, I’d like to say that despite how bad the App obviously is, I’m really very happy I have it. You see in the days before I was the owner of my iPad 1, I really wanted an iPod touch just to buy this very App. The result is disappointing. The App itself resembles a web page from he 90s which just doesn’t work as an App because buttons that small is just unacceptable. The content of the App isn’t any better. There are only two features - facts and a gallery - both incredibly lacking.
RATING: What is it? Several applications actually. I would have liked to have reviewed each App individually, but all of these apps are pretty much the same. In no particular order, they are, iWho, iTorchwood The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures News, WhoFeed and Doctor Who Fan News. There’s also one more: WhoNews, but that’s a good App and deserves it’s own review.
What is it? Crap. It’s crap. What we thought: There’s not very much to say about this App, apart from how simply terrible it is. It’s one of too many attempts at making a whovian’s one-stop-shop for all things Who. Some of it’s slightly better features is the ‘Who Trivia’ and ‘Who Quotes’ sections. Unfortunately, these are so badly executed, the joy of reading the Doctor’s razor sharp wit is completely killed. When you manage to get to the content under the ‘more’ tab without the App crashing, you’ll find a lot more rather boring content. There’s a number of articles telling you some stuff you already know and a podcast which, when it actually loads, can be quite interesting. The podcast is really the App’s best feature - but it rarely loads.
Doctor Who Guide
Price: £1.49 Rating:
What is it? Another attempt to create a one-stop shop for Whovians. Developers still haven’t worked out that it’s not going to work. What we thought: I’m already running out of things to say for these kinds of apps. THEY DON’T WORK! The problem with them is this: If I want to find out about the latest Doctor Who news, I will go to Tardis Base, Combom, The Doctor Who News Page, Blogtor Who etc. Not some badly designed App rotting away on my iPad. If I want to watch a Doctor Who video, I will search it on YouTube. If I want to look at pictures of the Doctor, I will use Google Images. Simple as. They’re my first instincts, and they’re not going change anytime soon. This App however does have one okay-ish feature- it has Google Maps embedded in it with pins dropped any where NuWho has filmed. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this information, but it’s cool anyway.
Doctor Who News Apps
Price: Varies
What we thought: What most of these apps do is, last time I checked, inherently wrong. They take several other people’s work and stuff them together in a single App, often not giving full (or any) credit to the original blog owners. WhoNews is the best of these apps seems to notify the blog owners, with several of them posting stickers on their blogs saying proud members of WhoNews. The aim of all of these apps are the same: to be one place to go for Doctor Who/ Torchwood/Sarah Jane news, but none of them do it well enough. The key to these apps is to pull news story from lots of news sources (Seriously, I’m subscribed to 14 blogs in Google Reader - I don’t miss a single scrap of news) but some of them only have ONE!
Whovian Test
Price: £0.69 Rating:
What is it: A Doctor Who version of Trivial Pursuit. Except it’s not as well designed. What we thought: Oh, how I wanted to hate this App. Before moving my finger toward the download button, I took a moment to flick through the screenshots. Some questions showcased in the screenshots are “What year did Doctor Who start?” and “What species is Davros?” Wow! A 3 year old Judoon could answer those!
news RSS is also included in the App, and it resembles an HTML page designed in a year 6 IT class - worryingly amateurish. That’s not the only problem. Now this is minor, and I do hope the developers don’t get rid of it because it is rather amusing, but when you adjust the volume with the slider, a second circle follows your finger around.
Doctor Who: The Pocket Essential
The worst part is, the icon and main menu feature a horribly basic cartoon of the New Paradigm Daleks. And you think they looked bad in Victory of the Daleks. Despite all these bad things, there’s still no getting away from the fact that some of the questions are actually pretty good - the highest score I’ve managed receive is 20/25. The problem is I haven’t listened to most of the Big Finish audio dramas and I don’t know how many actors have played Davros. I need to revise.
Podshock
Price: £1.99 Rating:
What is it? The companion App to the wildly successful Podshock podcast. What we thought: I’m not going to lie. I’ve never listened to Podshock before. I follow Gallifreyan Embassy, but I’ve never listened to their podcast. I’m not really a podcast sort of person. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is undoubtedly a very good podcast. Apart from EastEnders, nothing so popular can be rubbish. The companion App on the other hand is rubbish. The
Price: £6.99 Rating: What is it? A guide to every episode of Doctor Who. Ever.
What we thought: This isn’t exactly what I expected from this App. I was expecting a book, but this more of a guide. The description was very vague as to exactly what was in the App. What actually is in here is a short description of each episode, and the cast list etc. which is actually a pretty neat tool. The one problem is this information is probably available for free somewhere online and it is available in a much better designed App, WhoGuide.
are follower of dwimage2005, then I sincerely recommend TDWTSJAIAM.
Doctor Who TV
Price: £1.49 Rating:
What is it? The mobile version of the site of the same name. What we thought: Doctor Who TV is one of the best Doctor Who fan sites on the net. This App is an easy and more touch-friendly way to access it on your Apple Device. There’s just one massive problem with it though. Going on the site in Safari is completely free - the App isn’t so cheap, and I’m not exactly sure why, because there isn’t any extra content in the App. So, what am I paying for?
The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures Image Archive Mobile
Price: Free Rating:
What is it? The finger friendly version of the tumblr site of the same (rather long) name. What we thought: The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures Image Archive really is an invaluable resource. What? You’ve never heard of it? Well, it’s better known by it’s second name dwimage2005, but the App is called... The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures Image Archive Mobile but I am lazy, so I shall refer to it as TDWTSJAIAM. TDWTSJAIAM is a well designed application, there’s no excessive buttons at the bottom of the screen and all of the buttons are needed. The only problem is the photos button When you tap it, you see a number of small thumbnails. Upon tapping one of the thumbnails... The photo doesn’t load. Which is fantastic. The developers should either fix this or get rid of the button completely. If you
Who Insider
Price: Free or Plus version is £1.49 Rating: What is it? The best of many attempts to be a whovian’s one-stop-shop for all things Who. What we thought: There are far too many of these kinds of apps on the App Store. Both versions of Who Insider, the free version and the paid version are very well designed apps. The problem with it then is the fact that most of the content is actually already free through other sources. I don’t see why I should pay to see Life, Doctor Who and Combom, when I can see it through Mobile Safari
absolutely free, and the blog owners aren’t getting any of the money. One of the App’s only features which are totally exclusive to Who Insider are the quizzes that come with it - they are very good. Main point, only get the free version of this App, if you really, really have to.
WhoNews
Price: £1.49 Rating:
What is it: The best of many Doctor Who news aggregators. What we thought: There are several of these news apps on the App store, but this one is undoubtedly the best. Why? Well for starters, it has been designed for iPad as well as iPhone and iPod touch. The UI is nice, logical and easy to work
Who it is in. The opening animation sees Matt Smith’s TARDIS spinning around to the 2010 theme tune. Makes sense - the blue colour scheme seen in the App is the same that is used on the Matt Smith merchandising. Oddly, however the Dalek in the App is from 2005. The whole idea of this App is to turn your Apple device into a Dalek voice changer helmet, and it does that wonderfully. And just like the helmet, the sound which comes out doesn’t sound anything like a Dalek, but you still have a lot of fun.
a TV tie- in App was Dexter: The Game. To my relief, The Mazes of Time was much better. For a start, It didn’t crash at every given opportunity. So far, it’s better than Dexter. The game is really very tense,
WhoGuide
Price: £2.99 Rating:
What is it? An App very similar to Doctor Who: The Pocket Essential, but with more features and a better execution. What we thought: First off, I’d like to say that the icon seems to remind me more of Wallace and Gromit than of Doctor Who. I shouldn’t find it annoying, but I do. WhoGuide has just about all of the same content as Doctor Who: The Pocket Essential, but it is a much better designed App. Aesthetically it scores very highly. The content is also useful, there’s a separate episode guide for all of the Missing Episodes. It’s a surprisingly useful tool. The navigation, however is the main reason to download WhoGuide over The Pocket Essential. To find a certain episode in the latter, you must flick through over 200 pages worth of Doctor Who episodes. With WhoGuide you simply select the Doctor you want then tap the episode you want.
mostly due to Murray Gold’s fantastic score. Unfortunately, other than that is App is terrible. The Doctor and Amy look closer to Shergar and Skulduggery Pleasant than anything else... And then there’s the little problem of Amy regenerating. That’s just WRONG!
Doctor Who Sound -board
Price: £1.49 Rating:
What is it? The name says it all. It’s a Doctor Who Soundboard. What we thought: You’d be surprised just how much time you can waste just lying on your bed listening Matt Smith’s
Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time out and use. Possibly, the best reason to use this App in particular is because the blogs WhoNews gets it’s content from clearly know they are part of the App and are fully credited. Why the low rating you ask? Well, there’s an all to evident lack of Tardis Base - which is a blog I’ve been following for about a year and a half now. It’s really very good. And that kids, is how you pander to your editor. But seriously, Tardis Base should be there.
iAmADalek
Price: Free Rating: NOTE: For some unknown reason, this App is only available on the US App Store. What is it? Your pocket Nicholas Briggs. But not quite as good as the real thing. What we thought: The Mazes of Time is not the only official Doctor Who App on the App Store! Yes, there’s one more! It’s called iAmADalek. The thing which doesn’t quite add up with this App is it doesn’t really know during which era of Doctor
Price: £1.49 with 2 £0.69 add-on packs via in-app purchases Rating:
What is it? The first official Doctor Who game to hit the App Store. It’s a 3D Puzzle game which sees Amy regenerating... For no reason. What we thought: When first buying this App, I was somewhat apprehensive. There were some bad reviews I’d heard and my previous experience with buying
voice informing President Nixon that he’s going to need a SWAT team, street maps covering all of Florida, a pot of coffee, 12 Jammy Dodgers and a Fez. The user interface is rather sexy, (Tap on TARDIS , you can actually hear the App say to you “Hello... I’m sexy,” ) the whole thing is loaded with cool sci-fi
looking buttons and pretty pictures of the characters. The only bug in the App that when you tap on Series 2 and then on Rose, the screen goes completely blank and you have to quit the completely, but hey, by the time this magazine is released in November that will probably have been fixed.
Lies
(just me?). It feels like your doing something, but your really not - your just completely content. And, after all, it is just for fun.
Doctor Who Encyclopedia
Torchwood: Web of
Price: Free, with in-app purchases of £1.99 for episodes 2-9, or £0.69 for episodes, 2-4, 5-7 and 8-10 Rating:
Price: £4.99 for the Eleventh Doctor and 2 £4.99 in-app purchases for the 9th and 10th Doctors. Rating:
What is it? An ‘interactive’ episode of Torchwood, with a story that runs parallel to the events of Miracle Day.
What is it? A digital edition of the Doctor Who Encyclopedia by Gary Russell, designed specifically for the iPad’s large display..
What we thought: Web of Lies is a much better attempt by the BBC than the two other official whoniverse apps, The Mazes of Time and iAmADalek. At times, the story could be genuinely gripping. Unfortunately, the App is let down by the mini games element. Sure, they’re the bit that are supposed the make the story ‘interactive’, but I simply don’t give a damn about doing it myself I just want to find out what happens to Holly or Gwen
next. It’s a shame really that this could be helped tremendously if the music that played during the games was a bit more tense, rather than the same music the plays on the menu screen. For the full review of Web of Lies, go to page 50.
SonicTool
Price: £0.69 Rating: NOTE: This App runs well on iPad, but is definitely designed for an iPhone/iPod Touch in mind because of their more portable size. What is it? Several different portable
What we thought: Now I’m not really one to enjoy ‘tablet books’, because they just seem unnecessarily extravagant. Sonic Screwdrivers on your Apple device. What we thought: I’m in love. This App is amazing. SonicTool is a pretty nifty little App, you have the ability to choose a top, middle and bottom of various
screwdrivers, including the 9th and 10th Doctor’s screwdriver, the 11th Doctor’s, the 4th Doctor’s, The Master’s Laser Screwdriver and River Song’s future Sonic Screwdriver and 3 fictional ones, one of which is blue and has POLICE BOX written on it, and another which sort of, half-ish resembles the classic TARDIS Console. You also have the ability to choose from a nice selection of Sonic sound and visual effects, one of which allows you to create an atmospheric excitation (it’s a fancy name for... Snow.) Please don’t take this opportunity to think ‘But it doesn’t actually do anything!’ This App is like walking around in circles listening to ‘I am the Doctor’ and actually feeling productive
I don’t want to read a book that has sound effects or a soundtrack, videos or interactive elements, but I really like this one, mostly because the Doctor Who Encyclopedia lends itself to the idea so well. It’s apps like this that are reason the iPad was designed in the first place: The images look fantastic on the iPad’s screen. The best part about the App is of course the ‘portals’. These are in interactive elements to the application. Swiping through every kind of Dalek and reading the entry on each one is surprisingly enjoyable. However, the Doctor Who Encyclopedia isn’t perfect. It can crash at fairly regular intervals (but every App seems to be doing that since Apple released iOS 5, even apps designed by Apple) and the text seems
a little more sidelined than it should be. Considering that this is supposed to be a tablet book, you’d think that each article would take centre stage, but instead, they’re in a small box at the side of the screen. Admittedly, some of the articles are just a couple sentences long, so it would look amateurish is placed in the centre of the screen. On the other hand, the longer articles can be hard to read
because the text is small and my scrolling finger can get tired.
Doctor Who Comics
Price: Free, with £1.49 in-app purchases Rating:
What is it? An App designed by IDW Publishing, the American producers of Doctor Who comics. I could go on for hours about how I think IDW were destined to make Doctor Who comics then create an
App for it called iDoctorWho. See? IDW - iDoctorWho. Oh, well. I thought it was funny. Less funny is the fact that they didn’t call it iDoctorWho. This App makes all of their Doctor Who content available worldwide. What we thought: As an application, Doctor Who Comics is a perfect application - simply in terms of the way it’s been designed - and the content is simply fantastic. There are several reasons why I love this, but really there’s only one important one: This App, God bless, has successfully managed fill the hole in my soul that existed between A Good Man Goes to War and Let’s Kill Hitler. Well, this plus the New Series Adventures, DWM, Doctor Who Insider Magazine, Torchwood: Miracle Day, it’s little brother, Web of Lies and of course, Chameleon Circuit’s second album, Still Got Legs. Upon opening the App, you’re confronted with the current Doctor Who logo in front of lots of stars and space dust. It doesn’t sound that exciting, and it really isn’t to anyone but me and about 507 people. And they’re all just my future regenerations. Really, it’s so exciting I peed my self the first time I opened it up. The App contains all of IDW’s Doctor Who releases, from the classic Iron Legion, to the simply fantastic The Forgotten and my personal favourite The Ripper’s Curse
Best bit? There are three free comics. And, unlike practically every other freebie on the App Store, they aren’t ad infested, or had so many features cut, it’s been rendered useless. Sure, two of them are part one of a series and end on a cliff hanger, but if it were a physical copy it sill would have cost $4 USD - still a good deal!
That’s all folks! That’s all of them. Every single Doctor Who application on the Apple App Store. Unless you’re compiling a list of every App Doctor Who App on the App Store, don’t buy any of the apps which ranked lower than iAmADalek, not even if you’re a completist. I mean it, most of them are just completely stupid. Ed - I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Nye. A lot of work was put into the feature, and I can assure you, no one works harder. Well done, and thank you for your time and dedication! •
AN you believe it’s Christmas time again? I can’t. It seems like only last year that I was sitting down to watch A Christmas Carol, and here I am writing about the next Christmas special! This year will see the Doctor tackle the classic story of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but with a sci-fi twist (would you expect it to be done any differently?). It seems this year, the Christmas special is getting even more Christmassy (I honestly didn’t think that was possible after last year’s episode). For many of us, sitting down to watch Doctor Who is now part of our Christmas day tradition, I know it is in my house. It’s also the tradition to miss half of what’s going on, because various family members can’t quite crack the ‘silence’ thing. You think after 6 years, they’d had got it. The Boxing Day re-watch is also another tradition of mine. Thank Christmas for the iPlayer, eh? For some reason, I always really badly judge the Christmas special, hate it on Christmas day, and then re-watch it, and love it on Boxing Day. I blame the family members. However, before we get to The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe, we are going to take a trip down memory lane and revisit the last 6 Christmas specials, voted in order, by you, the Tardis Base viewer. Are you ready to take a very festive trip down memory lane? >
Finishing in last place with the fewest votes, it’s the Victorian action filled Christmas, with the next Doctor and the Cyber King. All I can say it, where did it all go wrong? This episode had so much going on. A man who is confused about his identity, who believes he is the Doctor. Then there’s the Cybermen, Miss. Hartigan, the Cyber King, the Victorian setting, and all the stuff that happens in between. On paper, this Christmas episode should have been amazing, but it slightly fell short in my eyes. To this day, I can’t place my finger on what went wrong, but something wasn’t quite there. On the plus side, I loved the character of Miss Hartigan. She was fierce, feisty and ever-so dramatic. Her voice is magnificent (that’s probably why she was the voice over for M&S for so long), and her performance was magnificent. Then there was David Morrissey. Before the episode aired, and none of us knew just who this “next Doctor” was, there were speculations that he was indeed, the NEXT Doctor. People thought that in a strange RTD twist, we’d get to the see the next actor to play the Doctor before the 10th Doctor had even regenerated.
However, I’m so glad this wasn’t true. No offence to the guy, but I didn’t feel any connection to him or his performance, and he didn’t seem like he’d make a good Doctor anyway. The Cyber King (another way over the top plot twist in an already crammed episode) was just the icing on the strange for me. The concept of it was strange, the CGI looked weird, and how it was defeated was just a bit lazy. A vortex gun? Really? Overall, this episode is just OK. It’s like when you put all your favourite ingredients into a bowl and try to make the best cake, but instead it just takes disgusting. Sometimes, less is more, isn’t it? And following on from Voyage of the Damned was never going to easily, let’s face it. That had Kylie...
Aw, the Christmas Invasion. I love this episode, I’m not going to lie. Anyone who knows me, knows that Rose and the 10th Doctor were my Doctor and companion. They still are. Even now, how many years later? I don’t think they’ll ever be beat for me. They were my childhood. Even if it was just one short year together, it was purely magical. This was the first ever Christmas episode, and it was also David Tennant’s first full length episode. The episode started off with the regeneration scene,
and then the TARDIS crash landing back on Rose’s estate. Cut to some scenes about Jackie playing nurse and looking after the Doctor wondering what else he has two of (naughty). The episode also handles the first proper contact between mankind and aliens (some might say that the Slitheen and the spaceship were first contact, but that got covered up as a hoax). There were Sycorax on the TV, a giant rock spaceship over London, and the 10th Doctor, snug in bed missing it all. I think I love this episode so much, because of the domestic nature of it. Seeing Rose back at home with her mum and Mickey at Christmas just showed how much she needed to be travelling with the Doctor. We also meet Harriet Jones again, but this time she is the prime minister, and she’s suddenly gone all bad ass on us. There’s also the fight scene between the Doctor
In fourth place, it’s Donna Noble’s first ever episode, The Runaway Bride. Meant to be her only episode, but it ended up being her first of many and making her one of the most popular companions (I gotta admit, I love me some Donna). This episode sees her transported to the TARDIS whilst she is walking down the isle, and she is convinced that the Doctor has kidnapped her. Catherine Tate is HILARIOUS and she really gets the comedy and emotion with Donna Noble perfect. She can have you from laughing to crying in a split second. It turns out her husband to be is
actually seeing other women. A giant red spider living underneath London to be precise. What should have been Donna’s happiest day, turned into her nightmare, as she tries to get back to her wedding, which she misses. In the process she is kidnapped, and her family are attacked by exploding Christmas decorations. Parts of this episode do feel slightly copied and pasted from The Christmas Invasion. The killer Christmas tree, the santa pilot fish, the huge thing in the sky wanting to kill everyone. When I first watched this episode, I really didn’t like it. I thought it didn’t even reach The Christmas Invasion in the slightest. On reflection, it wasn’t so bad was it? I grew to love Donna with Series 4, and as my love for Donna grew, did I only truly appreciate this episode. For a Christmas special though, it seemed as Christmas as an all inclusive holiday to Australia at Christmas. There’s scenes where the Doctor is stood in the streets and people are walking around in
and the Sycorax leader, which for me felt like a throw-back to Jon Pertwee’s era. Seeing the Doctor hands on fighting, and seeing him ruthless with his “no second chances” motto. And there’s the cute little Christmas scene at the end, which sees the Doctor finally accepting Rose’s family, unlike the 9th Doctor, who didn’t want much to do with them. Overall, it’s just a cute little episode. It’s not the biggest Christmas special, as it’s the first, so I wasn’t expecting it to be voted high, but it’s good, isn’t it? This really set the template for the tenth Doctor, and really got his fantastic journey rolling, even he did spend so much time asleep in bed...
hats and scarves, but for some reason, you can just TELL it’s boiling hot outside and was filmed in the middle of Summer. The fact the Sun is blurring down, making David Tennant squint slightly is a tell tale sign. I do like this episode. It’s cute. I know I said that The Christmas Invasion is cute, but this is cute too. It’s the last Christmas special to follow that style of simplicity before everything goes really bonkers. “Have you ever seen a bride with pockets?”
It was a very close call between the final 3, there was only a few votes between them. It seems the Voyage of the Damned is a very popular Christmas special, and rightly so. Voyage of the Damned is one of those episodes where so much is crammed in, but it kind of works. Before the episode aired, the Beeb managed to have us all thinking that the episode was set aboard the ACTUAL Titanic. I’ll tell you, I was fooled. I remember an angry viewer writing to the official Doctor Who magazine blasting the BBC for not researching properly that Kylie’s hemline was inches too high for what was acceptable back in 1912. Oh, you were so got. In actual fact, the episode is set aboard the space cruise liner, the Titanic (named by bad researchers who thought naming it after Earth’s most famous ship would be a good thing. Maybe they should have researched into why it was so famous...). The episode, in case you didn’t know, is Kylie Minouge’s triumphant return to acting. I think that’s the reason the episode was viewed by so many (13.13 Million). People simply wanted to see Kylie Minouge on TV, and what better way to do it than Doctor Who. I remember the tabloids leaked the news that she would be appearing in Doctor Who, but they initially said she was going to play a Cyberwoman. Imagine. The episode sees the Titanic crashing into the TARDIS and the Doctor becoming a stow-away on the ship. He soon meets Astrid Peth, a young woman who dreams of the stars (match made in heaven, right?). Then some crazy stuff starts happening. The ship has been sabotaged, and the angel attendants are going crazy. It turns out, a mad head in a box (Max Capricorn) who owns the ship has decided he wants to send it crashing into Earth and cash in on the biggest insurance scram the universe will have ever seen. I really do love this episode. I did when I first watched it. It felt so cinematic and grand. The cast is amazing as well, featuring so many well known faces from television, including Clive Swift as Mr Copper and Russell Tovey as the ever
famous Alonzo. Allons-y Alonzo! What makes this episode so good is the scale of it. There’s so much drama happening left right and centre. It’s like Russell T Davies grabbed every disaster movie ever made, and mashed them all together. The episode sees the merry band of festive survivors climbing through the ship to get to something (I forget what, It’s been a while...). Meanwhile, everyone else of the ship seemingly dies off camera. Throughout the episode, Astrid and the Doctor get very close and I really bought into it. The entire time, I was just wishing Kylie Minouge wasn’t so busy all the time and would have done a full series. I think it would have been amazing to see to two together, travelling the stars. I think what made it even more emotional, was the fact he asked her to come with him, and she said yes. Then the silly woman went and drove herself into the heart of the ship dragging Max Capricorn with her. I’ve watched that scene many times, and I’m pretty sure if she braked just before she drove over the edge, she would have sent Max flying into the heart and she would have survived. Or maybe she could have jumped out? Anything but death. The death scene was really emotional. Seeing her face look back at the Doctor with tears in her eyes, as he watched helplessly as the angel kept him prisoner was heartbreaking stuff. It was ruined slightly by the dodgy CGI of the Astrid actually
falling. That really didn’t look too real did it? That aside, it really was emotional. I think the emotion is ruined slightly though, by the fact she was brought back as a hologram ghost version of herself to enjoy a snog with the Doctor. She was then blown out of a window and now appears to be floating through space, still conscious, for eternity. Forgive me, but that seems a bit more like torture than being saved. It would have been better if she just died, tragic and sad, and it was left there. That’s were the real emotion was. What is it with Russell T Davies and not actually wanting to kill people? That, and making EVERYONE snog the Doctor’s face off. Imagine if Sarah Jane snogged the 4th Doctor. That would have been so wrong. Overall, this is a really good movieesque episode. If you’re going to rewatch any Christmas specials this festive period, I really do suggest this one. It’s a little gem.
When I said that the final 3 were very close, I lied (well I didn’t, they were very closer), because the final 2 were SO close. There was literally a few votes separating David Tennant’s final Christmas episode and Matt Smith’s first, however, you guys voted The End of Time Part 1 as your second favourite Christmas episode. I find it hard to look at this as a Christmas episode, I think it’s more of an episode that was set at Christmas. With it being part 1 of 2, and part 1 of David Tennant’s swangsong, it’s not really a Christmas ‘special’ in the same respect that the others are. It also tops of the year of ‘specials’, so it’s more a bit finale. This episode sees the 10th Doctor visiting the Ood and learning of the Master’s planned return. This strange little cult of people (I don’t know where they came from) had a back up plan all along in the event of the Master’s death. His exwife tries to put a spanner in the works, but only ends up making the Master very, very hungry. The Doctor and the Master meet up and do a little drumming, but the Master is then taken to the Naismith estate where an ‘Immortality Gate’ in being held. Que the cactus people and the Master creating the ‘Master race’ by using his DNA as a new blue print for the human race. How very Hitler of him This episode from the beginning bolts of from the starting post and only really slows down with a few scenes between the Doctor and wilf in a cafe.
Russell really put his all into sending the 10th Doctor out on a high. I loved having the Master back causing mischief. Last time we saw him, he was a powerful man, on top of his game, but now he’s a scavenger (with blonde hair, which just looks very strange). I think this is Doctor Who’s first blonde Master. It’s also nice to have Wilf back. I love Wilf. Wilf is such a warm, lovable character. I don’t see how anyone can not love him. Donna is also there, but it’s not the Donna we know and love, so it’s weird seeing her unchanged by the Doctor. She’s a bit of an idiot isn’t it? A bit too...Normal. On top of all that (as if that wasn’t enough) the Time Lords are back (although we only see them right at the end of the episode, they are mainly in Part 2). I always wanted the Time Lords to come back, but not like this. I know that’s Part 2, but it just didn’t feel right. All they did was stand there, and talk...And who was that woman?
This is something that is going to annoy me for years if we don’t get an answer. Who was the woman guiding Wilf? Some people say she was the Doctor’s mother...He certainly recognised her and looked rather upset at seeing her. If we don’t get an explanation for her one day, then I might just shed a tear. Naughty Russell T Davies for introducing such a mysterious character as you are LEAVING with no plans of returning any time soon. Grrr. Overall, I really do like this episode. It’s speeds forwards at 100 miles an hour, and there really is so much going on (for some reason, towards the end, Russell T Davies used to cram his episodes full of stuff. I prefer his simpler stories. Less action and chasing, more story-telling). It does feel a bit weird reviewing Part 1 without Part 2 because they really do go hand in hand and all the really good stuff happens in Part 2. Maybe one day in the future we’ll do a count-down of New Year specials (It’ll be a rather short list though, with just The End of Time Part 2...And maybe Sarah Jane’s Invasion of the Bane. That counts, right?). I can see why you guys voted this number 2. It’s a fan-favourite, and a cracking episode, and the perfect way to end the 10th Doctor’s era (although I hated this episode with a passion when it aired. The Christmas effect strikes me again).
Finally an episode that is worthy of the title “Christmas Special”. Not only is this episode set at Christmas, but it’s a Christmas tale, with a Christmas backdrop and Christmas characters (how much more Christmas does it get than Katherine Jenkins?). All that is the reason that you voted last year’s A Christmas Carol your favourite Christmas special yet. This episode sees Amy and Rory (why do all Christmas specials have to be companion-less?) stuck aboard a space liner that has been sucked into a gravitational pull that they can’t break out of, heading right for the human-inhabited planet. On that planet is an evil old man called Kazran Sardick, who controls the machine which alters the atmosphere, which is pulling the ship towards the planet. Turns out this guy doesn’t care and refuses to help, so the Doctor has to do some meddling! He goes back to Kazran as a child and it turns out his father is evil as well (just like the future Kazran). The Doctor then catches a shark (did I mention the fish swim in the air hear?) and accidentally hurts it, so they go down to the basement where Kazran’s father has Cryogenic storage chambers where he keeps members of people’s families who borrow money from him (talk about a lot of interest on a loan). Que Katherine Jenkins and her magical singing voice. The Doctor then takes Kazran to see her every Christmas Eve, breaking her out of her chamber and going on adventures, until she tells Kazran she’s dying and only has one day left to live. So Kazran leaves her and tells the Doctor to stop visiting. Back in present day, Kazran still won’t do anything, only feeling more bitter towards to the Doctor for creating the new memories. So the Doctor, being the wise man that he is, takes the young Kazran to
see the old, and the young realises what he’ll become, changes and becomes nice. Confusing a bit, isn’t it? So Katherine sings and saves the day and something magical happens and I forget what but the ship is saved! All in time for Christmas. This episode is such a beautiful episode. It takes the classic A Christmas Carol and re-works it adding sharks and fish and spaceships. Stephen Moffat really knows how to do Christmas with style. I think for the first time ever, everyone was united on this Christmas special. Normally people are rather split to if they liked it or not, but
everyone seemed to love this (even me, on first watch, which as you know, doesn’t happen at Christmas). So I think this is a rather deserving winner. It has everything a Christmas special should. Drama, snow (and lots of it), Romance, a beautiful setting, mystery, danger and a bit of comedy. And no super cheesy moments (you all know Russell T Davies was full of them. *Cough* the Queen in Voyage of the damned. Totally pointless *cough*). So here is your winner. 6 years of specials, 5 episodes, 6 Christmas’s. Are you ready to make it 7? Turn over to see what to expect from this year’s Christmas special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe. It looks like it’s going to be a corker...
It’s Christmas Eve, 1938, when Madge Arwell comes to the aid of an injured Spaceman Angel as she cycles home, in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special. He promises to repay her kindness – all she has to do is make a wish. Three years later, a devastated Madge escapes war-torn London with her two children for a dilapidated house in Dorset. She is crippled with grief at the news her husband has been lost over the channel, but determined to
When Stephen Moffat announced he was re-working another classic story, he said it wasn’t the obvious choice. And oh boy, it really wasn’t. I never thought I’d see Doctor Who take on the timeless Classic of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis. If you know Stephen Moffat though, it’s going to contain aliens, drama, emotion and lots of twists. It looks as if Stephen if following on from last year with his Christmassy Christmas specials, and so he should!
give Lily and Cyril the best Christmas ever. The Arwells are surprised to be greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world. Here, Madge will learn how to be braver than she ever thought possible. And that wishes can come true… Starring Matt Smith as the Doctor, Madge Arwell is played by Claire Skinner, Lily Arwell by Holly Earl and Cyril Arwell by Maurice Cole with appearances by Bill Bailey as Droxil, Arabella Weir as Billis Karen Gillan as Amy & Arthur Darvill as Rory.
Christmas should look and feel like Christmas. Matt Smith has said that it’s: “going to be ones of our best. The design is classic.” I’m sure with every story, Stephen Moffat’s episodes get more grand and more cinematic, and if he’s going to run-alongside the movie in a few years, that’s exactly what he’ll need to keep doing. I can’t wait for this special. I don’t think it’ll disappoint. Airs 7pm on 25th December 2011 on BBC One and BBC HD.
Axons
a shining example of the religious spirit.
are able to drain the energy of living
Death
, n.
Creatures from the planet of Axos, who
that is inhospitable to many non-human life forms; as a consequence, it is almost
, n.
endlessly invaded by them.
beings by discoursing on the finer points of
Common descriptor given to islands,
grammar. The Axons’ favourite structure
seas, and cities, and other locales. No
is the dependent clause, which has thus
one knows how the appellation “of death”
Essentially, a cry of “foul!” uttered by
become known as “the clause of Axos.”
came to be the universal equivalent of
a referee during a typical Dalek game.
“Smith,” though some credit the first great
From the Greek ex termine, meaning
intergalactic explorer, Edward d’Eath, with
“beyond the boundary,” it signifies that
A Gallifreyan word meaning “slightly
the naming. Many places in the universe
the individual being called out is off-
impressive”
also bear the name of d’Eath’s greatest
sides, a transgression that must swiftly
competitor, Williford d’Evil.
be punished. Dalek games are interesting
Brilliant
, n.
or
“passable.”
Strangely
enough, it is often not translated by the TARDIS’s telepathic circuits.
Earth
Exterminate
, v.
in that each player serves double duty as , n.
a referee and so can make this call.
Cyberman
A planet in the Sol system that is a
Member of a religious sect, known for its
frequent site of crash landings. Given the
evangelistic zeal, which takes literally St.
hazard Earth poses to interstellar travel,
An
Paul’s admonition to “put on the armour
proposals to destroy it once and for all
members are often described as “human
of God.” The Cybermen, being staunch
in order to make way for a hyperspatial
huggers” by the more right-wing denizens
ascetics, will accept no gold for alms or
express route have frequently been made,
of the universe.
services rendered but truly desire only to
though none yet implemented. Earth is
bring people into the fold, making them
universally reviled for an environment
, n.
Forest of Cheem
, n.
environmentalist
Gods
, n.
group
whose
Aliens in disguise, always wrongfully
robots designed to heal the injuries of
receiving the worship and devotion of
living beings. Chula brand nanogenes are
gullible human figures until their true
widely preferred in most quarters to the
nature is revealed and they are destroyed.
much cheapter nanobots produced by
“nowhere,” which should rather be a clue
As Neitzsche would put it, “God is dead…
rival company DivaDroid International,
for anyone venturing to travel there.
again.”
which tend to have a mind of their own.
Hypnotise
From
, n.
the
Greek
meaning,
literally,
Varos
, n.
Omega
, n.
, v.
Utopia
A planet on which the ruler is willingly
Using a fob watch for the strange purpose
A messianic figure from Gallifrey who
subjected to pain or even death at the
of making a human being pliable rather
once died that his people might live but
disapproval of his subjects, where the
than making oneself a pliable human
who now wishes to live that his people
health of the state directly affects the
being.
might die.
health of the one governing. In other
Perception filter
Invade
, v.
words, a place in which revolution has , n.
been corralled by the ballot box. Strangely,
A popular Christmas time activity in which
A field generated around the TARDIS with
the serial murder of figureheads has
various
alternate
the result that most people ignore it. In
not resulted in an end to governmental
each year—reenact the deeds of Herod’s
the United States, a quite similar field
corruption, though efforts to change the
soldiers for the population of Earth.
generated around the rest of the world.
system on the part of some rulers have
alien
species—they
resulted in their swift dispatch at the
Quintet
Jelly Baby
, n.
, n.
A type of candy treat once preferred by the Doctor, who, as a result of overconsumption, was later restricted to
hands of voters.
A group of four people.
War, Time
, n.
Regenerate
, v.
A periodic cleansing of the canonical
To let someone else lead a life of peril while
palate, the temporal equivalent of pickled
you live on your royalties. As the poet
Key to Time
ginger during a dinner of sushi. Time wars
Stonelecce Striphroche once quipped—
are useful for extirpating all tangled and
A popular puzzle that can only be stored
- How to escape this workaday fate?
contradictory continuities of the past and
in pieces.
- Only one way—regenerate!
creating a blank slate upon which much
wearing a stalk of celery.
, n.
Logopolitans
, n.
Sycorax
the same might be created in the future.
, n.
Member
the universe’s evolution.
interstellar warriors who have mastered
A planet known throughout the universe
the high technology of metalsmithing.
for so conveniently beginning with “x” and
Mars
, n.
Fourth planet in the Sol system, widely
of
a
fearsome
species
of
Xeros
A conservative faction working to retard
Time Lords
, n.
, n.
thus providing some sense of completion to lists such as these.
remembered as the source of the alien
A species of walking tapestry from the
invasion in H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.
planet Gallifrey. They lay claim to having
Mars has, in fact, never been home to
invented time travel, seemingly unaware
the bulky, tentacled creatures described
of the fact that all living creatures travel
by Wells, though it is the origin of the
through time, though most in only one
Ice Warriors, Osirians, the Ambassadors,
direction. At present, there is only one
A small utopia within the TARDIS, with the
etc., which might well have earned it the
Time Lord known to exist, but at past
added, paradoxical advantage of actually
title of the Planet of Evil, had that not
and at future there are no doubt many
existing.
already been taken.
more. They practise the action of going to
Nanogenes
, n.
One of many trade names for microscopic
Yeti
, n.
A Hasidic Cyberman.
Zero room
, n.
a previous era, usually to cause an event
A huge thank you to Guy Lancaster
already recorded in history books and to
from
a future era (when the budget permits).
submitting this brilliant and witty piece! •
encyclopediaofarkansas.net,
for
ERIES 6 Part 2 seemed to whiz by. Before I knew it, it was the wedding of River Song. Maybe it was the fact there were no two-parters in the second half... After our review of part 1 last Issue, it’s only right that we review the second half and conclude our thoughts and feelings on Series 6 as a whole. Series 6 saw of lot of stuff happen, didn’t it? We had the introduction of Mels, who ended up being shot by Hitler and then regenerating into who we now know as River Song. We had a little 8-year old alien who faked his own life, a hotel with a Minotaur stalking the halls, a bitter version of Amy Pond from the future, who was stuck in a futuristic health resort, Craig Owens and the Cybermen’s return as well as the wedding of River Song! Let’s get this show on the road...
Written by: Steven Moffat Watched By: 8.10 Million Our rating: Episode 8 is one of those episodes that runs forwards at 1000 miles per hour and doesn’t slow down until the very end. We are re-introduced to Amy and Rory who are back at home, trying to get the Doctor’s attention by creating crop circles in a car. Sounds rather easy doesn’t it? Then we meet Mels, who, as far as we know, is a friend of Rory’s and Amy’s. She hijacks the TARDIS and they end up in Nazi Germany. Well, in Hitler’s office to be precise. Hitler, looks brilliant, the office looks brilliant, and the rest of Germany looks brilliant, so why bother going there? This episode seemed like it could have happened in any time period with any famous figure, so why Hitler? Why not save him for an episode where they could really concentrate on him. Instead, Rory punches him, he shoots Mels, then spends the rest of
the episode in a cupboard. From the beginning of the episode, I was sure Mels would become the next companion. However, the Moff had other plans, and when Hitler shot her, she regenerated, into who we now know as River Song! This episode is bonkers, but brilliant. It has River Song being completely bad ass, Amy and Rory riding a motorcycle after their middle aged daughter, and a shape shifting robot filled with tiny little people. Halfway through the episode, you forget Hitler was ever there, and it all becomes about River Song and the Doctor. River Song trying to kill the Doctor, but then saving him from death, using up all her regenerations is a nice touch. I think they got this episode spot on because it looks brilliant, the effects were great, and the storyline was bonkers enough to kind of work out really well. Who’d have known...I loved it!
Written by: Mark Gatiss Watched By: 7.07million Our rating: Night Terrors! An episode revolving around a little boy who is terrified of life. I’m just going to start this review by saying I liked this episode. I know a lot of people didn’t like it, but I really did. I don’t know why, but I seem to like anything set in a block of flat. I think it reminds me of those Rose days (one day, I might get over the fact she’s not in Doctor Who anymore). The episode starts off with a rather hilarious scene of the Doctor, Amy and Rory trying to find the child that sent the message to the psychic paper. Only in a block of flats would you find such a strange bunch of people hiding behind their doors. The Doctor finds the little boy, and his father (or so we think) Alex. Turns out this little boy is actually a Tenza child who took on the form on the child that Alex and his wife could never have. How sweet. George (the child) is able to lock his fears in his wardrobe (literally) in the form of a dolls house, and via the lift, Rory and Amy end up there.
Written by: Tom MacRae Watched By: 7.60million Our rating: Omg! Where do I start with this? If I was on The Only Way Is Essex I’d be calling this Totes Emosh (It’s a British thing, if you didn’t know). The Girl Who Waited pulled on every heart string I had. The minute Amy got trapped in that crazy place, I knew the outcome wouldn’t be good. When we finally meet back up with the old Amy, I was dying inside. It was so emotional to see Amy like that. I’m not just taking about being old (she kind of looked like an old young person. I don’t
I have to say, I love this concept. It was funny seeing Amy and Rory interacting with life size dolls house items. I really got the feeling they had been shrunk, so well done to the design team! The dolls for me, stole the show. They looked so creepy, and the noises they made actually sent shivers down my spine (I’m nearly 18, so what about all those poor children out there?). When they transform someone else into a doll, it’s truly chilling stuff to watch. Seeing Amy become a doll with the wood splintering sounds was very creepy, but I think everyone knew that the Doctor would find a way to reverse it before the end. I can’t see Amy becoming the first wooden companion (that depends on how you look at some of the past companions acting though...). Overall a nice little episode. It’s not going to stand out as a favourite for many, but it wasn’t bad. After The Curse of the Black Spot, I don’t think it could get any worse...
think she looked old enough for how old she was meant to be), but the way she was. She was so bitter and cold. The fact she didn’t want to save her younger self was so sad. I genuinely didn’t know which Amy I was routing for. In fact, I got so used to the Old Amy, when the young Amy popped up I was like “she looks like a kid...”. I take my hat off to Karen Gillan for pulling that performance out of the bag. The episode itself had some flaws. I wasn’t sure if I liked the whole idea of the hospital place. Spending a lifetime in there wandering around and having fun. And what was with the handbots? I’m pretty sure if this was a real place (who knows, one day), the staff wouldn’t switch to MURDER MODE the minute they saw something they didn’t understand. Then again, that’s kind of the motto of the NHS. Oh I’m terrible, aren’t I? When Rory first catches back up with Old Amy, and she’s
totally switched off her emotions to him (or so it seems), it’s really heart-breaking to watch. Obviously she hasn’t, and she even named her pet robot after him (weird right?). As I said, I didn’t know which Amy I was routing for. The ending fight scene looked really impressive, and there and then I just knew Old Amy was going to die. I just can’t believe how. When she was running towards the TARDIS and the Doctor closed the door I was literally screaming “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” whilst realising that it had to happen. We can’t have 2 Amys...Imagine. The scene between Old Amy and Rory through the TARDIS window almost had me in tears (I haven’t cried at Doctor Who since Donna’s ‘death’). I just couldn’t stop thinking about being in that position. 2 versions of the person you love. One you abandoned and one you didn’t. How can you choose? Obviously he chooses the normal Amy and the Old Amy let’s the handbots kill her. So sad. Overall a BRILLIANT and emotional episode. Did I mention it was emotional? No? Well, it was emotional. Totes emosh.
Written by: Toby Whithouse Watched By: 6.77million Our rating: This another really good episode (Series 6 Part 2 is looking rather strong so far isn’t it?). This episode revolves around a shape-shifting 80s style alien hotel, that has a host of different people all thrown together from different worlds. Then comes the Doctor and stuff starts to get ugly. I must say, the level of mystery and suspense in this episode is amazing. At some points, I really felt chilled. The hotel is filled with rooms, each one with your worst nightmare hiding inside it. Ready to take over your mind and kill you. I must say, even though this episode is rather scary, light-relief is brought by David Walliams characters, Gibbis. He’s the biggest coward ever, but Walliams comic timing makes every line he says sounds hilarious (I wasn’t sure about this appearance, until I actually watched it, and it turns out it totally worked). Another of the characters I really loved was Rita. She was so sweet and I
think she’d be great companion material. She seemed to be intelligent and asked the right questions. Too bad she died on us. The beast that controls the hotel, a relative of the Nimmon, feeds off people’s fears. However, when you think it’s all figured out, BAM, it’s need even a real hotel. Well I’m sure of anything in life after that. Turns out it’s a simulation on a prison ship. The beast however, isn’t the monster you think it is. It’s a sad, tortured soul who I really felt empathetic for. It’s just a man in a suit I kept telling myself. When it said “death would be a gift” and then died, it was seriously emotional (I’m being very emotional in these reviews aren’t I?). Overall, The God Complex is one of my favourite episodes of Series 6.
Written by: Gareth Roberts Watched By: 6.93million Our rating: Closing Time saw the return of Craig Owens, the rather normal guy who appeared in the Lodger. Now that he had his girl, he now also had a baby! Wasn’t this episode just hilarious? I don’t even care that the Cybermen’s role was totally useless, there were so many hilarious bits in this episode, I don’t even remember the Cybermen (but come on, that could have been any monster, they didn’t do anything and they were in it for a whole 5 minutes). The Doctor talking baby with Stormagedeon, Dark Lord of All to poor Val assuming the Doctor and Craig are ‘partners’ and the Doctor not having a clue what that means (maybe they don’t have gay Time Lords on Gallifrey?). It was nice to see Craig again. I didn’t really think much to him returning, but this episode is one last romp for the Doctor after leaving Rory and Amy with a new house. One last romp before he goes to face his fate (although he doesn’t really know what that is at the time. I assume
he thinks it’s his death. Silly Doctor, like that’s ever going to happen. Touch wood. Seriously...You never know). Most of the episode was either set in the shopping mall or Craig’s house, but it worked really well. Seeing the Doctor integrate himself into the Mall, even getting a job there was funny. This is what I love about the 11th Doctor. He’s so alien, but also hilarious to watch (and very serious when he needs to be). This episode also saw the return of the Cybermats! I just wish they came back in an episode where the Cybermen actually did something. In fact, the Cybermen keep coming back and doing nothing with Moffat. In The Pandorica Opens, A Good Man Goes To War and again in Closing Time. I just wish they could make a HUGE return and do something huge like in Series 2. Oh well, maybe one day. Forget the Cybermen, if I ever need a laugh, I think I’ll watch this episode. It isn’t going to be remembered as a favourite, but it’s certainly a lot of fun.
Written by: Steven Moffat Watched By: 7.67million Our rating: I’m going to be honest with you. I still don’t know if I liked this episode or not. Shock horror! I like my finales to go out on a bang, but this one seemed to end of a bit of a sizzle. Moffat, as usual for his finales gets every character he can think of and puts them together. Cybermen, Daleks, the Blue Guy, Churchill... One of these days, I hope he realises that doesn’t make a good story. It makes the characters boring. I think the whole “everything in time happening at once” was a bit underplayed. They could have done so much more with that. The twist of the eye patches was a good one. I did always wonder what they were for.
I was expecting to get a lot of answers in this finale, and we sort of did. We found out what the Silence wanted, who River Song really was (the Doctor’s sort of wife...I’m sure this is his 5th wife now...If that even legal?) and what happened at Lake Silencio. HOWEVER, there’s still a lot left hanging in the air. Who is Madame Kovarian? We still don’t know much about her. Who exploded the TARDIS at the end of Series 5? What was that voice? I really hope one day they get tied up...Or it’ll just feel wrong. This episode was good. Don’t get me wrong, but it had far too much going on, and everything felt under played. The actual wedding was a bit lame (for some reason I was expecting a HUGE wedding). I thought using the teselecta as the copout was a good idea. I think everyone thought that it would be the Doctor’s ganger from The Rebel Flesh two-parter. The ending was very good though. The Doctor left, suddenly full of mystery. Doctor Who? Just who is he? One day we might find out...Do we even want to? I don’t think I do. Maybe next year we can have a grand finale? I really want one...Please? •
UST who is River Song? We could be here all day trying to figure that one out, so I won’t even try to understand her fully. There’s so many different sides to her, some sides I’m sure we haven’t even seen yet. So, I’m going to take you through her life, start to finish, to try and make a little sense of her character. River Song was born with the name Melody Pond on Demons Run during battle to Amy and Rory Pond. There, she was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and taken to the Silent orphanage on Earth, where she was raised. Melody was put in the spacesuit to kill the Doctor, but instead, she escaped, weak and damaged. She regenerated. In a new body, she somehow joined Amy and Rory, growing up with her own parents. How she got there, I don’t think we’ll ever know. She is half Time Lord after all. She waited and waited until the Doctor finally arrived in 2011, in a corn field. She highjacked the TARDIS and sent it back to Nazi Germany where she was shot by Hitler. She regenerated into the woman we know as River Song today. Carrying out her purpose, she kisses the Doctor, with her poison Judas Tree Lipstick. However, the teselecta shows her the woman she will become and she decides to sacrifice her future regenerations and gives them to the Doctor so he can live. When the time came, River ended up back in the space suit to kill the Doctor, but she couldn’t bring herself to kill the love of her life, so she didn’t, collapsing time in the process.
However, the Doctor faked his own death, meaning River would be sentenced to his death. It was a secret she’d have to keep, if she wanted the Doctor’s secret to remain hidden. The universe had to believe the Doctor was dead. After that, the Doctor would know her less and less. She one day received an invite to see his death and witness herself in the space suit, killing him. She then had to pretend she didn’t know what would happen next, and pretend she didn’t know who the little girl in the spacesuit was. River knew the Doctor would always be there for her, even if he didn’t know her as well. He showed up for her in The Pandorica Opens after she left him a message, the first recorded words in history. Hello Sweetie. Then, when River jumped out of Byzantium, she knew the Doctor would be there to catch her when she fell. After the crash of the Byzantium, River visits Amy and tells her that the Doctor is still alive, and she doesn’t have to worry. The last time we see River Song is at her death. She summons the Doctor to the Library, but the signal gets mixed up and goes to an earlier version of the Doctor. A version she’s never met before (so we assume). She can’t tell the Doctor who she is, but she knows that one day, he will know everything about her, and one day marry her. River Sacrifices herself, but is unable to regenerate because she gave the Doctor the last of her regenerations. The Doctor saves her memories to the computer so she can live forever. That, is River song. •
INVASION OF THE BANE
HEN Sarah Jane Smith returned in 2006 for School Reunion, no one could have predicted what a hit with the fans she would then become. I bet if someone told you when School Reunion was transmitted that Sarah Jane Smith would become the star of her own hit children’s show, you wouldn’t have believe them. That’s just what happened though, The Sarah Jane Adventures was commissioned and the rest is history. She is undoubtedly the most popular companion in the show’s history, and rightly so. Connecting with generations of kids, and adults isn’t easy to do, but she did it. After the sad death of Elisabeth Sladen, The Sarah Jane Adventures would end, so we are going to look back at the last 5 amazing years, go through our favourite episodes of the show, and review the last 3 episodes that made up the in-complete Series 5. 5 years ago, on 1st January 2007, Sarah Jane Smith launched her very own show, to rave reviews. The Sarah Jane Adventures was a hit! The series launched in the autumn and went on to consistently score the highest ratings for it’s lost, top the polls, and it even won a BAFTA! Now, we’re going to take you through our favourite ever episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Written by: Gareth Roberts & Russell T Davies First shown: 1st January 2007 Invasion of the Bane will always be one of my favourite SJA adventures. It was the one that kicked it all off, and the one that proved Sarah Jane Smith could exist on her own, without the Doctor, and do an amazing job of defending the earth (unlike the failed spin-off K9 and Company). The 60 minute special really set the bar high for the spin-off show. It was cinematic, intense and a brilliant story! Thankfully, Kelsey didn’t stick around for any more adventures (apparently she was as much of a brat off screen as she was), I don’t think I could have ever warmed to her and her “you’ll be dead in school if you don’t have music channels” character. Invasion of the Bane was the new start for Sarah Jane, and it re-introduced us into her world perfectly.
This dramatic episode sees the Trickster remove Sarah Jane from time, replacing her with her old school friend Andrea. The only person that remembers Sarah Jane is Maria, so she sets out on a mission to get Sarah Jane back (even though everyone thinks she’s crazy in the process). I really do love this episode of SJA. It’s so dramatic and it makes you think ‘what if that actually happened’ (even if it did...You’d never know anyway). It’s a true achievement in the series, and really stamps its mark on CBBC (the second episode got the highest viewed episode ever only to be beaten 2 weeks later by Part 2 of The Lost Boy).
The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SARAH JANE? Written by: Gareth Roberts First shown: 29 October – 5 November 2007 Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane will always be on my favourite SJA stories.
Written by: Gareth Roberts First shown: 17–24 November 2008 This is another Trickster episode and another true classic. In this episode we learn all about
Sarah Jane’s past as she travels back to the 1950s through a time window, where she meets her parents for the first time. We learn that Sarah Jane’s parents died when she was only a baby, so she has no memories of them, and that’s why she grew up with her Aunt Lavinia. This is such an emotional episode for Sarah Jane, as she has to send her own parents to their deaths, because if she doesn’t, the whole of time is altered and earth becomes a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This episode is a classic, and the 1950s backdrop really makes the episode beautiful.
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
of SJA. It’s great to see Sarah Jane so happy, even if it is being forced by the trickster (I guess that makes it really sad at the same time), and it’s great to see the Doctor alongside Sarah Jane for a proper adventure once again. The 10th Doctor and Sarah Jane really make a great couple, don’t they? This episode is set against a beautiful background, and would end up being the last episode to feature the meddling Trickster.
Death of the Doctor Written by: Russell T Davies First shown: 25–26 October 2010
Written by: Gareth Roberts First shown: 29–30 October 2009 This is yet again, another Trickster episode, but there is a first for SJA. The Doctor makes an appearance! The trickster tricks Sarah Jane into falling in love with a mystery man, who she then ends up nearly marrying and closing down her attic. The Doctor however, turns up last minute and stops the whole thing (in true Doctor style). This episode is really brilliant, and is one of the best episodes
Jo Grant! She returned, after so many years away from Who. Sarah Jane was Jo’s successor, but the pair met at a ‘funeral’ for the Doctor, held by UNIT. Obviously, the Doctor wasn’t dead, and it was a huge elaborate scheme by some birds to draw him to his own funeral and kill him. It’s nice to see Sarah Jane alongside another Doctor, for one last time. Who knew then, that would be the last time Sarah Jane would ever see the Doctor. How sad. Matt Smith and Katy Manning put in great cameos, but it’s clear throughout it’s Elisabeth Sladen’s show they are in, and I think that’s always important. Sarah Jane, Jo and the Doctor take
a quick trip to an alien planet where the Doctor and Jo share a rare moment of looking back on there time together. Jo tells him how she waited for him to show up and visit, and he says that he did before his regeneration into the 11th, and that he’s visited her 13th Grandchild. I thought that was a very nice touch. Death of the Doctor is a funny little episode, which brings back another great old companion. With that, they are my favourite episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It’s so sad that it has ended, without a definite ending to go out on. The death of Elisabeth though, meant the show had to stop. How could they carry it on without her? It was HER show, and it have been disrespectful to her memory to do so. Although, I hope this isn’t the last we see of Clyde, Rani, Luke and Sky. I became rather found of them. Now it’s time to look at the last stories from Sarah Jane reviewed by Conor Cregan:
Sadly “The Man Who Never Was” is completely overshadowed by the fact that it is the final story. Expectations were high, but it must be remembered that this was never intended to be the gangs last adventure. It is a romp of sorts, a funny and witty adventure, a very traditional Sarah Jane story. It does feature some very well acted scenes from the wonderful Elisabeth Sladen, who does exactly what she does best as Sarah Jane (apart from saving the world) - being a journalist. The scenes in which she interviews Joseph Serf about
This series returns with a bang (quite literally), with some very on-point acting from the cast, and a lovely introduction to the new character Sky, who claims the title of this adventure! The character is introduced very similarly to Luke Smith way back in 2007, the baby Sky transforming into an older version in the nuclear plant. The difference is Sky has a belly button! (We presume?) The new alien featured here is rather expensive looking, and could easily fit into Doctor Who if it ever needed to. Although it’s a tad clichéd - metal man, stomps, kills - CYBERMEN anybody? This episode sees a final appearance by Professor Rivers. We are given a last little look at this wonderful character who first appeared back in series 1. She almost feels like part of the gang now! However Rani feels slightly unimportant as she and Sarah Jane converse about the situation, leaving Clyde to steal the spotlight for this episode!
An unrealistic element is how teenagers were able to shut down a nuclear power plant. Then again, they also save the world daily so this can be looked past! It seems the nuclear plant setting is a nod to the Doctor Who story “The Hand of Fear”, Sarah Jane’s last classic appearance as a series regular What is most upsetting in this episode is seeing a very intriguing cliffhanger when Sarah Jane finds The Shopkeeper in the Attic, because fans will never get to see the continuation of this mysterious character, last seen in series four. A perfect opening to the series with a lot of action and character development in a fast-paced story!
The Sarah Jane Adventures tends to stay away from real life problems, thus making this story a standout one that will be remembered. The lack of alien presence through out adds to the story, the saying ‘less is more’ absolutely applies here. Surprisingly a massive amount of depth is added to Clyde’s character, who tends to just joke around. Here we see Daniel Anthony present an outstanding performance to a story which really a needs a good believable actor to deliver, and Daniel Anthony does exactly that. This story tugs at our heart strings as we see Clyde’s closest friends, and his own mother, reject him, which is difficult to watch considering they have been together bonding on our screens for so long, it gives a sense of “what if this happened to me?” which is something that would terrify anybody, if you remove the alien premise. Ellie is introduced as Clyde’s new
love interest, but her perfect glimmering hair and sparkley white teeth make the homeless aspect a little hard to believe, but she brings out some wonderful moments from Clyde, who goes from feeling like a vulnerable kid to adulthood when the pair share a kiss. Sky takes centre stage for a few moments when she wonders why everybody hates Clyde for no reason at all. She is unaffected by the curse, giving a glimpse of hope to viewers that she will restore the gangs view on poor Clyde. This gave me a glimmer of hope and ignited my love for the new girl. The Curse of Clyde Langer has become a fan favourite and has got to be one of my favourite episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures ever! In ten years time when people look back on this series, I truly hope this episode is remembered more so than others, because it deserves the recognition and is an instant classic.
the Serfboard are mesmerising to watch, and may jerk the odd tear to those who realise that these are some of Sarah Jane Smith’s final scenes. The sub-plot with Rani and Clyde creating fake identities to get into the press launch are quite amusing. I expect the Scullions were proposed as aliens we are meant to feel sorry for. They are slightly sidelined until the end of the story, but in turn they bring out a fantastic speech from Sarah Jane, who is desperate to have them returned home. They are lost little souls, bringing
a certain level of emotion to the story, so soon after the heart wrenching Clyde story that aired previously. As soon as the conclusion of the story came, I completely forgot what happened and didn’t care for what I had just witnessed. I was entranced by the beautiful montage off Sarah Jane Smiths best moments, then in denial of the shows ending when “And the story goes on, forever...” blazed my screen. CBBC is going to have a huge hole to fill in the schedules next year. That’s it, the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures, but not the end of Sarah Jane •
S I write this, there is literally 1 day to go until this magazine is ready to launch. In fact, there’s not even a full 24 hours to go. Why has this article been left so late? Well, I only received the book 2 days ago (a huge thank you to Liz from Aurum Publishings for sorting this copy out for me). The original plan was to leave the review until the next issue, however, the minute I picked up the book and started reading it I knew I had to finish and review it. It only felt right Spending 2 days immersed in a book (whilst trying to finish a magazine) is a very strange experience. I feel like I’ve just spent 2 days with Elisabeth Sladen as she re-lives her life. Her voice poured out of the page. I felt her regrets, I felt her pride, I felt her happy times and I felt her sad ones. If I thought I knew Elisabeth Sladen before this book, then I was very mistaken. In comparison, I knew nothing to what I know now. Now I feel like I know the real woman, behind the character. The woman who went home at the end of the day. I do feel genuine sadness that I never knew her true story until after she died. As we all know, Elisabeth Sladen sadly died earlier this year. That is something I’m still finding very hard to come to terms with. As I was reading the book, and I remembered that she’d died, I found it very hard to believe. There she was, so alive in the pages, reading her life to me. Her voice in my head, guiding through her childhood at theatre school to her debut in Doctor
Who. The autobiography opens with a touching Forward from none other than David Tennant. He recalls his pure love for the Doctor and Sarah he experienced as a child, and how he got to act out his dreams in School Reunion. He recalls what a warm and down to earth woman she was, something which really does pour out of the pages as you read her story. I have to say, the forward and tribute from David Tennant is a very nice
touch. Throughout this book, Elisabeth really lifts the lid on her long life and career and let’s us peer inside. From her struggling days as a freelance actor to her rise and departure from Doctor Who, to her regrets for choices and her eventual return to Doctor Who all those years later. During her stories she is very good at recalling every person and every detail around
her, and what she was feeling. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a behind the scenes at the BBC look. Her love for Doctor Who (even though she admits she wasn’t a fan before or after her time) is clear too. She auditioned for the role in Doctor Who thinking it was going to be a small part, but little did she know it would be the part that would guide her future career. The story of her audition with Barry Letts is a funny one. It’s not till after she’s gone through the audition process that he tells her he wants her to be the Doctor’s new companion. Then, from nowhere, he calls in Jon Pertwee, who gives Barry the thumbs up. Elisabeth told us that she actually replaced another woman who was going to be the Doctor’s companion, but things didn’t quite work out between her and Jon (although sadly, she wouldn’t tell us who it was). She candidly tells us about all the little things Jon Pertwee did that annoyed her (even though she knew he
only had her best interests at heart), like introducing her to his fans, before they even knew who Sarah Jane was. Even when she got her own fans, she never quite understood it. It just shows how grounded and real she was. She was never interested in becoming a celebrity, even though she was famous. She never felt like a star, but she was. She really was. She recalled a time when she was invited to America for her Doctor Who convention, and didn’t feel like she deserved to be there, until the crowds went crazy for her. Even when she came back to Doctor Who for School Reunion she felt like she didn’t deserve to be there (she even recounts tearing her quad, and being in pain for the all shoot feeling like she was letting everyone down). Her witty and charming stories of times on set really do give a sense of being there. She name-drops left, right and centre as she lists off all the impressive people she’s worked with (there’s even a bit which made me laugh early on in the book where she says she through up on Edwina Currie during a school play), but never in a big-headed way. She speaks so highly of the people she liked. It just shows how warm and caring she was. Her love for Sarah Jane really does radiate from the pages as she tells how
directors didn’t understand her character as well as she did (she’s less kind about those people though), and how she lived with the character for so many years, revisiting it so many times, until The Sarah Jane Adventures when she got to live her all over again. After she closed her door on Doctor Who (jumping before she was pushed was the line she used), she distanced herself greatly from Doctor Who. But no matter how far away she got, she always came back. In the 80s, she was a regular face at American conventions. After her first crowd pleasing appearance, she realised she deserved to be there. Then there was the ill-fated K9 & Company spin-off. She speaks so honestly about that and the trouble it had. Looking back, she wishes she turned it down, because of how it left Sarah Jane. She loves the character so much, she didn’t like leaving on such a high, to return to something that wasn’t a success. Again, we saw her in The Five Doctors alongside Jon Pertwee, and she tells us about how all the actors on set had their own little ‘cliques’ among themselves. It’s such an interesting and
insightful book. It’s heart-warming, and honest, and she gives us a true insight into the real Elisabeth Sladen. She almost pulled the plug on the autobiography whilst writing it, but I’m really glad she didn’t. Sarah Jane was a woman I instantly loved the moment I saw her in School Reunion. I revisited her old stories, and followed her avidly in The Sarah Jane Adventures. I always felt a connection to her, like many generations before me and many after me will do. Now I’m glad I know about her journey, and her story. Anyone who has every enjoyed Sarah Jane needs to read this book. Once you start reading, it’s hard to stop. The actual book itself is beautifully done. The hardback cover, and dust jacket are very stylish, and the colour photos included in the middle of the book (taken from Elisabeth Sladen’s own photo albums) really give you an insight into her life. Learn about the woman behind the character, because she was a true legend and an amazing person. Available from Aurum Publishings for £18.99. •
The Cybermen are a creepy, metal, humanoid, race originally from Earth’s twin planet Mondas. They started off as near-human beings, but they converted themselves into Cybermen in order to survive. Over the years, the Cybermen developed into emotionless killing machines, with their only aim, to upgrade and conquer the rest of the universe. In a parallel universe, another faction of Cybermen were created by John Lumic. He created the Cybermen to upgrade humans to the next level, so they were free from emotions and suffering. In the real universe, the same style of Cybermen also evolved.
Cybermen from Mondas aren’t very fond of Gold. In fact, it kills them. Over the years, we’ve seen the Doctor use gold dust and even gold plated bullets against the Cybermen! Only the best for our metal cousins...
The Cybermen don’t always ride solo, they also like to get handy in the lab to create their own little creations and pets. Cute, aren’t they?
The Cybermats are a type of portable Cyberman. They are what the iPad is to the iMac. Fits in your hand, and looks cute. The Cybermats were often scouts for the Cybermen and often did the dirty work for the Cybermen. They appear to have more organic looking mouths hidden behind their grills, suggested they have been converted from another creature.
If the Cybermen ever appear on the Antiques Road Show, I’m sure they’d take their Cybershades for a valuation. They are a Victorian made creation which saw cats and dogs being converted into steam powered rug-like structures. The Cybershades are good at jumping and running but their primitive brains don’t allow them to follow complex orders.
Over the years, those pesky Cybermen have picked up a number of enemies. Aside from the Doctor they have also made some more alien looking foes. They really urked off the Cryons when they invaded their home planet because of the huge refrigeration cities. Maybe they bought too much Ben and Jerry’s and needed somewhere to store it? They have also been involved in a long war with the Vogans, who come from a planet made from gold. Then there’s the Daleks...But they seem to make enemies in everybody don’t they?
FTER the tragic death of Ianto Jones in Children of Earth shook the fandom back in 2009, I think we all thought Torchwood could only go up. Perhaps they could rebuild the hub and recruit some lovely new members? Perhaps they could kick some Welsh alien butt and get coffee and Chinese like the good old days? However, I think a small part of us, especially me, knew that wasn’t going to happen. Children of Earth was action-packed, tragic and depressing at times, but it undeniably made unmissable TV, and to this day remains TV gold (that’s just my opinion though. I know some of you guys hated it). Then, came Miracle Day. Where do I even start? Imagine Torchwood, with Americans, in America, being American, with barely an aliens, but lots of explosions and lots of death. If you have just tuned into this article, you may be mistaken in thinking I’m describing some strange cross between The X Files and CSI (oh wait, I’m pretty sure there is a show like that *cough* Fringe *cough*). Our little Welsh spin-off show that started on BBC Three back in 2007 has certainly come along way since those days, but is that all for the best? There was something about the sexually driven, grittiness of the early Torchwood stories that really got me hooked. Everyone was sleeping with everyone whilst aliens tried to do pesky things in Cardiff. It was like Hollyoaks, just with more supernatural phenomenon,
and mainly set at night. When the news broke about Torchwood being half a Starz Production (is it just me that had never even heard of them until that point?) A lot of people were very dubious about the future of Torchwood. A lot of us flashed back to the 1996 Americanised Doctor Who movie and cringed slightly. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like that movie...But it’s not very Doctor Who is it (Paul McGann is fantastic though, I must say). The survival of Torchwood, however, depended on this American funding (or so Russell T Davies tells us). Torchwood
never really had a big budget to start with, so I don’t know why this American coproduction was needed to make the show work. Either Russell T Davies was being greedy and wanted more money than the show really needed to survive, or the BBC wasn’t willing to cough up. The BBC will always continue to surprise me. They shelve and cancel great shows (Doctor Who Confidential anyone?) In favour of making rubbish that people don’t really care about. One day they’ll realise they mistreated Torchwood, passing it around like it has been. There’s that, and then there’s the
argument that Russell T Davies wanted to make an American name for himself. What better way to do it than bringing one of the UK’s most loved shows to America and putting the stars and stripes all over it. I stayed unbiased towards the series until it actually started. You might think this is going to be a really negative review of the series, but don’t worry, it’s not. It’s a fair review. I have to admit, in the weeks leading up to Torchwood, I got very, very excited. The trailers looks very action-packed and interesting, the concept seemed very intriguing, and the American characters didn’t seem too annoying. Then the news about America getting the episodes first hit, and there seemed to be a shudder around the Whoniverse. Why should America get a UK show before the UK? I think the answer is rather obvious though. Money. This whole series was about money, or lack of it. America paid for it, therefore America had the strings to pull. Russell Davies once said there was a lot of compromise with the show, and it really did show. It’s like someone came along and sucked a lot of Torchwood out of Torchwood and pumped in American action/drama shows. Again, don’t get me wrong, because I love American TV. It’s brilliant and bold. In this review of Miracle Day, I’m going to break it down looking at the characters, the plot, the twists and turns, the high and low points and the future of the show. If you’re still with me, then flick over the page and let’s get on with it! >
PLOT The concept behind Miracle Day is a very clever and interesting one. What would happen if at the exact same time, everybody in the world stopped the ability to die. No death, only life. Eternal life. When I first heard the concept to the series, I got a little excited. It was a ‘why didn’t they think of this before?’ moment. The story starts with Child murderer and general crack pot, Oswald Danes being executed in prison. However, somebody somewhere has other plans and Oswald and everyone else in the world stop dying, including Rex who should have died in a car crash. Oswald wasn’t the cause, but he was the high profile kick start for the ‘miracle’. We then meet back up with Torchwood, well, what’s left of it. Gwen is living on a huge white cliff with Rhys and her new baby growing super powerful roses (anything for a quiet life, eh?) and Jack is back to being jack like no time at all has even passed. Things start to get mega ugly and the system collapses. With no death, people are being categorised and burned alive, while PhiCorp are being shifty behind the scenes. What I thought would turn out to be some crazy mind-controlling aliens (my mother was convinced aliens were burning people so they could eat them... Silly woman...), just turned out to be some strange illuminati style ‘families’. It turns out the Miracle was started because in the 1920s, some crazy Italians chopped Jack up and harvested his blood, which was then fed into a crack in the wall (cracks in the wall, original), which was some strange thing that ran through
the centre of the Earth. Miracle Day started off action-packed and genuinely interesting. After each episode I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. However, as the series went on, the excitement seemed to get sucked out of it, and it became less about the suspense and the mystery and it kind of turned into a law and order style drama. I guess something that dragged a single story over 10 episode was always going to have some filler episodes, right? Overall, I enjoyed Miracle Day. Don’t get me wrong, I may have sounded negative, but I did enjoy it. I found the sad bits sad, the intense bits intense, and by the end of it, I even loved all of the new characters (even if RTD did decided to kill pretty much all of them). However, I think a part of me was still missing the old Torchwood. I’m not saying they should go back to the monster-of-the-week style of Series 1 and 2, I just think they should go back to Cardiff. They should go back to Cardiff, rebuild the hub, recruit new members, and start again like that. I have a horrible feeling that with each passing series of Torchwood, it’s the original concept stretched very thinly over an exposed frame trying to prove a point. ‘Look everyone, Torchwood is grown up and in America’. It just feels like it’s a diluted version of what Torchwood is. I think it worked for Children of Earth, but Miracle Day felt more CIA than Torchwood,
Cardiff branch. Overall, it was good. Brilliant and emotional in parts, sometimes a bit slow, but overall a really good series. But what does the future hold for Torchwood after this?
Characters Gwen is back, and that made me very happy. I don’t think I could have coped without Gwen. She’s like my own-screen big sister. Even after the horrible death of Ianto, as long as Gwen was there, everything was going to be OK. Jack was back of course, being Jack. What more can I say? We learned of another lover a bit of American history for the Captain. Of the new characters, I was dubious at first, but after a few episodes, I loved them. I loved Ester and I loved Vera. I even liked Rex. From the go, I was sure by the end, that we’d have Ester, Vera, Rex, Gwen and Jack setting up a brave new Americanalliance Torchwood. However, Russell T Davies had other ideas. Death. And in his usual style, he kills off
cutest baby I think I’ve ever seen. Her little face when Gwen was shooting the guy in the helicopter was priceless. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby so happy at someone being shot before. I really loved Jilly Kitzinger. She may have been a mega bitch, but I could sense under all that, that she has a soul (sort of). The rest kind of don’t really stand out for me. The family didn’t look menacing at all, with the main woman looking like she was sister’s with Mrs. Wormwood from The Sarah Jane Adventures. They just seemed to want to control everything just for the sake of it. Did they even have a motive behind their motive? If that makes sense? WHY did they want to control the worlds population. Was it just for control, or is there more to the story? After all, the guy at the end on the bench said there was going to be a plan b. the popular characters. I’ll never understand why he killed off Toshiko and Own, I’ll NEVER EVER understand why he kill of Ianto and I’ll never understand why he killed off Vera and Ester. After watching Vera’s horrifying death (was I the only one who was VERY disturbed by it?), I was sure she’d come back some how. I don’t know how I thought that was going to happen, but I thought by the end, everyone who died would be un-dead. The same thing with Ester. At the funeral, I couldn’t believe it was her face in that picture frame in the coffin. A little bit of me died with them. The ones that got away. Well, we all know they’d either die now or some time in the future. Even REX DIED! Sort of...Who even knows what’s going on there. Now Rex is immortal, and can’t die (Seriously? Was that plot twist even needed at the end? Especially without another series being confirmed). I also loved the supporting cast. It was lovely to have Rhys and Gwen’s parents back (even if one of them does pointlessly die...). And Gwen’s baby is the
HIGHLIGHTS For me there were a lot of highlights, and they all seemed to revolve around Gwen’s antics and one liners. I loved the scene on the plane where Jack was poisoned. That was classic. It was a little gem of a scene. And Gwen’s reaction to being called English was hilarious! “I’m Welsh *smack*”. I don’t blame her though, that woman did have a really punchable face. She looked very smug. I think another hilarious scene in the same episode is where they leave the airport, and they go to the wrong car and then Ester shows them the mini and Gwen, in true Welsh style blurts out “what sort of Get away car is this? It’s rubbish!”. I think all my highlights are Gwen related to be honest. I loved the fight scene between Jilly and Gwen at the end of the last episode is the lift. That was priceless. Gwen just slayed Jilly’s ass, and they both pulled some of the funniest fight scene faces in the history of the show. I think another highlight was Ester’s death. I know I loved her and didn’t want
her to die, but it was really sad. The little movement she did towards Rex as she lay dying was so sad. She was clearly in love with Rex, so I wish they had explored that a little bit. It felt like it had so much potential to be a good lead to follow (if she lived, that is). Another major highlight for me was the episode all set with Jack in the 1920s. It was a really emotional episode, and it was nice to take a break from the usual scenes of dark streets and CIA offices. Definitely one of the best episodes of the series.
THE FUTURE So what does the future hold for Torchwood? Miracle Day was left on such a cliffhanger, that if they don’t do anything else with it, Russell T Davies will forever look the fool. We have Jilly joining the families once again for Plan B, Rex is now immortal and presumably part of Torchwood, the Miracle is over, but everything in the world has gone a bit (pardon the french) tits up. Eve Myles seems to be on a onewoman campaign to get a Torchwood Movie made, mentioning it in almost every interview possible. For some reason the whole cast seem to think Torchwood has to keep changing and evolving formats to survive, but I think if they stuck with the style of the first 2 series, and moved to BBC One, they’d have had success. Someone over at the BBC needs their head checking if I’m honest. They seem to not care about Torchwood at all, handing it over to America, not promoting it enough, leaving huge gaps in between series and not bothering about the future of the show. Torchwood feels like it’s on it’s last legs a bit. What started out as a great spin-off show, now feels a bit lost for direction. Eve Myles also suggested she thinks the next step could be a one-off special to tie everything up from Miracle Day. Even if another series never gets commissioned, they need to do SOMETHING to end it. They don’t just leave it shelved like it is now. Torchwood needs and ending. If it’s now, or in 10 years. Overall, Miracle Day was good. It was alright. It had it’s highlights, and it made for solid television, but with the future of Torchwood unsure and the past still lingering over it, how long can this show keep changing and evolving before people jump ship and abandon it. •
n Miracle Day, Miles Mokri, an American conspiracy theorist is shot because he came too close to the truth about the Miracle. His sister, Holly embarks in a mission to find out who shot her brother and why. In 2007 Jack and Gwen are chasing a seemingly humanoid creature, who soon disappears, taking Jack with him, so Gwen sets out
to find him. Web of Lies follows two different story lines related to Torchwood: Miracle Day. The first being the Miracle Day story, Holly’s attempt to find out who shot her
brother. The second is Missing Day - the events of which neither Jack nor Gwen remember - no, the Silence are not involved! The story is split into 10 episodes, (one released the day after the corresponding episode of Miracle Day) each one averaging at about 2-3 minutes, totalling up to be 25 minutes (or 25:14 if you want to be really precise) which is really quite a shock because when your playing it, it feels like so much longer. This isn’t because the story isn’t boring, it’s because there are two elements to Web of Lies. There’s the story part, which, like Miracle Day, really gets interesting after Episode 5, and there also the ‘interactive’ part. In this respect, Web of Lies is rather a lot like Doctor Who: The Darksmith Legacy. It’s one story split into 10 parts, each with an interactive element. However, The Darksmith Legacy did the interactive elements ‘right’ because the interaction was optional, and you could to engage in the games after you had finished each book. With Web of Lies, the games appear in the middle of the action, meaning that when the story got particularly tense and then there was a game following, all tension was lost in less than 10 seconds. It’s a shame because this could have been made so
much better if only the music which played during the games was more exciting; rather than the same boring music which plays on a repeat on the menu screen. If the BBC and Starz decide to do something like this again if there’s a 5th series of Torchwood, the developers should think about having Holly (or whichever new character is in it) shout hurry up at you if time is running out. And they should also make it available for Android users. That said, a lot of time can be killed on the games, which can be played separately without the narrative under the ‘Mini Games’ section As mentioned earlier, the story really picks up after Episode 5, and I found myself actually caring about what happened next to Holly and Gwen. Not to much happened prior to Episode 6, Miles gets shot and Holly discovers that he knew about the Miracle before anyone else, so she begins following his clues, piecing together his jigsaw to find out what he’d discovered, who shot him and why. Luckily, Miles was recording something and managed to capture the face of a ‘mystery man’ who may have shot him. The man is FBI Agent Joe Bradly - who caught Miles when he was shot. And... That’s about it. Nothing much happened with the Missing Day story, either. All that we knew was that Jack had been
taken and was being held and tortured in Chernobyl, Ukraine. And... Somewhere in between Holly talks about “Some company called Phicorp,” supposedly the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world. Next Episode, Holly realizes that Phicorp knew before anyone else, and suddenly she’s completely familiar with them . In Episode 6 we finally find out who shot Miles, and boy does that come as a shock. Unfortunately, the big BAM moment is ruined by the mini games in between. In the game in question, you have to tap in these coloured squares, which fade out to reveal an image which the squares vaguely resemble. So you find out that Nick, Miles’ best friend shot him with the most boring music playing in the background... Then you get to watch Holly’s reaction. Oh, you would not believe how much better to find out at the same time as her. (I may have been the only person who was actually surprise at the reveal, because Nick was actually my favourite character, mostly because of Nick’s awesome hair After, Episode 6, It just keeps on getting better and better, more information comes to light about the Key to the Miracle. The Key Is supposed to be able restart the Miracle if it was ever
Cut back to Los Angeles where Miles is on the road to recovery. This scene could have been so much better. I’d like to have seen Miles’ reaction to Holly telling him that it was Nick who shot him from behind or hearing that Holly blew up the key. Miles could also have told Holly whether or not he had a Category 1 scare, like Gwen’s dad in the later half of Miracle Day. The animation in the game came
endangered. In then end it is revealed that the key is in fact a giant vat of Captain Jack’s blood, all of which was stolen towards the end of the Missing Day story. The series came to a frustratingly un-epic final episode. Jack managed to kill the man who had kidnapped him
under attack from a surprisingly large number of people. It was advertised as using ‘Incredible Motion-Comic Graphics.” I’m not sure if ‘incredible’ is quite the right word here. Motion-Comic Graphics is exactly what the name suggests it to be: It’s a still image with small movements animated into it (similar to the fan trailer
through some rather implausible means. He and Gwen were then retconned for no apparent reason, so that they forgot all about Missing Day. Holly shot Nick who then fell rather dramatically into the vat of Jack’s blood.
for Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol which was uploaded by dwcast25 onto YouTube. If you didn’t see it, the trailer was so professional, it caused quite a stir, with some people wondering if it was a real trailer).
After 10 weeks of watching this type animation for 10 weeks straight, it’s easy to become used to it, and find it strangely adorable. I’m most likely the only person with this opinion, but the animation reminds of the Fan series Doctor Stew, which even though it is ‘proper’ animation, the movement is looks very implausible, but at the same time, it’s lovable. There are still several problems with the animated part of Web of Lies, the first of which is that, at times, the drawings were crap. Jack was, for the most part, very well drawn. Gwen on the other hand had new eyebrows just about every episode. The biggest problem with the drawings, however the fact that Holly’s face changes in just about every shot. And these aren’t small little changes, her face completely changes. This can only mean one of two things: 1. Holly is, like River, part Time Lord and can regenerate at any given moment without anyone noticing. Or, 2. It’s a production error. And the animators should have put a tiny lil’ bit more effort into it. Like they did with Nick and Joe’s faces which are pretty much the same throughout the series. I swear I was noticing Nick’s face as well as his awesome hair. Speaking of production errors, while recording his lines, John Barrowman shouted into his mic a lot. This isn’t his fault, if I were in Jack’s position, I would be shouting after I’d been thrown out of plane. It’s just than when he does, the sound goes a bit fuzzy and you suddenly realise that it’s not ‘proper’ Torchwood and that John Barrowman is actually in a recording studio. Despite this error not being his fault, I’d still like to take this opportunity to shake my fist in the air and shout “BARROWMAN!” At the end of the day, if your still wondering if you should buy Episodes 2-10 (Episode 1 is free) now that Miracle Day is finished, and you have and iOS device, (it isn’t available for Android users) then my advice is only if your willing grit your teeth while the story pauses so that it can force you to play the most tedious games imaginable. • Web of Lies is available to download from the iTunes store now!
Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston take us behind the scenes in revealing new interviews, while show runner Steven Moffat unravels the secrets of the scripts. Learn the art of making a memorable monster, discover how the show’s secrets are kept, and see a full episode-byepisode guide, including deleted scenes and hidden gems you might have missed.
Completely revised and updated, this is the ultimate guide to everything and everyone that’s ever happened, unhappened and happened again in the worlds and times of the Doctor. The Doctor Who Encyclopedia now covers the Eleventh Doctor’s first two seasons, plus every Ninth and Tenth Doctor story, and is packed with photographs and artwork from seven stunning years of adventures--including the charity specials, animated adventures, online Adventure Games, TARDISodes and preludes. This is your complete tour of time and space--from Abaddon and Inspector Abberline to Melody Zucker and the Zygons. RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £25.00 £12.50
Packed with unseen photographs and original artwork and illustrations, The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2012 is your indispensable guide to Series 6 of Doctor Who. Weaving fact and fiction, interviews and information, the Brilliant Book boasts brand new material from the writers of the TV show, including Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts, Matthew Graham, Tom Macrae and Steve Thompson, with exclusive extras from Neil Gaiman. Plus,
Sarah Jane Smith and her trusty supercomputer Mr Smith to examine strange and mysterious events. This time, Sarah Jane is reunited with another of the Doctor’s former companions, Jo Grant, and they’re joined by the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) in an adventure featuring new vulture aliens and a trip to an alien planet. RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £12.99
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Time to Exterminate your old wallpaper! Be part of the Doctor’s adventures with this new and exciting ready to put up wallpaper. Combining state-of-the-art digital technology and conventional wallpaper these easy to hang 10ft x 8ft wall murals are perfect for any fan of the TV show. Product Specification: printed at 600dpi for high quality imagery, 10ft (304.80cm) wide x 8ft (243.84cm) tall complete package, easy to apply with instructions included, printed on conventional wallpaper for ease of use and comes packed in a protective box – ideal for a gift. Officially licensed by the BBC!
Find out who legendary Time Lord the Corsair really was, and voyage with the Pirate crew of the good ship Fancy before they heard the Siren’s song; discover the full story of the fight for Ganger rights and learn about the further adventures of Madame Vastra. The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2012--no TARDIS traveller should be without it! RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £12.99
Created by former Doctor Who show runner, Russell T Davies, this exciting actionadventure series follows the exploits of school friends Luke, Clyde and Rani, who team up with alien investigator
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Available in 5 designs – Tardis Interior, Exploding Tardis, Daleks, The Doctor and Amy Pond and a Vortex whirl. Exclusive to Forbidden Planet RELEASE DATE: Out Now! R.R.P.: £71.99 - 89.99
sixth series. Billed as the biggest and best series yet, all 13 thrilling episodes of Series 6 together with a host of exclusive extras arrive on DVD and Blu ray. RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £44.97
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A steam-powered robot causes chaos for Sarah Jane and friends, in this exclusive audio story read by Daniel Anthony. Sarah Jane is thrilled when she successfully bids for a Victorian brass head in an antiques auction. On taking the metal model home, Mr Smith informs her that it contains a research probe from the future.
mall? Who is the mysterious magician Clyde and Sky must overcome? And why does the entire crisis seem to revolve around Rani’s mother Gita? Sarah Jane’s past has finally caught up with her. It’s judgement day… RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £6.10 £3.90
Recreate scenes from Series 6, Episode 12. Closing Time with this replica electronic patrolling Cybermat with motorised tail action. Watch as it hunts, patrols and changes direction when it bumps into an object. Requires 2 x AA batteries. RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £16.99 £16.99
Sarah Jane speculates that the probe was used as the ‘brain’ that powered the ‘Difference Golem’, a mechanical servant built by eccentric inventor Sir Joseph Montague. She suggests destroying it, to prevent such advanced technology from falling into the wrong hands, but Rani persuades her that this would be wrong, as the golem could have been sentient. So she, Rani, Sky and Clyde travel to Holcote House, the former residence of Sir Joseph, in search of its body. But they are soon to discover that meddling with artificial intelligence can have dangerous consequences... RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £6.10 £4.15
The Doctor, Amy and Rory return to face monsters, mysteries and adventures all across time and space in the action-packed
Sarah Jane finds herself on trial for her life, in this exclusive audio story read by Anjli Mohindra. ‘The lie betrays life. The truth defies death.’ The Veritas are an ancient force for justice. For centuries they have pursued criminals across the universe, showing them no mercy. Now they have come to Earth, and found the worst law-breaker of all… Sarah Jane Smith. Why are creatures made of living flame rampaging through a shopping
When Elisabeth Sladen first appeared as plucky journalist Sarah Jane Smith in 1973 Doctor Who story The Time Warrior, little did she know the character would become one of the most enduring and fondly remembered of the series’ long history. The years that followed saw Elisabeth traverse time and space alongside classic Doctors Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, whilst a generation of children crouched behind the sofa, terrified but transfixed as their tea-time heroine found herself menaced by Daleks, dinosaurs, Cybermen, Egyptian mummies, extras in Bubble Wrap and even the Loch Ness Monster. By the time she quit the TARDIS in 1976, making front-page news, Elisabeth had become one of the most familiar faces of a TV golden age. >
silence, journey with Murray Gold through the music of Doctor Who RELEASE DATE: 5th December R.R.P.: £8.99 £8.99
two…? With Tom Baker as the Doctor, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Cornelius Garrett as Reverend Tonge, David Troughton as the Visitor, Nerys Hughes as Deirdre and Joanna Tope as Tish, ’The Hexford Invasion’ is the fourth of five linked stories written by Paul Magrs. RELEASE DATE: 8th December R.R.P.: £10.20 £6.32
But you don’t just walk away from Doctor Who. Elisabeth was asked to reprise the role many times, appearing in anniversary specials; an ill-fated 1981 spin-off with robotic sidekick K-9; radio plays; and for the BBC’s Children in Need. She toured the weird, wide and wonderful world of Doctor Who fandom and became one of the series’ all-time favourite companions. So when TV wunderkind Russell T. Davies approached her to come back again, this time to a Doctor Who backed by multi-million-pound budgets and garlanded with critical plaudits, how could she refuse? This warm and witty autobiography, completed only months before Elisabeth died in April 2011, tells her remarkable story, from humble beginnings in postwar Liverpool, through an acclaimed theatrical career working alongside stage luminaries such as Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Poliakoff, to Coronation Street, Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em and the furthest reaches of the Universe. A unique, insider’s view of the world’s longest running science fiction series, and of British television yesterday and today, Elisabeth’s memoir is funny, ridiculous, insightful and entertaining and a fitting tribute to a woman who will be sadly missed by millions. Also available on audiobook, read by Caroline John. RELEASE DATE: Out now! R.R.P.: £18.99
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The 2 Disc set from Sliva Screen features music composed by Murray Gold to accompany the sixth full Doctor Who series since the programme returned in 2005. From the Doctor in America, to the
It has been three months since the Hexford catastrophe, and Mike Yates is trying to show strength of leadership to the villagers. But with morale low and supplies running out, it is increasingly difficult to keep his own hopes up. Unless somebody finds them soon, the future looks bleak.So when the TARDIS materialises on the village green, it seems that help has arrived at last. But with two Doctors apparently at large, there is still the small matter of what was buried under Nest Cottage – not to mention who is clamouring to break through the protective force field. Soon Hexford is under siege once again, and this time an ancient hunger will be sated. Time has run out for the keepers of the Skishtari egg. With Tom Baker as the Doctor, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Cornelius Garrett as Rev. ‘Survivors in Space’ is the last of five linked stories written by Paul Magrs. RELEASE DATE: 8th December R.R.P.: £10.20 £6.32 It’s been many months since the Doctor was in Hexford, and Mrs Wibbsey keenly feels his absence. As her grave suspicions about her new neighbour grow, she is in danger of becoming ostracised from village life. When Mike Yates turns up at Nest Cottage with a visitor in tow, Mrs Wibbsey’s life is turned even further upside down. Why has this strange new fellow appeared – and can he really be who Mike thinks he is? With UNIT watching the skies, and a strange forest growing daily around the village perimeter, it comes as little surprise when an enormous spaceship slides into view and dominates the skyline. Who is watching Hexford, and what do they want? Never has Mrs Wibbsey needed the Doctor more. But can she cope with
All prices are correct as of November 2011
Sarah is invited by Mike Yates to visit him at a Buddhist meditation centre where he has been staying. A group of people there, led by a man named Lupton, are misusing the meditation rituals in order to make contact with powerful alien forces, which manifest themselves as a giant spider. The spider is an emissary from the ruling council on the planet Metebelis 3, sent to recover the blue crystal that the Doctor previously found there and that has now been returned to him by Jo.
The Doctor and Sarah journey to Metebelis 3 and aid its human colonists in an attempt to overthrow the ‘eight legs’. They then return to Earth in the TARDIS. The Doctor recognises the meditation centre abbot K’anpo as his former Time Lord guru and, at his prompting, returns to Metebelis 3, where the humans’ revolt has ultimately failed. He demands an audience with the Great One - a huge mutated spider revered by the others and offers her the crystal. The Great One uses it to complete a crystal lattice, which she believes will increase her mental powers to infinity.
Instead, the rising power kills her. The other spiders also die as their mountain explodes. K’anpo has meanwhile been killed while protecting Yates from an attack by the spider-controlled residents of the meditation centre, only to be reborn in the form of his assistant Cho-je - his
own future self. Some weeks later, the Doctor is brought back to UNIT HQ by the TARDIS, having been fatally affected by the radiation in the Great One’s cave. K’anpo appears and, with his help, the Doctor regenerates.
Episode 1 - Mike Yates and Sarah watch from hiding as the meditation centre residents, seated around a mandala, chant the Tibetan ‘jewel of the lotus’ mantra. Suddenly a giant spider appears on the mandala. Episode 2 - Lupton flees in a speedboat and the Doctor gives chase in a one-man hovercraft. The hovercraft finally draws level and the Doctor jumps across into the speedboat. When he looks round, however, Lupton has vanished. Episode 3 - On Metebelis 3, the Doctor gets into a fight with the Queen spider’s guards. The Guard Captain fires a blast of energy from his fingertips and the Doctor collapses to the ground just outside the TARDIS. Episode 4 - Sarah is lying cocooned in the spiders’ larder. The Doctor appears in the doorway, but Sarah’s initial relief turns quickly to disappointment when she sees guards behind him and realises that he too is a prisoner. Episode 5 - The Doctor and Sarah talk with K’anpo while, outside the room, the meditation centre handyman Tommy tries to prevent the spider-controlled residents Barnes, Keaver, Land and Moss from entering. They blast him with energy from their fingertips. Episode 6 - As Sarah and the Brigadier look on, the Doctor regenerates.
ESP lies dormant in most Homo sapiens. Sarah has worked for Metropolitan magazine (selling articles to someone called Percy). The Brigadier’s watch was given to him 11 years ago in Brighton by Doris (a ‘young lady’) as a mark of gratitude for something that the Brigadier is anxious to leave unspecified (see Battlefield). The Brigadier phones Sullivan, the UNIT Medical Officer (see Robot). They’re in yet another UNIT HQ. When the Doctor was a ‘young man’ he spent a lot of time with an old hermit who lived ‘halfway up a mountain just behind our house’ (see The Time Monster). This Time Lord regenerated and came to Earth as the Abbot K’Anpo Rinpoche. As his next regeneration approaches he is helped by a projection from his future form, Cho je (see Logopolis). The Doctor is familiar with Tibetan customs (see The Abominable Snowmen) The Doctor is absolutely sure of the TARDIS reaching Metebelis 3 (he’s ‘wired the coordinates into the programmer’),
but he leaves the precise landing site to the TARDIS. Thankfully, it lands exactly where Sarah is. The TARDIS key is shown as being a medallion. The TARDIS eventually brings the Doctor back from Metebelis 3 after (from the Brigadier and Sarah’s point of view) three weeks. The spiders of Metebelis 3 come from a period after the Doctor’s previous visit (see The Green Death) when an Earth craft of colonists and explorers came out of ‘time jump’ [probably another term for hyperspace] and crashed on the planet. Exposure to the blue crystals mutated the arachnids accidentally brought on the ship, and the Eight Legs enslaved the Two Legs. 433 years after the crash the spiders planned to invade Earth, their ‘rightful home’. To do this they needed the crystal stolen by the Doctor, which was a perfect example of its type [enabling them to travel through time and space].
If the spider is on Lupton’s back in episode two, why isn’t it squashed when he sits in the various vehicles? During this epic chase, why doesn’t Lupton simply disappear as he does at the climax? The Doctor’s flying car is a different colour in the studio (gold rather than silver). This isn’t the same sonic screwdriver as in Carnival of Monsters, so why does Clegg associate it with Drashigs?
The spiders’ method of taking over humans is by leaping on their backs and remaining there, invisibly, while they exert telepathic control. There is the second and final appearance of the Whomobile. Gareth Hunt, later to become one of the stars of The New Avengers and of a popular series of coffee commercials, plays Arak. The cliffhanger to Part Five is reedited when reprised at the beginning of Part Six, with a significant amount of extra material inserted. The term ‘regeneration’ is used for the first time, to describe the process by way of which Time Lords take on a new body when their old one wears out. John Kane, who played Tommy in this story, also worked as a television writer, including on the sitcom Terry and June.
Mike mentions his involvement in Operation Golden Age (Invasion of the Dinosaurs). When Clegg is hooked up to the Doctor’s Image Reproducting Integrating System (IRIS) machine and given the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver he sees
Drashigs (Carnival of Monsters). Jo sends the blue crystal back from the Amazon as the natives are fearful of it: she and Clifford have yet to find the fungus they’re looking for. The Brigadier says that months elapsed between his second meeting with the Doctor (The Invasion) and his reappearance with a different face (Spearhead from Space). The Doctor’s (modified) futuristic car is seen again (Invasion of the Dinosaurs). It can now fly. Some of the Doctor’s final dialogue is taken from The Monster of Peladon.
Roger Delgado’s Master was originally to have been written out in Planet of the Spiders, and after the actor’s death the story was revised to incorporate Lupton in place of the Master. (If Delgado had not died it is likely that he would have been written out in the final story of season eleven - the production team had it in mind that the Master would sacrifice his life in order to save the Doctor’s and thus achieve a kind of redemption - but this idea, provisionally entitled The Final Game and also intended to be written by Robert Sloman and an uncredited Barry Letts, was never developed further and Planet of the Spiders was a completely different story.)
‘Oh dear, this is getting monotonous...’ Grotesquely over padded and stuck with bad CSO, Planet of the Spiders is not the celebration of an era that it should have been. Buddhist dialogue and a vast subBondian chase self-indulgently replace the plot. The regulars come across well, but the ‘Two Legs’ are clichés with West Country accents. The ending almost atones for this: ‘I had to face my fear, Sarah... That was more important than just going on living... A tear, Sarah Jane? Don’t cry. While there’s life there’s... Hope...’ • All information is taken from the Doctor Who Discontinuity guide. Planet of the Spiders is now available to buy on DVD from BBC and 2Entertain.