Sunday adventure hook New Year Special: Ring In The New

Looking forward to a video call Hogmanay, and having seen many a video call interview, game session, and the Zoom-based film Host, the result was, perhaps, inevitable...

Ring In The New

The travellers are separated and stuck on a video call, with the Stranger trying to locate them through the signal, several friends and family members involved, and what is going on in the background of every caller’s window...?

“They’re right, this is like a séance. Except not as reliable.”

Got an annual!

Sunday adventure hook Christmas Special: Gift Of The Magi

With a New Year special on the way, we shall have our Christmas here. With the prior importance of Christmas specials I do go on about it, and on the general blog as well, and could probably do a whole series by now (the Twelve Specials Of Christmas?) but never mind...

Gift Of The Magi

The Door opens onto a street in medieval Baghdad and the travellers soon find themselves drawing the attention of a group of astronomers, whose leader has spotted a celestial event and believes that something strange and dangerous is on its way and the Stranger is involved.

“Of course I’m involved now! You changed the result by observing it!”

An adventure by Russell T Davies

As part of tonight’s tweetalong of The Runaway Bride, Russell T Davies included some of his script including bits cut for time and CG budget. And also...

HERE IT IS. In preparation for today’s tweetalong, I went through some old papers to find the script and found… the VERY FIRST DOCTOR WHO SCRIPT I ever wrote!! On a manual typewriter! In 1985! 1986? Sixth Doctor and Mel!

Russell on the Twitter

Mind Of The Hodiac

by Russell T Davies

A financial empire controlled by someone who has lived far beyond his lifespan. A devoted servant. Ruthless stockbrokers - space yuppies. And a need for the Doctor.

“It does no harm to keep in touch with a little magic.”

Six pages out of sixty-two for the first episode, not enough to reverse-engineer an entire plot, but a good taste of the villains of the piece...

Sunday adventure hook: Those Old Familiar Faces

Inspired by Freaky, Doctor Who has done some body-swapping episodes now and then, but never, as far as I know...

Those Old Familiar Faces

Investigating an alien artefact, the Stranger is struck by a flash of artron energy and wakes to find herself in a previous incarnation.

On the day they die.

“Oh, this can’t be good. How did I die this time? It’s on the tip of my tongue...”

DALEKS! episode five

DALEKS! 05: Day of Reckoning

Not the soundest strategy there, Mechanoids...

Sunday adventure hook: Of Two Minds

With the biggest TTRPG-based computer game ever coming out this week, stealing the main plot hook from it... with a back reference to an earlier example in 2000 A.D. and stealing a bit of D.O.A. as well...

Of Two Minds

Memory recording technology in the nearish future allows knowledge and even personality to survive physical death - as one of the travellers discovers upon accidentally downloading a murder victim’s mind. Now the group have a little over a day to solve the crime before his brain overloads.

“And we still don’t have flying cars?”

DALEKS! episode four

DALEKS! 04: The Deadly Ally

Which is a better use of Deadly in a story or episode title than The Deadly Assassin.

Revolution Of The Daleks

New Year’s Day!

New Daleks...

Sunday adventure hook: The Water Horse

To mark St. Andrew’s Day tomorrow:

The Water Horse

There are legends of mystical horses and other animals that will lead people astray in many cultures, such as the Kelpies in Scotland, that if mounted will take their riders to the water to drown. But while the cautionary nature of avoiding lonely water is well acknowledged, nobody has seen such a creature.

Until recently.

“Says something about us as a people that we have a myth about how you should look a gift horse in the mouth.”

DALEKS! episode three

DALEKS! 03: Planet Of The Mechanoids

Continuing to lean into the animation style with a visit to the Mechanoids, noted attempts to have more Dalek-y things in the Whoniverse.

Doctor Who Day

Happy anniversary, Doctor Who.

Sunday adventure hook: Black Friday

Black Friday

How do you deal with an outbreak of rage in the middle of a flash sale? How do you even tell who has it?

“Everything. Must. Go.”

DALEKS! episode two

DALEKS! 02: The Sentinel Of The Fifth Galaxy

Doctor Who Comic

Doctor Who Comic, a new series from Titan, launching on the anniversary-adjacent Doctor Who Comics Day. DWM began as Doctor Who Weekly, so the simple title is new. And on the same day, a Time Lord Victorious series as well.

Sunday adventure hook: The Turret

In honour of the beginning of DALEKS!:

The Turret

One of the most important battles of Genghis Khan’s war with the Jin Dynasty, seemingly about to be lost due to a man-sized armoured turret armed with some kind of flame weapon.

Why is a Dalek trying to change history?

“This city will create such glorious destruction if it prospers. I would see that!”

“So you’re derailing history for an entire continent because you like fireworks?”

Time Lord Victorious Day One

The phrase first appeared in The Waters Of Mars, eleven years ago today. 

And to celebrate, a short story by James Goss about what the TARDIS thought...

Vworp!

Children In Need set visit prize draw

A chance to visit the set and meet the Doctor, once it’s safe to.

DALEKS! episode one

DALEKS! 01: The Archive of Islos

The Daleks get their own CG show, as part of Time Lord Victorious.

I love the Chief Archivian.

Season 13

2021. Eight episodes. My hope is that this short season, understandable in the current circumstances, leads to it being All Killer No Filler.

Sunday adventure hook: Son Of Kitten Kong

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Goodies...

Son Of Kitten Kong

1970, and the Stranger is called in to help some good friends with an episode of their new TV series, which deals with their attempts to thwart an alien invasion. They need help sorting out a likeness rights issue with the aliens, who they drove off a couple of years ago and don’t want to offend with their portrayal.

Sunday adventure hook: Please Look After This Time Lord

Inspired by the return of The Mandalorian: 

Please Look After This Time Lord

The travellers have to get into a fortress held by alien invaders, to find the thing they came to take.

It’s a baby.

It’s a Time Lord.

“Do they normally burp regeneration energy?”

Hallowe'en induced mad notion

Happy Hallowe’en!

And having just watched Scare Me, which I thought was great fun, an update on the American Doctor alternate timeline:

Aya Cash as Thirteen.

Sunday adventure hook: Trick

Hallowe’en Special!

Trick

The travellers go to the Village Halloween Parade in New York in 1978, so they can see John Carpenter’s Halloween with an early audience as well. And the Stranger spots a familiar face in the crowd. And another. And another. Some of her alien enemies, mingling unnoticed and being praised for the quality of their masks and costumes...

“I expect this kind of thing from Zygons.”

Sunday adventure hook: The Burning City

Post 1666! ... was a couple of posts ago. But anyway...

Doctor Who hit the Great Fire of London in The Visitation, the first adventure I really remember clearly, but what the hey...

The Burning City

London is ablaze. Who can you save? And what might this be hiding in this most invaded city, about to awaken?

“If I get drowned by Matthew Hopkins, I blame you. And also obviously Matthew Hopkins.”

Adventures In Lockdown

Adventures In Lockdown, the short stories spinning around some of the rewatches, collected in book form with new stories, for Children In Need.

Canaries

Canaries, a new short story both introducing The Wintertime Paradox festive collection by Dave Rudden and part of Time Lore Victorious.

VERBIER MUSEUM OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

ESTABLISHED 2044

NO TIME TRAVEL PLEASE

This would also be a good series setup, by the way, in a Friday The 13th: The Series kind of way.

New Who video games

Two games announced from Maze Theory.

For console. The Edge Of Reality, following The Edge Of Time VR game, starring 13 and 10 helping you save reality itself a million years in the future. No pressure.

For mobile devices, The Lonely Assassins, which looks like a classic adventure kind of game, searching for clues in photos and the like.

Sunday adventure hook: Message In A Bottle

Message In A Bottle

Influenced by... The Influence.

Someone trying to communicate through possession. A parent trying to save their child, even though the possessing being means no harm - but how do they communicate that?

“What are you trying to tell us?”

Sunday adventure hook: Faces From My Past

Faces From My Past

Inspired by the trailer for No Time To Die: 

The Stranger wakes to find herself in one of her previous bodies.

“Well... huh.”

Sunday adventure hook: Takers

Takers

Taking the above in a more horrible direction...

A group of young people are informed that members of their ancestors’ families plan to steal and live on in their bodies.

“What, like Being John Malkovich?”

“Yes! That’s a very helpful analogy that I wasn’t expecting any of you to get.”

Sunday adventure hook: Family Ties

Family Ties

The Stranger brings a group of modern people together with ancestors to team up against a cross-time threat trying to prevent them being born.

“Whoa, my great-granddad looks just like me!”

“Yeah? Mine doesn’t look much like me at all.”

“And technically you look like him.”

“Where’s mine?”

“That’s him, Miss.”

“Oh.”

Sunday adventure hook: The Bat

Inspired by Batman Day:

The Bat

1938, and New York is seemingly host to a real-life masked vigilante straight out of one of those newfangled comic books. What’s really going on? Who is this mysterious figure targeting? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of a Time Lord?

“This is a long way to go to get your comics delivered!”

Sunday adventure hook: As You Wish

Inspired by the fundraiser cast reunion of The Princess Bride:

As You Wish

The monarch of a storybook realm (possibly literally in the Land of Fiction) seeks to marry one of the travellers, and will cheerfully imprison their companions to get their way.

“I’m only mostly dead.”

DALEKS!

DALEKS! - an animated series, part of Time Lord Victorious, coming to the Who Youtube in November. Not quite on the Beeb itself, presumably due to the licensing tie-in legalities. Daleks are an obvious choice for an animated series, so could there be more in future?

Sunday adventure hook: Some Assembly Required

Following the launch of Marvel’s Avengers video game:

Some Assembly Required

The Stranger and companions are called in to team up with a number of other series protagonist types against a larger threat. Expect personality clashes, snark contests and armies of robots.

“You’re travellers in all of time and space, right?”
“Right.”
“This is from outside that.”
“Okay, let me have a look...”

Sunday adventure hook: 21 Bridges

In honour of Chadwick Boseman.

21 Bridges

An island city connected by bridges... and now none of them seem to go to the right place.

“We have to find a way off this island!”
“There is no way off this island!”

Sunday adventure hook: The Thinker

One of the reveals at the DC Fandome was that Peter Capaldi plays The Thinker in The Suicide Squad, so:

The Thinker

The Stranger gets a headache as soon as the Door opens on an unfamiliar planet, and soon everyone else can hear a low buzz coming from nowhere.

“It’s a low-level psychic field... but where’s it coming from? And what’s it for?”

Sunday adventure hook: Vow

To celebrate 25 years of garbage, by Garbage.

Vow

Someone swears revenge... and appears to have come back from the dead to get it.

“Okay, there are angry back-from-the-dead myths in a lot of cultures, but it’s not really possible, is it?”
“Tell her that?”

Time Lord Victorious Timeline

Time Lord Victorious now has its own site, including timeline. There really is quite a lot. It is a bit weird seeing the listings go Book, Audio, Short Story, Comic, Escape Room...

Sunday adventure hook bonus round: Blaze Of Glory

An alternate idea for My Light Shines On:

Blaze Of Glory

The Stranger starts to regenerate for no apparent reason. Not going full supernova flame, but definitely lighting up with a golden glow now and then, letting out a little misty light with a heavy breath, and perhaps it’s getting brighter...

“Thing is, I feel fine. Apart from the glowing.”

Sunday adventure hook: My Light Shines On

Inspired by the title of the Edinburgh International Festival online program, taken in turn from Primal Scream:

My Light Shines On

The greatest arts festival in the Great and Bountiful Human Commonality, a chance to see creations from across space and time, with a carefully curated time window gallery allowing visitors to check out their creation.

And of course the galaxy’s greatest thief is going to use this as an opportunity to steal something.

“Wait, are there really six Mona Lisas?”
“Not counting the Isleworth one.”

The Ninth Doctor Adventures

Christopher Eccleston has signed up with Big Finish!

The Ninth Doctor Adventures, starting in 2021. No word yet on companions (Billie Piper has played Rose for Big Finish before) and the like. Will we hear him in Time Lord Victorious, or is it too far along for that, or...?

The Librarians

The Librarians is getting (I think) its first UK Freeview showing starting Monday on Pick.

It’s pretty fun, in a “lighter end of the Davies era Doctor Who” kind of way. It also has a magic door that can appear anywhere, sometimes blends in and sometimes stands on its own. So y’know, relevant here too.

Hopefully it won’t stop halfway through the season like Blood & Treasure.

Sunday adventure hook: Shadow Over Mars

Borrowing the original title of the 2020/1945 Retro Hugo winning novel by Leigh Brackett:

Shadow Over Mars

Mars is home to a large underground city and some other bases by the mid 22nd century, and nobody has seen the Ice Warriors in all this time.

Until tonight.

“So we finally settle Mars, after a couple of false starts, and then...?”
“Then what?”
“What’s it like?”
“Red. Well, actually more orange-y...”

Sunday adventure hook: Exile

Exile

On a distant world, far in the future, the travellers find exactly one human. A human who vanished from Earth in the 1900s...

“Okay, how did he get here?”
“He says he escaped an alien smuggling ship.”
“Anyone we knew?”

New Paradigm Dalek Miniatures

As painted yonks ago, and reupping for a thread on Lead Adventure.

The Hollow Planet

The Hollow Planet, a print-and-play escape game at home, coming soon from the makers of the official Doctor Who escape room A Dalek Awakens.

Sunday adventure hook: The Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt

Steal this and apply to Time Lord:

An action thriller about an immortal trying to out run the two grim reaper bounty hunters tasked with finally laying them rest. Cue close calls much in the style of Final Destination.

Here they come.
SON M. on Twitter

“So is this normal?”
“Not even by my standards.”

Three years of Thirteen

Jodie Whittaker was revealed as the Thirteenth Doctor three years ago today.

Sunday adventure hook: Day Of Honour

Day Of Honour

(Named after the online launch of the Star Trek Adventures Klingon Empire Rulebook)

A fantasy or sci-fi Olympics or other sporting competition is a tried and tested trope idea, I’ve done it more than once. But consider the kind of politicking that goes into getting to stage a major sporting event. How do you prepare for an interplanetary tournament?

“Can we have a laser show without starting an interplanetary war?”

The Sarah Jane Mini Adventures

The Hand of Fear and The Masque Of Mandragora cut to half an hour each.

Sunday adventure hook: The Rite Of Spring

The Rite Of Spring

The first performance of The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky is said to have caused a riot. This seems to be an embellishment of later reviews based on it being booed, but let’s find out...

“So it’s about a human sacrifice dancing herself to death? Fun.”
“Yeah, lets hope nobody starts doing it for... oh, here we go...”

Carry On Doctor... Who

Discovering the potential existence of Carry On To Moscow got me wondering, since they did Spying (spy-fi) and Screaming (horror, aimed at the Hammer house style of lurid colours) and had quite a few actors in common including William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, why Carry On never had a go at time travel...

Imagining Sid James as the Locum and Barbara Windsor as his bosom companion, with Kenneth Williams as the Supervisor...

Sunday adventure hook: Out, Out Brief Candle

Out, Out Brief Candle

Inspired by my birthday on Friday... and Happy Death Day...

Someone interrupts the Stranger’s birthday to kill her.

And as she dies, she realises that this happened on her last birthday as well. She sends the rest of the travellers back there.

And they see her die again. And she sends them back another year...

“What do you get for the woman who has everything? Or could potentially due to the time and space machine she lives in?”

“Right now I’m thinking Kevlar.”

Cold, Minty Extermination

Via SFX: Dalek’s Death Ray from Wall’s ice cream in 1975. I always figured the death ray would be hot.

Sunday adventure hook: Days’ Father

Days’ Father

Because Father’s Day has been done...

The founding of a calendar, and just what does it count up to? What do its ancient devisers know that we don’t?

And indeed, why is our New Year a week and a bit after a solstice? And why do we have a Roman month calendar, so many Norse god days of the week and an ancient Greek Zodiac?

“But the world didn’t end in 2012!”
“Yeah, funny story...”

Happy birthday Jodie Whittaker!

Sunday adventure hook: The Onyx Path

The Onyx Path

In honour of this weekend’s Onyx Path Virtual Convnion, and if Chris Chibnall can call a two-parter Spyfall...

A world under a blue-grey sun, the one new construction since some unspoken disaster is a gleaming black pathway leading... where?

“Why are we going this way?”

“It’s so shiny!”

Wibbly Wobbly Dicey Wicey

Wibbly Wobbly Dicey Wicey, a Who RPG podcast from Ryan Blake, via episode one guest Siskoid. (Other episode one guests include C7...)

Sunday adventure hook: Decline And Fall

Decline And Fall

Visiting a student traveller’s university, the stranger notices a European history syllabus covering he usual - Greece, Rome, Carthage, Second Carthage, the Carthaginian Pontifex...

“Why are there elephants around Nelson’s Column?”

Sunday adventure hook: Summer In The City

Summer In The City

Back in time for summer and it’s perfect. Just lovely. Not too hot, either. And even on weekends, not just on weekdays!

Clearly something suspicious is going on.

“So you’re suspicious because the weather’s nice?”
“And you aren’t?”

Bonus: make an ice cream van scary.

Novelisation cover creator

Metebelis Two has a novelisation cover generator to apply to pictures if you want to preserve your adventures in pre-VHS format! Thanks to SFX for the link.

DIY monsters

The result of a Staying In The TARDIS challenge to create or craft monsters featuring a very nice custom figure of Dogbolter from the DWM comics, a great concept art piece for a regal humanoid mantis, and an inflatable T-Rex suit taking over the TARDIS.

Big Finish schedule plans

Big Finish to replace their monthly releases with various Doctors with a bunch of single-Doctor series, perhaps more like the Titan comics.

Towel Day

Don’t believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.

Douglas Adams, possibly
alt.fan.douglas-adams, 13 Sep 1998

Sunday adventure hook: The Screaming Statue

The Screaming Statue

In honour of Towel Day tomorrow, based on a vague summary of a Douglas Adams script that apparently developed into The Pirate Planet...

To prevent an uprising against an alien invasion, the invaders pacify the residents by drawing their aggression out to an imprisoned empath, slowly driving him mad...

“So has this been going on a while? The people seem really... blasé about these guys mining their planet...”

Sunday adventure hook: The Teeth Of The Sea

The Teeth Of The Sea

(From the French title for Jaws, thanks to Devil Times Five podcast.)

An ocean planet, a human fishing fleet, and something picking people off, one by one...

“You have to get off this platform!”
“There’s nowhere else to go on the planet!”

Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light

This year the frequently Whovian Eurovision Song Contest was called off and despite being an international call-in thing anyway they decided to go with a no-contest unity show of everything. So as per usual, snarking and looking for plots in the videos.

France: End of episode theme for a superhero show when one of the team dies.
Czech Republic: Okay, this was shot at End Of The Line.
Armenia: This seems familiar from somewhere...
Italy: Blade Runner 2049 wasn't that good...
Russia: No, put the 1970s back where you found them.

Denmark: Well, that was a Eurovision song.
Estonia: New minimalist TARDIS control room.
Romania: Don't listen to the sirens!
Azerbaijan: Burning Man was on after all?
Albania: I'm pretty sure Skyfall already has a theme song.

Greece: Okay, really trying to get the CW's attention.
Portugal: I got nothing.
Moldova: Did she murder the photographer?
Malta: Parkour? In this economy?
Serbia: If we lose the Pussycat Dolls we have a spare?

Poland: And another Bond theme.
San Marino: I said put the 70s down!
North Macedonia: Sudden outbreak of ballet in the pub.
Iceland: Presenting the 14th Doctor.
Finland: Activate Cerebro!

Sweden: Life, oh life...
Cyprus: Nice use of that True Detective superimpose-on-a-figure thing.
Slovenia: Trailer for a fantasy trilogy you've never heard of.
Bulgaria: "No she's not doing Billie Eilish!" - most comments
Ireland: Uplifting rejecting clique at end of high school comedy.

Austria: Behind the scenes at Anonymous.
Israel: Parachute pants?!
The Netherlands: You and me both, mate.
Switzerland: Sad black and white version of The Only Exception.
Latvia: Can we have Latvia and Armenia fight?

Georgia: Cultural appropriation is a terrible thing, rock song in English states.
Germany: Who let this kid into the rave?
Belarus: Be seeing you.
Lithuania: ... man what
Croatia: Correction. That's a Eurovision song.

UK: The Ritual, part 2.
Ukraine: Finally, some vampires! Bonus Doof Warrior.
Spain: That glitter's going to get everywhere!
Belgium: Portishead: The Next Generation
Norway: Also a Eurovision song.

Australia: Clowns!

So fewer monsters than some years, more Bond themes, and as always several sets looking like TARDIS consoles but not many Doctor Who plots.

Although the sirens could work, and maybe the sudden outbreak of dancing if that isn't too Once More with Feeling.

Time Lord Victorious update

What if mortality was something decided by an outside force? And the Doctor decided that from now on, everybody lives!

Sunday adventure hook: Crystal Clear

Crystal Clear

A crystal lifeform, refugee from a destroyed world, on the run from its enemies. Capable of hiding inside other crystalline substances. Is there another face in the mirror?

“We won’t hurt you!”
“Yeah, that’s not the way I’m worried about this going...”

Dialogue for time travel

“I can’t tell you what happens in the future. No spoilers!... Oh, damn, spoilers isn’t even a thing yet, is it?”

Staying In The TARDIS

Staying In The TARDIS, free things and activities.

Pompadour

Pompadour, a sad little shiver rather than a sob.

Sunday adventure hook: The Shattered Man

The Shattered Man

The travellers see a man stumbling towards them, reaching out for help, then their perception distorts and he seems to break apart, like he was a mirror image rather than a person. The shards vanish in a flash of light, leaving nothing behind.

And then they see him again, looking wounded and battered. And he shatters again.

And then someone else...

“A signal calling for our help... but where’s it coming from? Who is he? What can we do?”

Hear The Chimes Of Midnight

As the Doctor Who watchalongs have the episodes streaming free, Big Finish has followed suit, putting their classic Eighth Doctor Christmas special The Chimes Of Midnight on Soundcloud free for the listen-along tomorrow.

Time Lord Victorious

Time Lord Victorious, a new multi-platform story with books, audio plays, games, immersive theatre and escape rooms.

Like the Star Wars everything-except-a-movie event Shadows Of The Empire with added live things which often overlap LARP.

Sunday adventure hook: Now On The Big Screen

Now On The Big Screen

Back to Earth just a few years after their own time, the travellers see a billboard for a film about the Doctor...

“I don’t remember doing that. And why are the Daleks all red?”

The Big Night In

Tonight, BBC One, Comic Relief and Children In Need come together for The Big Night In. The Doctors will be appearing out of character.

World Book Night

World Book Night, the dark opposite of World Book Day, is tonight. (Although not nearly six months apart.)

Earth Day

Happy fiftieth Earth Day. Save the world.

John Muir

John Muir, born April 21, 1838, is known as Father of the National Parks.

Hubble at 30

The Hubble telescope has been in operation for thirty years. NASA celebrated with an online search by date for the archive by date (though not year) asking “what did Hubble see on your birthday?”

In my case, Seyfert’s Sextet.

Human Nature watchalong this Friday

Human Nature & The Family of Blood
Friday 24 April, 7pm (BST)

Live tweets from writer @Paul_Cornell & director Charles Palmer!

Hashtag: #DoctorOfMine

Extras promised again...

Sunday adventure hook: The Unmaker

The Unmaker

A slow, grinding war (perhaps the Great War?) and a weapon that won’t be invented for centuries is about to be deployed, a time attack that will erase the opposing faction before the war can even begin and allowing total victory in the here and now.

“It should never have been made. Its whole point was that it never was made. So what’s it doing here?”

Farewell, Sarah Jane

Farewell. Expect this to make you cry.

Sunday watchalong on the Subwave Network

RTD explains.

The Shadow Passes

The Shadow Passes, a Thirteenth Doctor story by Paul Cornell.

Heaven Sent watchalong

Heaven Sent watchalong for Peter Capaldi’s birthday tonight, Hashtag: #HellofaBird

Sunday adventure hook: Jack In The Green

Jack In The Green

A picturesque English village, an Easter parade, and suddenly all the children are missing.

“You didn’t hire somebody to lure away all your rats, did you?”

The Doctor’s Wife Watchalong

Tonight, 8pm BST, on Twitter, with Neil Gaiman, Michael Sheen and director Richard Clark, and a promise of... something.

How would you have made the movie?

RPGnetters suggest ways to introduce Doctor Who to an unfamiliar mid-90s US audience.

The Terror Of The Umpty Ums

A new short story by Steven Moffat, writing for Thirteen. Well, sort of.

A Big Finish free download every week

A free Doctor Who audio per week from Big Finish.

Sunday adventure hook: The Hour Thieves

The Hour Thieves

We return to modern Earth and a traveller’s home, and nothing immediately unusual seems to be happening!

Until a band of artron energy raiders teleport in and attempt to extract the returning traveller’s residual time-travel afterglow.

“Come out, come out, whenever you are!”

The Raggedy Doctor, by Amelia Pond

A story by Amelia Pond, via Steven Moffat.

The Eleventh Hour at ten

Tomorrow’s watchalong is The Eleventh Hour, for its tenth anniversary. Hashtag fishcustard

More short stories

io9 on the latest, including Press Play.

Press Play

Press Play, by Peter McTighe, in which Susan explains David Bowie’s eyes.

33 Doctors

So I decided on Twitter to suggest an actor who I think would make a great Doctor every day for a month, with GIFs of each of them mostly saying or doing something Doctor-y.

Vincent And The Doctor

A watchalong of Vincent And The Doctor to celebrate Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday, starting tonight at 7 with special guest Matt Smith trying to figure out how Twitter works. Hashtag #TheUltimateGinger

Sunday adventure hook: Prince Of The Daleks

Prince Of The Daleks

The Dalek Emperor is dead, and its intended heir flees from assassins loyal to the Prime Strategist. The Imperial Throne is a vipers’ nest of intrigue and betrayal, as well as a sun-destroying battlestation. Is this a chance for... well, okay, probably not peace, but at least a useful stalemate?

“We are our own worst enemies, Doc-tor. Present company excepted.”

Revenge Of The Nestene

A sequel to Rose by Russel T Davies in audio performance form!

Doctor Who returned fifteen years ago!

Doctor Who returned fifteen years ago today! To celebrate, the Rose watchalong, and an introduction from Russell T Davies. And then as his Twitter proclaims, a sequel!

Tell jokes. Even bad ones. Especially bad ones.

Advice from the Doctor.

Patrick Troughton

Patrick Troughton was born a hundred years ago today.

Rose 15th anniversary, Thursday

The Doctor returned fifteen years ago this Thursday. To celebrate, Russell T. Davies will be livetweeting with a mystery bonus...

Sunday adventure hook: The Last Ride

The Last Ride

The evacuation of Aurora V is underway, cityships taking off just ahead of an extinction-level superstorm. Will everybody get away safely? And who would sabotage a cityship to stop it launching?

“Half a billion people need to get off this planet and they still take the time to argue about where they get to sit. I find that oddly touching.”

Save The Day

A mass watchalong of Day Of The Doctor. Featuring a new introduction by Strax.

Edit: and a commentary via brief Twitter return by Steven Moffat.

Sunday adventure hook: The Ides Of March

Because it’s today!

The Ides Of March

Following a time disturbance in ancient Rome, the travellers find that Julius Caesar is riding high two days before he’s supposed to be assassinated, has a new bodyguard, and all of the conspirators seem to be missing.

Has someone come back in time to save him? This would severely effect how the Roman Empire and the line of Caesars would continue, possibly preventing the reign of Octavian, which would have massive ripple effects for European civilisation and beyond.

And what does the soothsayer know?

“Looks like somebody lent him more than an ear...”

Series 12 at the table

Siskoid has RPGified the current series. Need stats for Tesla, Ashad or the ?th Doctor? Here you go.

Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th!

As a day for weird superstitions about luck that pops up at odd months, it seems like a good fit for a special-related plot. Particularly in the time of the 13th Doctor...

Sunday adventure hook: The Red Moon

No Doctor Who for the first Sunday this year. So, naturally, I feel I must provide...

The Red Moon

The Door opens on the Black Forest in the 16th century, as villagers bar their doors at sunset. A red moon rises overhead, greeted by the howls of hundreds of wolves.

“This is what fairytales were like before they cleaned them up...”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy first broadcast beginning on this day in 1978. So it’s... 42.

Douglas Adams wrote the first serial and book while working as a script editor on Doctor Who, and the first series broadcast before his first Who story, The Pirate Planet. Sequels included things he couldn’t do in Who for various reasons like budget and later tone, but from the beginning it featured a confused modern British person stumbling around time and space with a human-looking alien and getting into a wide variety of trouble.

International Women’s Day

Have a good International Women’s Day!

The Timeless Children

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”
Not Terry O’Quinn

March

And on into March, and St. David’s Day. An animated Google Doodle just for the UK, apparently! (Meanwhile Australia has a squirrel in a hot air balloon for the start of autumn.)

Wales is of course important to the revived Doctor Who, based for years in Cardiff and Torchwood set there. Not many historical episodes though...

Leap Day

Leap Day! Today does not exist.

The distance of time

AV Club takes a look at Ranger In Time, a series of children’s books about a rescue dog travelling in time to help in disasters, which drew some controversy overnight with someone flagging up the new book about 9/11.

Author Kate Messner responded that it came from her audience asking - kids born after the event.

Those kids were born years after 9/11 and don’t have the memories we do as adults. To them, it’s an awful thing that happened in history, like Pearl Harbor is to many of us. They want to know more about it, but adults don’t like to talk about it. So kids are left wondering.

It will always be too soon for me, but it’s true. Where do we draw the line, and when does it move?

Ascension Of The Cybermen

“Mad? No, hopeful.”

Surprise!

Dropping one kind of enemy into a different kind of story works pretty well.

Maybe not three times in eight episodes though...

A--ac- Of The Cybermen

For a non-serious Cybermen adventure, their voices break up like Discord calls.

The Haunting Of Villa Diodati

“Definitely a hand!”

The Haunting Of Villa Diodati comes weighted with expectations. The Year Without A Summer is one of those stories that science fiction, horror and fantasy fans know very well, from the resulting Frankenstein and The Vampyre to Ken Russell’s Gothic and many more.

I did it in The Door In Time too, drawing ideas from Frankenstein’s Womb by Warren Ellis and Marek Oleksicki, and I suggested it as a historical setting for the Frankenstein-inspired Chronicles Of Darkness RPG Promethean: The Created.

This includes audio and comic Doctor Who. So the TV version is not the first, but as the one that gets on TV it will be the definitive Whovian take for many.

Help! (See what I did there?)

A new poster on RPGnet seeks adventure hooks based on Beatles and Bond titles. Far be it from me to refuse.

Can You Hear Me?

“I tried to warn you.”

Emily Cook at DWM reports that this is the first episode with a question mark in the title. Considering the title of the show and the accessorising of most Doctors in the 80s, this surprises me.

Praxeus

This is not a normal day...

Happy Palindrome Day by the way!

Mary Somerville

A Google Doodle celebrating Mary Somerville, mathematician, geographer and astronomer, who worked out that Neptune must be there.

Fugitive Of The Judoon

What?

What?

WHAT?!

Happy Year of the Rat!

Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror

Considering Goran Višnjić was one of its stars, this felt much less like an episode of Timeless than most of the historicals last year.

You want hooks? Here!

RPGnet Other Media invents Doctor Who episodes!

Orphan 55

Welcome. Please leave immediately.

Twelve plots from David Bowie's Heathen

For David Bowie’s birthday, following ★, The Next Day and Reality, going back another album to plot hooks inspired by the song titles for Heathen:

Spyfall part 2

I love a laminator.

Spyfall

Killer Satnav! Haven’t had one of those in a while.

The episode of the card game

Tonight’s series premiere Spyfall may or may not be named after the card game. (A pun on Skyfall in turn.) So naturally I’m imagining an entire series run named after modern-ish card games...

Some of them follow the rough plots of the games in question, others not so much. Most plots could be ported over directly, because the Whoniverse is like that. See also Rose Bailey’s legendary adventure based on Awful Green Things From Outer Space.

Codenames
The Doctor and friends encounter the Cypher, an alien species genetically engineered to use and break codes by a long-forgotten empire, and now disrupting communications across the world...

Captain Sonar
The TARDIS lands on the set of a 1950s children’s submarine-based adventure show about to be attacked by very real and rather offended Sea Devils!

The Resistance
Earth has been conquered by the Galactic Diktat but a handful of rebels keep up the battle, preparing for a vital strike against the Diktat headquarters... but can they trust each other? And why do some of them remember a different life with no invasion?

Werewolves Of Miller’s Hollow
A small town on the 19th century Canadian frontier, a full moon, a murder... and a lot of unfair accusations. Can the travellers work out who, if anyone, is the real monster?

Love Letter
Pre-Revolutionary France, and a young courtier seeks to woo a princess. As do several other young courtiers. And at least one of them is backed by someone trying to rewrite history. And somebody’s going to have to go to that masked ball in somebody else’s place, and how’s your dancing, and for that matter how’s your duelling?

A Fake Artist Goes To New York
1983, and the Manhattan art scene is divided over a new exhibition by a young artist whose colourful abstract work is, in fact, psychic imprints created by a stranded alien he keeps locked in his attic.

Exit The Forbidden Castle
A distress signal brings the TARDIS to a castle in the Urals, under siege from without and also threatened from within. Can they work out why every door locks itself a minute after midnight, before every door opens an hour later and the enemy can enter freely?

The Red Dragon Inn
Seeking a pub lunch, the travellers find themselves in a late medieval tavern full of mercenary adventurers all telling tall tales of their exploits. And some of their most exaggerated stories seem to be coming true...

Mysterium
An old manor house in the Scottish Highlands, 1922, and a seance goes awry, and now everyone involved sees baffling abstract images when they close their eyes. Can they work out what they mean, solve a murder and save a lost soul?

Tortuga 1667
Pirates!

One Night Ultimate Vampire
Monstrous immortals that shun the light of day gather on the longest night of the year to decide who will lead them. And the TARDIS crashes nearby after being struck by lightning brought down in a psychic duel, and one the crew now has all the powers of the fighting monsters until sunrise!

Monikers
The Cypher return, but now they’re asking for help as their creators threaten to rise again. Probably. Their genetic programming has gone wrong and now they can only speak in proper nouns.

Time’s Up!
The TARDIS falls through a temporal distortion and lands after the end of the universe. Or maybe before. Hard to tell. In any case, how do you get back before the Chronovores catch up?

Happy New Year!

And new Doctor Who day.