Joy To The RT YouTube

Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat discuss the Christmas special, and Christmas specials in general, on video as well as in the Radio Times.

Survival

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning. Where the seas sleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace, we’ve got work to do.”

Survival part 3, thirty-five years tonight.

Telefantasy Time Jump

Hammer House Of Podcast has now completed its run of Hammer horror films - until we get another one! And now Paul Cornell and Lizbeth Myles are gearing up for a new series starting in January looking at UK genre TV in Telefantasy Time Jump.

Doctor Who Day

The cay is upon us.

Joy To The Preview

The traditional Children In Need mini bit, a Christmas preview introdcued by Ncuti.

Woooo!

Doctor Who Ultimate RPG Collection

Doctor Who Ultimate RPG Collection PDFs at Humble Bundle.

Four adventures for the price of a decent sized chocolate bar, previous editions of the rules and sourcebooks at lower tiers, and both the current edition and the D&D version as well as the new anniversary adventure books added at the top which still gives you change from twenty quid and includes a donation to Children In Need.

Joy To The World

As well as announcing a new series and naming the new companion (Belinda Chandra... related to Rani?) we got a four-minute-ish pre-credits for the Christmas special Joy To The World introduced by Joy herself Nicola Coughlan.

The War Between The Land And The Sea

The Doctor Who panel at San Diego Comic-Con announced The War Between The Land And The Sea, a five-episode spinoff starring Jemma Redgrave as Kate and Alexander Devrient as Ibrahim as well as Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw... and Sea Devils.

And we did get three episodes in a row on at the same time. But come on.

Empire Of Death

Empire Of Death (6.40 pm)

Do you have the spoons to save all existence?

Ah, it’s a bit The Mummy (2017) with the ancient Egyptian adversary god loosing a killer dust storm in London, but mostly...

The Legend Of Ruby Sunday

The Legend Of Ruby Sunday (6.30?!)

Well...

Rogue

Rogue (6:45)

Second of the heavily promoted and spoiled episode, bounces along much as expected and I absolutely don’t mind.

Kind of annoyed that after dropping a D&D reference they called the Chuldur plan cosplay and not, more correctly, LARP.

Delighted otherwise.

(Yes it’s very The Girl In The Fireplace, so?)

William Russell

William Russell, as Ian Chesterton, the first hero this series has.

Dot And Bubble

Dot And Bubble (6.50 p.m.)

Kids these days with their phones and their Snapchats and their dance videos... And their circles they don’t let other people in... Oh.

73 Yards

73 Yards (6.50 p.m.)

A Doctor-lite episode!

Also the second in a row that hinges on the Doctor putting his foot in it.

Otherwise quite different.

The finale at the cinema

June 21st, the two part finale at cinemas, tickets on sale tomorrow.

Susan Twist

I had not clocked that the same extra has been showing up for a line or two since Wild Blue Yonder before playing the ambulance algorithm in Boom, but now actress Susan Twist has been pointed out...

Susan Twist.

My theory: RTD had an idea for a recurring extra who might be arc-relevant or just to mess with viewers, saw the name Susan Twist and thought “get her, that’ll be hilarious!”

Next time...?

And next week... I don’t know. (Looks like funfolk horror.) And that’s really exciting. While I’ve known a lot about The Devil’s Chord and a fair bit about Rogue for a year, I have some surprises in store.

Boom

Boom (6.50 p.m.)

“Tell me what you’re not telling me.”

Steven Moffat returns with a single-scene gimmick that also brings lots of ways to ratchet up the tension.

One familiar trick I caught right away.

Proper angry about putting algorithms in charge of decisions that affect real people, with a side flick of the Vs at Thoughts And Prayers.

A first appearance for future companion Varada Sethu, but not as blatant about as Jenna Coleman appearing as a splinter of Clara a few months early so just a fast actor recycling or...?

Davies and Moffat on what makes a Doctor Who story, including the Doctor being a genius idiot.

The Devil's Chord

Establishing the Toymaker’s style in The Giggle is a recurring threat, The Devil’s Chord (7.05) did end up a bit too like it as a result.

Favourite bit: The Doctor and Ruby’s WTF expressions.

Next week, after an episode trailed for a year, I don’t know and that’s kind of exciting!

Space Babies

Space Babies (6.20 p.m. on BBC One)

Doctor Who is an odd little show that got big, and sometimes it’s good to be reminded of that.

And that Davies enjoying making a fart joke a vital plot point.

Ruby being good with kids and the Doctor needing to work on that.

But telling Captain Poppy a vital truth.

Also, did he just tell Ruby his name out of earshot?

Favourite bit:

Tomorrow

At midnight if you wish to jump ahead. I will be waiting, and not just because my TV is bigger than my monitor.

Run Boy Run

Doctor Who - Run Boy Run by Woodkid, edited by Wearer Of The Cheese. Running is a victory

I have now played C7's Doctor Who second edition

Attaching But and And to the Yes and No of the dice through 1s and 6s is nice but means looking at the dice a moment longer. Not as many Traits overall makes the maths a wee bit faster but loses some player character distinctiveness.

Everything is possible

Including a trailer for the new series running to Changes by David Bowie.

Tosin Cole playing a time traveller again

Supacell (trailer and talk at Reactor) coming to Netflix in June, features Tosin Cole as a young man who finds himself jumping ahead in time and learns that his fiancée is about to die, and he can only save her by changing the future with the aid of a handful of other newly empowered people.

May 11th

With the first two episodes on iPlayer, and on Disney+ simultaneously.

I will be waiting for the actual telly, as my actual telly is bigger than the monitor I am looking at this on.

Doctor Who scripts online

Via Reactor, You can now read a whole lot of Doctor Who scripts courtesy of the BBC Writers’ Script Library. Over two hundred, including the recent specials, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Class, and the audition piece for the Fifteenth Doctor.

ROBIN We’ve got 100 seconds?!

THE DOCTOR And I will get you out.  You will go home.  And see your mum.  And your brother.  Okay?

ROBIN How d’you know about them?

THE DOCTOR They’re in your eyes.

Two hears beat as... let me start again.

101 TARDIS Quirks

101 TARDIS Quirks on RPGnet, more than 10% mine for the initial number but carrying on.

Started bizarrely with the thing where it needs to be given a puma, but most are milder. from the same poster, 7 (unpleasantly organic) is disturbing while 8 (really likes neutron stars) is adorable.

Three travellers

Since I’m doing Doctor Who revised first edition for the January Character Creation Challenge, I thought I should link them here.

Walker, Time Lord

Josh, busker

Amit, temporal physicist

Nine plots from David Bowie's The Buddha Of Suburbia

For David Bowie’s birthday, adventure hooks based on his studio albums’ song titles.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling and Outside...

If I do these annually I will retire before I get to the end. So since The Buddha Of Suburbia is under ten titles, expect another soon...

And as the soundtrack to the TV version of Hanif Kureishi’s novel it’s ;already been a BBC drama, so dodging that plot. (And Naveen Andrews would make a great Doctor.)

Buddha of Suburbia

The travellers return to find a philosopher as mayor their home town and people coming from far and wide to learn from him. Oh, and it’s one of the travellers, about five years old than he is currently.

Sex and the Church

The travellers have to help Abelard and Heloise escape some very disapproving church authorities backed by the Censors seeking to stifle inappropriate artistic expression throughout human history.

South Horizon

The sun rises in the south. This is concerning.

The Mysteries

A production of a new murder mystery play is interrupted by an actual murder. By laser beam.

Bleed Like a Craze, Dad

1981, and the most famous band in the world is Theda Bara, led by a self-proclaimed immortal vampire queen.

Strangers When We Meet

The Stranger meets an incarnation of herself that she doesn’t recognise.

Dead Against It

A new bypass goes too close to a stone circle and workers start dying horribly. Dangerously zealous protesters or disturbed ghosts?

Untitled No. 1

The travellers have to team up with the Dadaists to stop the Censors wiping out the 1920s.

Ian Fish, U.K. Heir

The travellers return to the present and the person on all the money looks totally unfamiliar. Who altered the line of succession and why? Also, if we have a King Ian, is this the Ianian era?

Happy New Year when the time comes!