Paul Cornell's 12 Blogs Of Christmas

Paul Cornell presents his 12 Blogs of Christmas, this year looking at formative fannish things starting with Geoff Love and his orchestra with, among other things, a startlingly funky Doctor Who theme.

Flux: The Vanquishers

December 5th also has a special episode. Good for it!

Doctor Who can be a very oddly paced show at times. Flux is certainly an example.

And yes, a bunch of doors in time. Okay.

A festive adventure hook

Doing Christmas related plot hooks through December on the main blog, and included a Doctor Who hook.

Flux: Survivors Of The Flux

Flux: Survivors Of The Flux: Survivors Of The Flux: Survivors-

Oh, that cliffhanger had a ledge under it. Okay then.

And yes we have another separated companions and extra companion story.

Does Yaz just like that puffy sleeve jacket and culottes look? Not saying that’s a bad thing.

I assume Peggy is is boarding school?

(I like the archaeology progress talk.)

Love the huge tree TARDIS control centre.

And love the plot rather less.

November 23rd

58 years ago tonight...

Flux: Village Of The Angels

November 21st has a stronger date-specific episode than Halloween.

(Not quite hitting the anniversary on the 23rd, so not set around 1963.)

Not as standalone as the Sontaran one.

And the third episode in a row where the party gets split across time, though at least this time Yaz and Dan are together.

Flux: Once, Upon Time

And Flux episode 3 was the ongoing plot, with a chunk of the old Timeless Child bit, mixed with a nice adventure idea about time travellers being stuck in their own distorted memories. That bit is a great basis for an episode.

Also the second episode in a row to start with the travellers together and then being pulled apart into different times.

(And a character we never met before got the gratuitous Dalek and Cybermen cameos.)

Flux: War Of The Sontarans

The Halloween Apocalypse felt less like the first episode of a six-parter and more like sex pre-credit sequences, and the one with Sontarans was the start of this.

Sontarans in the Crimea! And in the present too.

Sontarans still mostly funny, so having them massacre people feels a bit jarring.

“Also, I wanted to ride a horse.” I was expecting the Doctor to just agree there.

The Doctor being angry about a human attack on a retreating enemy, but in this case letting it go.

The floating crooked house looks more Halloweeny than anything last week.

Vinder and the engineer arriving along with Yaz, and poor old lantern guy.

A planet called Time where all time runs through the Mouri and hang on is this Logopolis?

And okay, turning people to dust, but also snapping fingers threateningly? Although Passenger looks like Darkseid, the model for Thanos...

The Bad Wolf news is... hmm.

Flux: The Halloween Apocalypse

Halloween joins Christmas and New Year in having a special episode, which feels long overdue.

Although it’s not very Halloween-ish, apart from the bit with Di. One of several teaser scenes that made this feel less like part one of six and more like the pre-credits of six stories...

I like a Thor Ragnarok opening as much as the next viewer.

The Han Solo guy and the Chewbacca guy don’t start out together.

How’s the rampant speculation about Claire looking a bit like Clara going?

Don’t you just hate when someone you don’t know comes up and says they’re your archenemy? Take a ticket, blue guy.

Doctor Who: Flux

This year we get one serialised multi-part story, and now we know its title: Flux.

Starting Halloween.

Not to be confused with Doctor Who Fluxx.

One possibility for the second Davies era - spinoffs?

Russell T Davies noted that he had three Doctor Who shows on at once, and at times two behind-the-scenes shows, and that was really weird then but pretty much normal now with streaming services. So should we hope for more...?

The Second Davies Era

They pressed the Davies Button for the 60th anniversary in 2023 “and series beyond”. Feels weird.

The Einstein Engine, a free adventure for DWRPG second edition

Doctor Who And The Einstein Engine, a 22 page adventure. Not a quickstart, so knowing either first or second edition will be required.

It starts with the body of a clone of Einstein found in a mine in 1980s Australia. And yes, there is a Young Einstein reference.

First edition RPG and Doctor book bundles

At Bundle Of Holding, a collection of first edition rules and sourcebooks with the basic for twenty dollars, and the twelve Doctor sourdebook PDFs for just over two dollars each, for the next three weeks.