Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Telefantasy Time Jump

Telefantasy Time Jump begins with Paul Cornell and Lizbeth Myles discussing British genre telly (and other genre telly for subscribers) starting with The Quatermass Experiment.

(With a historical note about series before that, beginning with Algernon Blackwood reading a ghost story at the end of the first BBC TV broadcast!)

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Thirteen plots from David Bowie's Black Tie White Noise

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

After album titles, , The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside, The Buddha Of Suburbia...

Black Tie White Noise has enough for a regular BBC season...

The Wedding
The Stranger is asked to officiate at a wedding that will unite two galactic civilisations. Or to be the groom. Or the bride. Or something. The invitation’s rather vague.

You’ve Been Around
The travellers arrive on a new world to find people waving and saying “good morning” and addressing them by name and chatting amiably like they’re neighbours. Have they been here before?

(Or: The travellers arrive to find the TARDIS surrounded by police and news crews within minutes of arriving. It seems they saved the planet last week.)

I Feel Free
The travellers are sent to a 77th Century prison planet for a crime they absolutely did commit but which was legal when they did it four thousand years earlier. How do they escape, who was responsible for this miscarriage of justice, and how many of their old enemies are here too?

Black Tie White Noise
The travellers attend a jazz show in Weimar Berlin and have to save the trumpeter from an alien art thief trying to collect him which would rewrite 20th Century Western music.

Jump They Say
Something sinister living under the streets, best not to walk across the road too slowly.

Nite Flights
A plane sets off with two hundred and thirty-three people on board and lands with two hundred and thirty-four. And then another like it, and another. Always on night flights taking off and landing after dark.

Pallas Athena
An ancient city’s patron god reappears, over a thousand years and a move to a new religion after she was last seen.

Miracle Goodnight
A children’s hospital sees a dramatic rise in recoveries from serious conditions. What could be behind this, and why?

Don’t Let Me Down & Down
The travellers have to spelunk into an ancient cave complex to look for a missing group of explorers. Comments from a modern companion about dungeons and/or dragons will become slightly awkward once they spot something watching from the dark...

Looking For Lester
One day, everyone with a certain fairly-common name in London disappears for forty minutes.

I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday
One of the travellers meets the love of their life. Who really shouldn’t be on this planet or in this century.

The Wedding Song
The travellers are invited to one of River Song’s weddings, and not one of the ones the Stranger remembers happening.

Special: Lucy Can’t Dance
The travellers find themselves backstage at Strictly Come Dancing, and have to make sure one of the contestants makes it through to round two.

Saturday, 28 December 2024

Fifty years of the Fourth Doctor

The Fourth Doctor debuted fifty years ago, becoming the defining style of Doctor Who in world popular culture for a long time since as well as the first I remember, as much thanks to Doctor Who Weekly and the toys as the show itself.

Wednesday, 25 December 2024

Joy To The World

Joy To The World

Joy was right to follow the rules even though it hurt and might not have mattered, and just as right to rage at the people who made and broke them.

Some odd pacing, especially the “oh the villainous plan didn’t work it’s fine” bit. But wouldn’t have wanted to lose the lovely little section with Anita to get more there.

Mr. Benn’s Any Era Clothes!

Friday, 6 December 2024

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.

Thursday, 28 November 2024

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.

Thursday, 1 August 2024

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.

Friday, 26 July 2024

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.

Saturday, 22 June 2024

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