Pages with tag Doctor Who

2MTL gets it backwards about Doctor becoming Everyman The Doctor Who Season 12, season finale was an excellent rollicking good crazy-ass scheme invented by The Master. In his review of that episode, Chip Suterth claimed the episode gave us an Everyman Doctor. "The Doctor could have been anyone all along"? "A RETCON that doesn't invalidate a single televised story"? No, Chip, most of the time you're right on, but this time you got it completely backward.
54 years of Doctor Who title sequences, constant change with one thing remaining constant Doctor Who thrives on constant change, but a few things remain constant. Once of those is the melody embedded in the opening and closing title music. It's the same pattern of beats and notes, even as the show runners change it around every few years to fit the times.
A Deeper dive into Shepperton and the making of Daleks Invasion of Earth 2160AD The second Peter Cushing Doctor Who film, Daleks Invasion of Earth, was filmed at the Shepperton studio complex. The second of two parts looking deeply at how the Doctor Who film used sets at Shepperton Film Studios.
A Matter of Time - Graham Williams, Lalla Ward, and more discuss The Fourth Doctor It was during the Key To Time season when Lalla Ward was first brought into Doctor Who, as one of the characters in an episode. Next thing we knew Romana 1 had changed her body and became Romana 2, played by Lalla Ward. This documentary discusses a change in Producers from Phillipe Hinchcliffe to Graham Williams, as a reaction to complaints about violence in Doctor Who. Apparently the Hinchcliffe era was thought to be too filled with horror, and BBC management engaged in a form of censorship.
Amazon 'accidentally' streams The Witchfinders in place of Kerblam Last weekend's Doctor Who episode, Kerblam, was a spot-on jab at Amazon. While Doctor Who has always jabbed at modern targets reshaped in other-worldly forms, the obvious target obviously doesn't have to take the jab without retribution. So when Amazon accidentally streamed Witchfinders (the next episode) a couple days early, was it an accident or retribution?
BBC confirms Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall leaving Doctor Who at end of 2022 In September, it was announced Russell T. Davies would be returning to Doctor Who as the Show Runner, and that both Chris Chibnall and Jodi Whittaker were leaving Doctor Who, with RTD taking over for the 60th Anniversary special. Reading between the lines told us it was likely the last Chibnall/Whittaker episode would be in the Fall of 2022. Today, the BBC made an announcement about this.
BBC helps with UNIT's return by showing UNIT highlights With last weeks Next Time Trailer, we were treated to the return of Kate Stewart to Doctor Who, and therefore it's likely to be the return of UNIT. Today, the BBC posted a YouTube video with a bunch of UNIT highlights. That's a big clue that UNIT is returning. I can only surmise that this highlights video, 30 minutes of rehashing favorite scenes with UNIT, was posted today because tomorrow UNIT is returning.
BBC projects Sontaran spaceship over Liverpool, signaling Doctor Who Season 13 about to start The time to start Doctor Who Season 13 (and finish it by the end of the year) is upon us. The BBC has pulled a marketing stunt, projecting the image of a Sontaran spaceship over the skies of Liverpool. Obviously this is how The Doctor meets up with Dan, the new companion to be played by John Bishop.
BBC's Chibnall confirms Doctor Who Season 13 shortened to 8 episodes Modern Doctor Who seasons are already way too short. Some fans may have trouble remembering what Doctor Who is by the time time the next season rolls around. In any case, the Doctor Who show runner Chris Chibnall confirmed that Season 13 will be 8 episodes, or three shorter than Season 12 was. The culprit? COVID-19 and the resulting health restrictions. Maybe we should be happy to simply have new Doctor Who on the horizon. But the reality is that we've been shortchanged on Doctor Who seasons since 2015ish.
BBC's first hints on Regeneration from Jodie Whittaker (Doctor 13) to replacement We know that Jodie Whittaker ends her run as The Doctor at the end of 2022. We don't know who will replacement her. But we do know a teensy bit about where the regeneration occurs.
BBC's tale of The Timeless Child was a bad idea, deeply undermines The Doctor For Doctor Who Season 12, the show runners promised us a story that would change everything we know about Doctor Who. Rolling out a trope like that is possibly a sign of desperation. In any case, what the BBC did to The Doctor was nearly as bad as what they portrayed Tecteun having done to develop Regeneration. The BBC gave us a story of a demigod fallen from the sky, who was tortured by mortals seeking to learn the secret of regeneration, and having stolen that secret built a society of pompous universe-shaping Time Lords. WTF?
Barbara and Ian leave the TARDIS crew at the end of The Chase

Good by Doctor, thanks for the ride! Barbara and Ian were part of the original TARDIS crew, and after two years the actors decided they wanted to move on. This video shows their debate with The Doctor outside a Dalek time traveling ship, and their arrival back in London in 1965. At first The Doctor refuses claiming he doesn't want to aid/abet suicide. It was a Dalek ship and who knew whether it would actually work properly. But the end of their contract said the two must go, and so they did.

Behind the Lens - The Day of the Doctor - Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - BBC

The Day of the Doctor was the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. This special goes behind the scenes of filming the episode.

Behind the scenes of An Adventure in Space and Time - Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - BBC

For the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Mark Gatis was able to put together a documentary about how it all started.

Betrayed by the myth of the timeless child The Doctor Who Season 12, season finale was an excellent rollicking good crazy-ass scheme invented by The Master, but the episode was marred by the primary selling point - that we'd learn about The Timeless Child and the lie of the Timeless Child and all this earth-shattering stuff about the real history of Gallifrey. What we were given was not a useful clarification of some gap in Time Lord Lore - but instead it was an abomination that ruins the whole purpose of Doctor Who.
Big Finish relaunching its Doctor Who audio adventures in 2022 Big Finish, the producers of audio adventures for Doctor Who and other television shows, announced today a complete revamp of its lineup to be launched in January 2022. The revamp includes an end to the Monthly Main Range story line, and a focus on 12 ranges for each incarnation of The Doctor.
Big Finish unites David Tenant and Tom Baker in 'Doctor Who: Out of Time' for August 2020 release David Tenant, Tom Baker, two of the best Doctor's ever, are uniting in a Big Finish audio due to be released in August 2020. The series, that is called Out of Time, will spread over three releases and will feature other Doctor pairings. The synopsis discusses an enigmatic Cathedral that exists "out of time" where The Doctor goes for rest and relaxation, where the Tenant and Baker Doctor's meet by happenstance, and then there's a Dalek invasion they must drive off, of course.
Bill Potts, Danny Pink, two black Companions sacrificed on the altar of Moffatts whims

Two seasons in a row we saw a BLACK companion get converted into a Cyberman and given a strange send-off. The first, Danny Pink, was supposed to be Clara Oswin's love interest -- we even saw them rescue an apparent descendent of that match-up, until Moffatt needed someone to be converted into a Cyberman. Then in Season 10, we had Bill Potts, an excellent companion, get converted into a Cyberman because Moffatt needed someone to be converted into a Cyberman. The history of Doctor Who has not seen a successful conversion of a Companion into a Cyberman until Danny Pink. With Bill Potts we have a second successful Companion-Cyberman-conversion. What's the commonality? Both the actors are BLACK?

I was going to let this pass -- until todays news included Moffatt bragging about the story twist in The Doctor Falls of having Bill Potts saved by her love interest, Heather. Ugh. Really? It's all okay because you gave yourself a magic way out of the corner you wrote yourself into?

No matter how brilliant Moffatt is in coming up with clever stories -- this shows a weakness in that he writes himself into corners, and rather than face the consequences of the story he's penned, Moffatt comes up with a magic way out.

Capaldi is leaving Doctor Who because the Daleks are Cockney Nazi's Stephen Moffatt teases us about the 'monsters' coming up for Season 10. Missy, the Monks, new Ice Warriors, and more. The Fan Show visits the filming sets and back rooms and storage places and more. Peter Capaldi is on the Graham Norton show, talking about why he's leaving the show. Oh, and we learn that the Daleks are Cockney Nazi's.
Capaldi's Doctor is one to HATE, or is he? Peter Capaldi's Doctor (#12 or #13 depending on how you count it) has been controversial. Apparently some outright hate him, and stopped watching Doctor Who because of Capaldi. While his Doctor isn't quite my cup-o-tea, I purely do not understand stopping watching the show. Clearly if someones total exposure to Doctor Who started in 2005, they won't grok that Colin Baker's Doctor was just as gruff and disliked. If you think about the personage whose history we're watching, each Regeneration produces different emotional effects in The Doctor. Ponder that this instance of The Doctor is something of a clerical error, and that by the Rules of Regeneration The Doctor shouldn't even still be alive after his last stand at Trenzalore. Ergo, doesn't that give an excuse for a confused personality?
Chibnall suggests/confirms no Daleks this year in Doctor Who With the 2018 season, Doctor Who has a new Doctor (!! a WOMAN !!), new companions, a new show runner, new writers, new this, and new that. The trailers released just before Comic-Con told us New Faces ... New Worlds .... New Times... leaving us wondering if this meant no old villians like the Daleks or Cybermen. In the Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con, Chibnall suggested there would be no Daleks this year. Instead the management wants the show to be as accessible as possible. Given the predicted backlash against a female Doctor, this may possibly be to offset any loss of viewership. Chibnall says the show is striving to be the most inclusive show on TV, but is likely to miss out on the chance to show a female Doctor with her female Wife (because ... New Faces, therefore no River Song).
Christopher Eccleston answers questions about his return to Doctor Who and Big Finish Christopher Eccleston is returning to the role of The Doctor, by dint of an audio production with Big Finish. With the release coming up in May 2021, they have published a video with Eccleston answering fan questions about his return.
Connections between Silence in the Library and Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon (Doctor Who) Season 6 of "new Who" opened last weekend with an enigmatic story (the Doctor dies!) containing an enigmatic murderer and many references back to prior Doctor Who episodes. To me the contents of An Impossible Astronaut point strongly to Silence in the Library. Inside the astronaut's facemask is the face of a little girl who we briefly see who, to me, looks like the little girl from Silence in the Library. (Well, it wasn't the exact same girl because in the credits we see "Sydney Wade" playing the "Little Girl" in this episode, while in Silence in the Library it was "Eve Newton") I'm expecting Day of the Moon to be even more strongly connected with those episodes.
Creepy confessors from the Papal Mainframe - The Silence When first 'seen' in the Impossible Astronaut, these mysterious creatures were a puzzle. They could zap people, they were all over the place on Planet Earth, yet had a strange ability to be immediately forgotten, and were involved with training The Doctor's bespoke assassin - River Song. That last bit we didn't know until much later. Instead we knew that Amy and Rory's daughter was kept by them in a creepy mansion. It wasn't the end of Matt Smiths time we learned what the Papal Mainframe is, and the true role of the Silence.
Cyborg Tanks hell-bent on racial purity, cleansing the universe of all inferiors - The Daleks The Daleks have been The Doctors longest-running enemy. They were people once, but a thousand-year-long war against the Thals forced them to remake their race into cyborg tanks intent on racial purity and being the superior race of the galaxy. Taking that to it's logical conclusion, the Daleks develop over time technological mastery way beyond anyone's imagination, but dedicated to the cause of wiping out all other inferior life forms.
Cyborg robots, seeking a home world, improving other races by erasing emotions - The Cybermen The Daleks have been The Doctors longest-running enemy. They were people once, but a thousand-year-long war against the Thals forced them to remake their race into cyborg tanks intent on racial purity and being the superior race of the galaxy. Taking that to it's logical conclusion, the Daleks develop over time technological mastery way beyond anyone's imagination, but dedicated to the cause of wiping out all other inferior life forms.
Dalek Khan saves the Daleks from destruction by the Hand of Omega Maybe this happened - the New Paradigm Daleks came from somewhere, right? It was never explained how they came about, but of course we all wish that the New Paradigm Daleks had never been created in the first place. In any case, this series of videos explains how it happened that the New Paradigm Daleks enlisted Dalek Khan to go back in time, prevent the Hand of Omega from destroying Skaro (seen in a 7th Doctor story), and setting up the conditions for the New Paradigm Daleks to come into existence. All we were told was Khan flew into the Time War, and went mad by seeing all of time and space. Maybe we'll never see an explanation in televised Doctor Who, so this will have to do.
Dalek Relaxation Tape - EXTERMINATE your worries and tensions
David Tenant has inside tips about Chibnall's time with Doctor Who, but he won't tell David Tenant, Doctor# 10 or 11 depending on how you count, has worked with Chris Chibnall thanks to his time in Broadchurch, and of course Chibnall is due to replace Stephen Moffatt shortly as Show Runner. Tacked onto the end of this interview about Tenants new movie about RD Lang (it sounds like an amazing movie) he's quizzed a bit about both Harry Potter and Doctor Who.
David Tennant to return as The 14th Doctor? Do what? What are they smoking? In what may be a silly fan rumor that will go nowhere, there's a claim that a BBC source has said to someone that David Tennant will return to Doctor Who to be The Doctor. This doesn't make much sense, or rather it makes less sense than having Russell T Davies return as Show Runner. Maybe the BBC is desparate?
Deep dive into Shepperton and the making of Daleks Invasion of Earth 2160AD The second Peter Cushing Doctor Who film, Daleks Invasion of Earth, was filmed at the Shepperton studio complex. The outdoor set at Shepperton used for street scenes had a weird amalgam of building styles, some from New York City, because that set had been used for so many different movies including a Warren Beatty movie set in New York. The massive entrance to the mining works was in fact a small hill on the backlot, with a matte painting filling in the background. The pseudo-medieval farm house was another building on the Shepperton site.
Detailed background of the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie starring Paul McGann During the hiatus between the end of Sylvester McCoy era and 2005 revival, the BBC had several ideas for revival, including several discussions with American producers for a joint collaboration. After several possible deals fell through, the Paul McGann TV Movie was created for Fox TV. The attached video goes over all the plans for an American version of Doctor Who, ending with a discussion of why the Paul McGann TV movie did not spawn a full TV series.
Did The Master kill UNIT in Doctor Who Season 11? It's a new season of Doctor Who, and even though The Master appeared to be truly dead at the end of Season 10, The Master always returns. The Presence of The Master is as long-running a part of Doctor Who as has been U.N.I.T. But we learn in Season 12 Episode 1 (Skyfall) that U.N.I.T. is truly dead. And it seems that The Master may have engineered the shutdown of U.N.I.T. to serve the cockamamie plan he has concocted.
Did The Master lie about The Doctor being The Timeless Child? In Doctor Who Season 12, the season finale is proving to be controversial in some quarters. One controversy is whether The Master had sufficient proof that The Doctor was indeed The Timeless Child. A YouTuber commentator walks us through the claims, and sure enough The Master did not show in the episode a clear line of connection between the two. We know that The Master is a liar and a manipulator, so did he lie and manipulate in this case? Is the narrative shown during The Timeless Children truth, or is it another lie uttered by The Master?
Did any parallel universe appear in Doctor Who?

Science fiction shows are full of stories about parallel universes. Maybe it lets the show writers reimagine a premise in the show, to ask "what if" and see what the characters do. In any case, a show centered on a travel capsule which can traverse all of time and space, don't you think it's fair to ask if any kind of parallel universe showed up?

Did the Doctor save history in The Haunting of Villa Diodati? In The Haunting of Villa Diodati, we were promised a rollicking ghost story when The Doctor visited with Mary Shelley and Doctor Polidori on the evening that both created the core of two significant horror genres - Frankenstein and Vampires. Instead we got a Base Under Siege story where some folks The Doctor said were significant historical figures were threatened with death, and therefore The Doctor got really uptight about preserving history. But The Doctor did not preserve history - probably.
Did the Ruth-Doctor guard The Timeless Child in a memory-wiped regeneration? In Doctor Who Season 12, fandom is being rocked by The Master claiming something about the lie of the Timeless Child, and then the revelation of an incarnation of The Doctor that basically cannot exist, but obviously does exist. Putting two and two together to get 50 is what Doctor Who fans do all the time, so of course someone has suggested there was a Doctor regeneration stuck between the Troughton and Pertwee Doctor's, and that during that regeneration The Doctor worked for a secretive Time Lord agency trusted with guarding the secret of The Timeless Child.
Did they change UNIT history in Survivors of the Flux? Doctor Who season 13 In Survivors of The Flux, we're treated in passing to new information about the origin of UNIT. A General is in charge, who turns to Prentiss (a.k.a. The Great Serpent) for advice. The person we'd always identified as being in charge, Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart, is nowhere to be seen in any form. Nicholas Courtney, who played Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart, is credited as an off-screen voice, but described as a "Corporal" rather than a "Colonel". What's going on?
Disappointed by the Vanquishing of The Flux - Doctor Who Season 13 We were sold The Flux as an awesome story, spanning a whole season, that would be full of excitement. Such a story should result in a stunning dramatic conclusion. There was sure a lot which happened in The Vanquishers, and the whole of Season 13, but why do I feel so disappointed and underwhelmed? Some stories, especially The Village of Angels, were excellent, but the season as a whole was scattershot, too many ideas, too much going on, too much jammed into the space, simply too much. It should have been three seasons or more, and instead it was one truncated half season.
Doctor #13, Jodi Whittaker, and TARDIS crew at Comic-Con 2018 San Diego The first public appearance of the new TARDIS crew happened this week at Comic-Con 2018 San Diego. Present were Jodi Whittaker, two of the companions, Chris Chibnal, and a Producer. They had an hour-long panel in Comic-Con, and also sat for a couple interviews with TV programs.
Doctor #13, new faces/worlds/times means no old villians means what? The Doctor Who season 2018 trailer released just before Comic-Con promised New Faces ... New Worlds .... New Times... leaves us scratching our heads. No Daleks? No Cybermen? Just what the Doctor Who team means by this will be revealed when the season starts being aired this fall. In the meantime we're left clutching at hints from Comic-Con 2018. One take-away from the video is that while Moffatt's era was an orgy of the return of classic Who Villians (like the Mondasian Cybermen), the new team doesn't want to get hung up on classic villians and wants to start fresh.
Doctor Who - Big Bang and paradox's and a reboot in the behind
Doctor Who - The Hungry Earth
Doctor Who - The Hungry Earth - Cold Blood
Doctor Who - The Lodger is more significant than you might think Just listened to the latest episode of The Doctor Who Podcast where they reviewed The Lodger. They described that episode as being a ho-hum filler which doesn't have much in it in terms of clues for the season-ending grand finale. And indeed it sure looks like a ho-hum filler. It's a normal middle-of-the-season story that has a lot of interesting bits to it, is well told, but is not the ground shaking extravaganza. Which does make its position near the end of the season a little curious because we're nigh on the what appears to be grand extravaganza and surely this episode should be cueing up some of the elements of that story?
Doctor Who - putting some season-long dots together
Doctor Who 2021 special 'Revolution of the Daleks' channels fan rage at BBC It's been 10 months since the last televised Doctor Who episode, and a True Fan is counting the hours (approximately 7200 hours). To make it worse, we've been told the 2021 season will be shortened to eight episodes, when the recent seasons had already shrank to 10 episodes from 12 or more episodes in previous seasons. And, in Revolution of the Daleks we see The Fam (the Companions in other words) waiting around for 10 months, and then when The Doctor finally arrives -- in the company of what looks like a new Companion -- Yaz got angry and shoved The Doctor. How many of us are feeling the same?
Doctor Who @ 40 years: William Hartnell Era This 2003 documentary marked the 40th year anniversary of Doctor Who, but looked back at the Hartnell era. Therefore it has all our favorite faces like Stephen Taylor and Susan from early Doctor Who.
Doctor Who Episode 2 (Smile) image gallery In Smile, the preview videos promised us a visit to Earth's first colony on another world. Valencia's Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences - see my pictures at the bottom) is standing in for that colony, thanks to what looks like excellent CGI work. The actual location of these buildings in Valencia is very urban. In any case it appears the humans (in the story) are not on the best of terms with the robots.
Doctor Who Origins - documentary from The Edge of Destruction This documentary from the Edge of Destruction DVD contains numerous interviews with the cast, crew and production staff. This includes Verity Lambert, the first Producer, as well as William Russell (Ian Chesterton), and Carol Ann Ford (Susan). The Doctor Who Origins documentary details the conception and development of Doctor Who from its conception by Sydney Newman to its first broadcast. What about the origins of Doctor Who?
Doctor Who Season 12 theme: Smack-in-the-face-with-2x4-lecturing The episode Praxeus was rollicking good fun, with scary bits, funny bits, and an intriguing puzzle to solve. But at least twice The Doctor turned to the audience to deliver a lecture about Plastics. That wouldn't be so bad, but that's happened in nearly every episode so far this season, and it's beginning to get on my nerves.
Doctor Who Season 13 - Sontarans as horse-mounted knights? I didn't know about this secret yearning to see a Sontaran on horse-back. But, now that I've seen it, Sontarans are similar to old-school Knights in Armor, yes? Well, okay, not really, but these Sontarans are sure an improvement over Moffatts comedy Sontarans. As much as we loved Strax, these are Sontarans.
Doctor Who Season 13 - The Fairy Tale of 'Once upon a Time' Why did Chibnall wait until becoming a reviled show runner before producing stories like this? This episode may be up there with some of the most intriguing of all of Doctor Who, such as Warriors Gate. Or maybe it's too straight-forward to rank with Warriors Gate, I'm not sure. Regardless, there is a lot to unpack in this, the third episode of the six-part story which is season 13 of Doctor Who.
Doctor Who Season 13 - The Halloween Apocalypse What a relief! Chris Chibnall has finally produced an episode that's not boring, and is instead rather interesting. The Season 13 opener is the first of a six-part story, and it does an excellent job of setting up the problem, while keeping us in the dark about many important things.
Doctor Who Season 13 official trailer breakdown There is now an official trailer for Doctor Who Season 13, and we have verified show dates, we have the names of the directors and writers, and some clues about the storyline. But we do not know show titles. And, why oh why did Chris Chibnall write every single episode?
Doctor Who Season 13 starts October 31 with 'The Flux', Sontarans, Weeping Angels, and everything else We now know when Season 13 starts, but do not know show titles, or the schedule. Just that it involves a 'Flux' and a coming wave of Sontarans, Weeping Angels, Ravagers, and who knows what else. Oh, and there's a guy with a Liverpool accent named Dan.
Doctor Who The Cast and Crew Discuss Let's Kill Hitler - official previews and trailers for Doctor Who season 6 part 2 The next season of Doctor Who is coming up - and the BBC has released this bit of a video to tease our appetite. The first half of season 6 left us with lots of questions.. like, why was that little girl regenerating? The trailers they released also leave lots of questions and tantalize with many new things. The entrance into Hitler's office is - well - fitting. It's clear the arc here is about The Doctor actually dying, or not. And clearly we're gonna see more of Eye Patch Lady, and somehow River Song has an Eye Patch at some time? Why would that be. Perhaps River Song doesn't get rescued from the Eye Patch Lady until she's an adult? Or..what? What's going on? Imagine Germany on the "eve of WWII" with a bunch of Doctor Who'ish crazy timey wimey stuff. Okaaaaayyy...
Doctor Who Video Snippets: The Reign of Terror (S01E008) The final episode of Doctor Who Season 1 saw the TARDIS crew land in Paris during the Reign of Terror. While Ian, Barbara and Susan were jailed, The Doctor took a role of some kind of big-wig with a fancy hat. After escaping jail, Ian, Barbara and Susan took up with some revolutionaries, and were there to observe Napolean Boneparte agree to join the revolution, a move that would make him the Emporer.
Doctor Who Video Snippets: The Romans (S02E012) In The Romans, we see The Doctor and Vicki go to ancient Rome, supposedly leaving Ian and Barbara alone in a villa they found unoccupied. But, Ian and Barbara were captured by slavers and ended up in Rome as well, as slaves. In the meantime The Doctor takes the place of a gentleman who was intent on killing Ceasar Nero, and various ensuing odd occurrences occur. One of which is The Doctor giving Nero the idea to burn Rome so he can implement his grand vision to redesign Rome.
Doctor Who companions changing for Season 13, Graham and Ryan out, Dan is in (John Bishop) It was known that Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brien) and Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair) were likely to leave the TARDIS after the 2021 New Years special. That special was aired, and as Companion Departures go this one was as sleepy as Graham and Ryans characters. They are to be replaced by John Bishop, who is apparently a big-name comedian in Great Britain. He'll be playing Dan, and all we know is that discussions have been underway for a long time, and that the character was built around John's uniqueness.
Doctor Who does not have to be about the monster of the week Doctor Who Season 11 is a big departure from what Doctor Who has become. The obvious change is that The Doctor is female, duh. On YouTube and surely elsewhere there's been a big negative backlash against this and other changes in Doctor Who -- complaints about politically-correct-social-justice-being-shoved-down-our-throats are common in YouTube reviews of Season 11 episodes. But some of these reviewers are simply complaining how different it is, and some have complained about the lack of the typical monsters. Instead we're being shown creatures who look like monsters, but are not, and we're shown humans who are committing great crimes.
Doctor Who s05e01 - The Eleventh Hour
Doctor Who s05e02 - The Beast Below
Doctor Who s05e03 - The Victory of the Daleks
Doctor Who s05e04 The Time of Angels and s05e05 Flesh and Stone Launching into a two-part episode is River Song returning in a fabulous scene befitting the enigma that she is. What a riot.. scribbling Gallifreyan graffiti on a box in a space ship, knowing that sometime in the future the Doctor will read it, then reading out some space time coordinates on the security camera, then blowing the exit hatch, having full trust and confidence that the Doctor will be there to rescue her. Wow.
Doctor Who: Amy's Choice
Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (S01E01)

What an auspicious beginning to a TV show which would become iconic. Did they know the show would last as long as it has?

An Unearthly Child is constructed as a very good starting point, introducing the people to The Doctor and his ways. The episode introduces us to the Cold Hill School and the junkyard in which the Doctor and Susan live. Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are concerned about Susan Foreman, who seems to have a very alien outlook on England. She is precocious but seems to have strange gaps in her understanding of the world. They have come to her listed address to investigate. Her listed address is this junkyard, which they simply cannot grasp. Then they meet this strange gruff old man who tries to get them to leave, but instead makes it look like some kind of pedophilia or homelessness situation.

Doctor Who: Journey's End (S04E13) Wow. This episode picks up immediately following the previous ("The Stolen Earth") episode. At the end of that episode it looked like everybody was about to die, or had died. Sarah Jane was surrendering to Daleks, a Dalek was attacking Torchwood with Ianto and Gwen doing their best imitation of "let's go down fighting", and the Doctor had been shot by a Dalek and was regenerating. The big question from last week was this surprise regeneration of the Doctor since it's known David Tennant's contract went through 2010 (at least). Mere trifles... rather than regenerate into a new Doctor, the Doctor regenerated into himself. Weird trick if you ask me. And then to save Sarah Jane they had Mickey and Jacky materialize next to her car, with a huge gun for each, and blow away the Daleks. Oh, and Torchwood, they borrowed a scene from The Matrix and froze the bullets in time saying something about a Time Lock which Tash fortunately finished before she kicked off this mortal coil. Oh, and speaking of prisons (where Gwen and Ianto found themselves) these Daleks have some tricks, as a full blown Dalek Empire, which we haven't seen before. Such as disempowering a TARDIS regardless of the defenses it possesses.
Doctor Who: Marco Polo (S01E004) Marco Polo is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 7 weekly parts from February 22 to April 4, 1964. Although audio tracks and still photographs of the story exist, none of the footage of this serial has survived. This is the first "pure historical" Doctor Who story, in that there are no science fictional elements other than the fact that the Doctor and his companions have travelled to the past. I watched the Loose Cannon reconstruction of this story and it's a great loss that the original footage has been lost. It's clear from the still pictures used by Loose Cannon that the sets and costumes were very well done, and that this story must have been a great spectacle.
Doctor Who: Mission to the Unknown recreated?!?!!! Mission to the Unknown was a one-parter 1st Doctor story previewed the epic 12-parter Daleks Master Plan. This is one of the completely missing stories, existing solely as audio coupled with telesnaps. A team at the U of Lancastershire is working on recreating the episode with top production values. Is it just a glorified "fan film"? It has the cooperation of the BBC, and Nicholas Briggs is playing the Voice of the Daleks.
Doctor Who: Planet of the Giants (S02E009)

Honey! I shrank the Doctor!

Due to a glitch the Doctor and Companions end up small. Very small. As in, smaller than the typical insect. But they don't realize this at first, as they are wandering through a landscape of strangely large but familiar looking objects. Such as a box of matches the size of a car. After awhile they realize they aren't trapped in an oddball amusement park, but instead they have been shrunk and the problem for them is how to return to "normal" size.

To make matters interesting the place they land was the home laboratory of a chemist working on a very potent insecticide. One which is especially dangerous to the humans in their extremely tiny size, as Barbara learns when she touches some of the insecticide.

Doctor Who: Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead

Oooooo! This is why Doctor Who stories should be spread over multiple episodes. So many of the Doctor Who episodes since the revival have been one-episode wonders where the story was rushed .. and a rushed story is often one not told as well. Even some of the two-parters since the revival have been too rushed. In any case these two stories are very well paced, extremely interesting, and excellent feats of story telling. That they were written by Stephen Moffett, the next lead writer, portends good things for the future of Doctor Who.

The story is about a library, not any old library but one that is the size of a whole planet and contains every book ever written. But, strangely, there is nobody there in this library. Why? The strange goings-on start almost immediately with an ominous message saying to watch out for the shadows. And shortly afterward a group of researchers burst upon the scene, one of whom, Dr. River Song, amazingly already knows the Doctor. Many creepy and odd events occur until there is another of the endings where someone sacrifices their life in order that the Doctor will live.

Doctor Who: Stolen Earth (S04E12) Oh my, it appears that Russel T. Davies wants to go out with a big big big bang. The Stolen Earth is essentially the middle episode of a three part story, which began with Turn Left. In the previous episode we were left with an ominous warning from Ms. Bad Wolf that darkness was coming. Of course that Rose was able to get to the same universe as the Doctor meant something seriously bad was happening. The "darkness" was spreading across all universes, but in this episode did not match with what I expected. I expected something like a blanket sucking energy out of everywhere, but in this episode we have several (27) stolen planets ... hmmm.. just how is that a blackness spreading across all universes? Either they have a continuity problem or it's going to be addressed in the next episode.
Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen (S05E038) Back to Tibet we go except it was probably really the Scottish Highlands in disguise. We have here a most interesting adventure about myth. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land in Tibet and its too cold even for Jamie's bravery and he ends up wearing a jacket despite his Highlander blood. The wimp. The adventure involves an anthropologist / explorer hunting the elusive Yeti, a monastery full of Tibetan Monks, and space aliens bent on destruction. Oh, and the Doctor gets to return a holy relic, a Ghanta, to this monastery which he had visited 300+ years before. The Monks have been hoping their Ghanta would return all these years and they're somewhat happy to have it back but for the attacks from the Yeti.
Doctor Who: The Ark (S03E23) This series establishes a continuity point which is violated by the modern Doctor Who episodes. But, okay, a violation of continuity? What else is new? The question of this series is what happens with a society where one part is downtrodden and dominated by another part, and then the tables turn and the formerly downtrodden are now in charge? The story involves a generation ship, that is a space ship that's built for a multi-hundred-year journey. There is a crew of people manning the equipment and watching over the ship, and there are millions of earthlings in cold storage. They're on a 700 year journey to a new homeworld and along the way they'd met the Monoids, a race of mute humanoids, which the humans forced into a servant relationship with the humans.
Doctor Who: The Aztecs (S01E006) The TARDIS lands in a tomb which the Doctor and Companions quickly determine is in the Aztec Empire during the 1400's. This is the height of the Aztec empire, and Barbara is accidentally identified as the reincarnation of one of their Gods. The Companions are unable to return into the tomb to escape in the TARDIS and thus ensues an adventure through a slice of Aztec culture as the Doctor and Companions attempt to work out how to get back into the tomb so they can escape in the TARDIS.
Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (S03E024)

The Toymaker is an immortal jokester and game master. He inhabits a world of his own making, in which he traps people, makes them play games where the losers become his prisoners. Into this snare fall the Doctor and Companions. They play a series of stupid games. They win but the toymaker has a final move which is set to destroy them if they make the move. But they manage to trick him and escape without being destroyed.

Blah.

Doctor Who: The Chase (S02E016) The Doctor and Companions had, in the previous episode, acquired a gizmo. A Time-Space Visualizer. This was one of the prizes in the space museum, and at the end of that series they showed the natives of that planet destroying all the gizmos in the museum. The Doctor said, uh, wait a minute, would you mind if I take that gizmo with me? The Time-Space Visualiser is a television-like thingymajob which can pick up on any event in the whole of time and space.
Doctor Who: The Crusade (S02E014)
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (S02E010) This is the second appearance of the Daleks, and it's shocking to the Doctor and companions to see the Daleks away from Skaros and especially to see the Daleks had survived their previous encounter. The Doctor and Companions land in London along the Thames, which they recognize, but they also recognize it's eerily quiet. Too quiet. Something is wrong as they slowly discover strange clues such as a sign prohibiting throwing dead bodies in the river. They eventually find a calendar saying it is 2164.
Doctor Who: The Daleks (S01E02 - 1964)

It's fitting given the season finale which is upon us, to have watched the earliest of the Dalek appearances. This story was the second episode cluster of the first Doctor Who season way back in 1964, that's how long the Doctor and the Daleks have been fighting each other. In The Daleks the Doctor and companions accidentally land on this strange desert-like planet where the trees and flowers are made of stone and the lizards are made of metal. As their explorations lead them to meet the Thals and the Dals. These races had been fighting a long running war over centuries which left their planet a radioactive wasteland. The two groups chose different paths to survival, the Thals having forsaken war to take up gentler livelihood and the Dals encasing themselves in machines and taking on the word EXTERMINATE as their major vocabulary.

Doctor Who: The Daleks Master Plan (S03E021) A very long story, spanning 12 episodes, it is an extensive delving into the ultimate goal held by the Daleks. Namely the EXTERMINATION of everything which is non-Dalek. A prequel was shown, "Mission to the Unknown", which didn't even show The Doctor at all. Instead it showed a group of military men on a mission to a jungle-filled place where some of the plants had a special poison which converted people into more instances of those plants. A very rugged and dangerous place full of death and Daleks, but no time travelers. In the Master Plan we see there is an empire of several intergalactic races of beings. It's a little confusing because Mavic Chen is said to be the Guardian of the Solar System but at the same time that role places him in leadership over the whole conglomeration of intergalactic cultures. Either they mean something else by 'Solar System' or, well, I'm just confused.
Doctor Who: The Daleks Master Plan (S03E021) A very long story, spanning 12 episodes, it is an extensive delving into the ultimate goal held by the Daleks. Namely the EXTERMINATION of everything which is non-Dalek. A prequel was shown, "Mission to the Unknown", which didn't even show The Doctor at all. Instead it showed a group of military men on a mission to a jungle-filled place where some of the plants had a special poison which converted people into more instances of those plants. A very rugged and dangerous place full of death and Daleks, but no time travelers. In the Master Plan we see there is an empire of several intergalactic races of beings. It's a little confusing because Mavic Chen is said to be the Guardian of the Solar System but at the same time that role places him in leadership over the whole conglomeration of intergalactic cultures. Either they mean something else by 'Solar System' or, well, I'm just confused.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Desctruction (S01E03) The Edge of Destruction is a confusing two-part story. Confusing because the characters are having memory lapses, inability to recognize each other, and none of it is explained until the end when the problem is worked out. Along the way the cast turns on each other in varying alliances. The argument between Barbara and the Doctor is very astonishing.
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks (S04E036) What do you do when you're the Doctor and you see your TARDIS being hauled away on a truck. Why, you give chase, but when you can't chase down the truck you return to the vicinity and do your best Sherlock Holmes impression. In this story we have the Doctor and Jamie still in Gatwick Airport, the TARDIS has been stolen, and for a couple episodes the Doctor is playing Sherlock Holmes looking at minute clues that lead him on a trail which ends in his capture. Seems someone has set a snare for the Doctor, and they wish him to go back in time to 1866 and to do a little experiment. What is it that has allowed the Daleks to be defeated by humans, what is the Human Factor? The Daleks plan is always to dominate and exterminate anything that's non-Dalek, so they must understand how to beat humans, and to do so they must understand humans.
Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones (S04E035) What happens when a police box materializes on the runway of Gatwick Airport? Why the police come over and retrieve it. The Doctor and Companions arrive in 'modern' Gatwick Airport, leading Jamie to believe they're being attacked by flying beasties. As they're running around Polly discovers a murder. As the story progresses it gets weirder and weirder. The murder was conducted using a weapon which electrocuted the victim, leaving burn marks and scorched fabric, and why was an unused Spanish postage stamp in his pocket? Curiouser and curiouser my dear Commandant.
Doctor Who: The Gunfighters (S03E025) In another historical story the Doctor and Companions land in Tombstone Arizona a couple days before the infamous (en.wikipedia.org) Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Sigh. So that gunfight has been portrayed in other fictional works so why not here as well. What happens? First the Doctor has a toothache because the goofy toymaker from the previous episodes had given him some candy which made a toothache. Who does he see in Tombstone? Why, Doc Holliday, that's who. The lot of them immediately fall into the middle of a feud between the Clantons, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and a couple others. The Clantons have a score to settle with Holliday, y'see.
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (S01E005) The Doctor and companions land on an island with a pyramid shaped tower. I saw that tower and thought Atlantis but the story had nothing to do with Atlantis, so much for that. In any case they immediately fall into intrigue and a planet full of mysterious peoples. The tower contained a remnant of the technological development of the people of that planet, it contained a machine that broadcast a signal which made everybody agreeable and peaceful. But some were not affected by the machine and there had been a war etc. The machine was operated by five keys, and the keys had been scattered for safekeeping. The Doctor and Companions then are sent on a quest to travel across the planet and recover all the keys.
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (S04E034) The Doctor and Companions land on an unnamed planet in Earth's colonial future and find a man being attacked by a huge clawed insect monster. They are greeted by Medok, a half-crazed colonist, who is promptly arrested by Ola, the Chief of Police. It seems everybody who professes to see these monsters are made out to be crazy paranoids and are sent to the hospital for readjustment of their thinking, and if they do not conform they're sent into the gas mines where they tend to die. The people of the colony are doing some unspecified work to perform gas mining, and the gas has an unspecified purpose.
Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomews Eve (S03E022) A very confusing story this one is. Following their battle with the Daleks the Doctor and the sole Companion, Steven, land in medieval Paris. Yes, Paris again, fortunately it's not the horrors of the Revolution. Once they determine the era the Doctor sets off on a mysterious errand having to do with meeting a scientist and to deliver some papers. He leaves Steven to his own ends, and of course Steven gets involved with High Intrigue of the highest levels.
Doctor Who: The Myth Makers (S02E020) How did the Greeks get the idea to build a giant horse and use it to sneak their troops inside Troy? Why, the Doctor told 'em, that's how they got the idea. Uuuuuhh... It's got to be boring to be laying seige to a city for 10 years. Ten years!! Sheesh, some people just can't let go of a grudge, can they?
Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (S04E030) Hey, who's that guy and what has he done with the Doctor? That's what Ben and Polly are asking themselves having witnessed the first Regeneration. It's nigh on impossible for the Doctors face to change like that, so it has to be somebody else, some usurper. But they quickly discover it really is the Doctor, somehow changed form, as they remember his words just before about his body being worn out. In the meantime they've landed on a strange planet, which they learn is Vulcan. The TARDIS has landed them in the midst of "mercury swamps". Pretty soon the Doctor witnesses a man be murdered, and he has a moment to search the man and retrieve a badge which declares him to be The Inspector and that the bearer is afforded all access. This rank will prove useful in the adventure to come.
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror (S01E008) This was a very difficult series to watch, because of the horrendous conditions the Doctor and companions endured. They find themselves landed in the French countryside and it's nice and idyllic until they start meeting people. A young boy acts very badly towards them, and shortly after they come into a farmhouse that's infested with spies who use this place as a safehouse, and shortly after that a French Army unit arrive to arrest the spies. It turns out they have landed during the French Revolution during the time of Robespierre, the chief orchestrator of government during the Reign of Terror.
Doctor Who: The Rescue (S02E011) The Doctor an Companions, in need of a new young lady to be the Doctor's friend, land on the planet Dido. It seems the Doctor has been to Dido before and expected to find friendly and peaceful people. Except what they find instead is a crash-landed space-craft and a local who is anything but friendly or peaceful.
Doctor Who: The Romans (S02E012) We join the Doctor and companions in Ancient Roman times, chilling in a "borrowed" villa in the countryside. They're enjoying a well earned rest when the Doctor gets bored and wants to see Rome. He takes with him his new friend, Vicki, to come and see Rome as well. That leaves Ian and Barbara at the villa supposedly party poopers who aren't into seeing the sights and painting the town red or some such.
Doctor Who: The Savages (S03E026) The Doctor and Companions arrive on a strange planet, the Doctor is certain they have arrived in the "distant future" but Steven isn't so sure as there are signs it is the Iron age or something. The Doctor goes out exploring leaving Steven and Dodo behind, they encounter some savages who attack them with spears while the Doctor meets some soldiers from a city. They all eventually come to the city and find a civilization of high advancement, scientifically minded, highly advanced artists, etc. It is a beautiful place where they are welcome to stay. Except that Dodo feels something isn't right, she slips away and finds a laboratory in which the life force of people are sucked out of them. It turns out this civilization's high achievements are at the cost of stealing life force energy from the "savages". The supposedly highly advanced people regard these others, the "savages", as nothings, and by regarding them as nothing they then treat these "savages" without regard for humanity or concern for their wellbeing.
Doctor Who: The Sensorites (S01E007) A very confusing and intricately plotted series which ends up in a very interesting place. The Doctor and Companions find themselves on a spaceship where the inhabitants appear to be dead. They're about to say "whatever" and leave when it appears maybe they aren't dead. They're able to resuscitate the inhabitants and embark on this strange journey.
Doctor Who: The Smugglers (S04E028) The Doctor starts to leave with the TARDIS, all alone, because Dodo sent a message that she wished to stay in London. Except, Ben and Polly have accidentally boarded the TARDIS just before dematerialization. Once he sees them he's knowing that they're stuck with him for awhile, but of course they're obstinate that they're in 1966 London and that Ben has to get to his ship, etc. Then the ship lands somewhere and, despite now being on a beach, still thinking they're in 1966 they start heading towards the church they see in the distance. And thus ensues an Adventure in the past.
Doctor Who: The Space Museum (S02E015) The Doctor and Companions arrive at a strange place, a seemingly deserted building full of artifacts. They had a mishap during landing which lead to their being disjoint from time. In the building they eventually see people but the people cannot see them. Curious as to what's going on they explore further, and then find a room containing the TARDIS and they're shocked to see themselves on display. The realization comes, they're seeing their own future and the question comes, how do they avoid this future? Is the future predetermined and there is no way to avoid it? Or are they able to, having been informed of the future, take steps to avoid the future? Or are any steps they take part of the predetermined steps which will take them to their future even as they take those steps to avoid the future they already know about?
Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet (S04E029) Woah.. the first appearance of the Cybermen, and the first regeneration. And a real tense story to boot. The Doctor and Companions land on a new planet, which the Doctor declares to be the "Coldest Place on the Planet". It is 1986, and they are at the South Pole near 'Snowcap Base' which appears to have been a rocket base that sends up missions to study the weather. It's presented as a stereotypical military base, with a small contingent of stir crazy men, with no females in site anywhere. Shortly after their arrival a "new planet" shows up in their instruments, they're able to see pictures of the planet and it has land masses recognizably the same as Earths. Except the land masses are pictured as being upside down. The Doctor recognizes the place and declares this is the planet (en.wikipedia.org) Mondas, and that they are about to have visitors. Apparently he knows all about the Cybermen and their planet.
Doctor Who: The Three Doctors, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee In this, the first multi-Doctor story, we see a situation so dire that the Time Lords must bring together multiple incarnations of The Doctor. The name Gallifrey had not been revealed yet, but the Time Lords "home world" was under attack by Omega. Omega was the Time Lord who developed the time experiments which gave Time Lords the ability to travel throughout time. However in the process Omega was trapped in an alternate dimension, and sought revenge.
Doctor Who: The Time Meddler (S02E017) Okay, so who's the new companion? Turns out the guy they met last episode managed to sneak aboard and he's now their new companion. He's a little green, however, but is probably gonna learn himself a thing or two about dodging space monsters. In any case they arrive somewhere on the beach at the base of some tall cliffs. Unsure when/where they've arrived they go exploring and eventually learn they're in Northumbria in 1066 just before the Battle of Hastings. Coincidentally they've landed at the place where the Vikings led by Harold Hardrada were to invade, and due to the Viking invasion King Harold Godwinson of England had to divert the troops to fight the Vikings and then when William the Conqueror invaded the army was worn out from already fighting one foe.
Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen (S05E036) On the planet Telos, an archeological expedition uncovers a hidden entrance in the side of a mountain. When a member of the expedition touches the doors, he is electrocuted. The TARDIS lands nearby, and the expedition is joined by the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria. Parry, the expeditions leader, explains that they are here to find the remains of the Cybermen, who apparently died out centuries before. The expedition is funded by Kaftan, who is accompanied by her giant manservant Toberman and her colleague Klieg. Hmm says the Doctor...
Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (S04E032) In Jamie's inaugural voyage in the TARDIS we travel to Atlantis. It is not an Atlantis of ancient times, but one which has been buried beneath the ocean until modern times. A modern day mad scientist, Professor Zaroff, has made his way to Atlantis and has a crackpot crazy scheme. He's told the Atlantean's that he can raise their city from beneath the ocean, and to these people who have been buried for centuries having their city above the ocean again is appealing. However Zaroff has a different plan, one which will involve destruction of the planet.
Doctor Who: The War Machines (S03E027) Goodbye Dodo, welcome Polly & Ben. The Doctor and Dodo land in London near the Post Office Tower. The Doctor senses something is amiss with the tower and goes to investigate. Somehow we are next in the central control room for what would have to be a highly top secret installation, at the top of the tower, and somehow the Doctor is being led into the room. Through a series of events we learn of a computer, WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), which is said to be the ultimate in machine intelligence and is intended to become the hub of a network of computers which will make all decisions for mankind. Except WOTAN has a plan of its own, to wipe out humanity because humanity gets in the way of the superiority of the machines. WOTAN has hypnotic powers and uses them to enslave groups of humans who are ordered to build War Machines. Coincidentally the machines have a gun that looks a lot like a DALEK gun. Maybe their special effects budget didn't have money to pay for design of a different gun.
Doctor Who: The Web Planet (S02E013) Upon leaving Ancient Rome the TARDIS is mysteriously pulled off course and onto the planet Vortis. The story was pretty confusing to me. The Doctor and Ian explore the planets surface, finding a barren landscape, craggy rocks, pools of acid, etc. The planet is occupied by two species that look like giant bugs, the Zarbi are enormous ants, while the Menoptra are enormous bees. "Enormous" means people-sized. What was confusing was the relationship between these races and their motivations.
Doctor Who: The William Hartnell Era William Hartnell was the original Doctor, meaning he was the first actor to hold the role of The Doctor in the Doctor Who TV show. The show aired on November 23, 1963, meaning it was the day after Pres. Kennedy was assisinated. This documentary starts with the narrators mother, who watched the first episode (An Unearthly Child) on its first airing. It quickly goes into discuss Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, and the founding of Doctor Who.
Doctor Who: Turn Left (S04E11)

Another tour de force of time travel stories on Doctor Who. This episode asks the question -- How would your life be different if your decisions were different?

Clearly where we end up in life is directly determined by the decisions we make along the way. It's also determined by what goes on around us, the decisions everybody else makes, and for that matter the context we all live in on this planet in this star system in this galaxy etc. But, really, what path would life take if there were a different set of decisions?

In the episode they suggest that for most people it wouldn't make much difference. Choose one job versus another job, what difference does it make? But in the case of Donna Noble, the Doctors companion, that choice ends up being between accompanying the Doctor and not doing so. Then because the Doctor truly dies because Donna is not with him, without the presence of the Doctor the whole universe dies, step by step.

Doctor who approximate schedule for 2022 - 3 episodes fairly evenly spread The BBC today announced sketch of a schedule for the Doctor Who specials during 2022.
Doctor who going on 1 yr hiatus before 60th anniversary 3-specials blowout Surprise, David Tennant is the 14th Doctor, and the schedule says no new episodes until November 2023. And, that new logo looks awfully familiar.
Dr Who Review, Part 5 - The Tom Baker Era This is the 5th of a series of in-depth reviews by "Clever Dick Films" of Doctor Who era's. "Who wants to act, I can be Tom" This era was dominated not just by Tom Baker, but Phillip Hinchcliffe and Bob Holmes.
Eccleston returning as The Doctor on Big Finish in Ninth Doctor Adventures, Ravagers Christopher Eccleston gave a huge gift to Doctor Who fandom by performing the first Doctor after the hiatus, but that came at a personal cost (reportedly he hated that time). It's thought Eccleston felt a huge betrayal by the BBC, and as a result did not participate in the 50th anniversary multi-Doctor show that instead saw John Hurt appear as The War Doctor. So, it is with huge interest and pleasure to learn that Eccleston has returned to play The Doctor via a set of audio adventures on Big Finish, the first boxed set being called Ravagers.
Episode 1 (The Pilot) image gallery As with any Doctor Who companion, 'two worlds collide'. Bill, the new companion, is introduced to us in this episode. The episode synopsis: 'Two worlds collide when the Doctor meets Bill, and a chance encounter with a girl with a star in her eye leads to a terrifying chase across time and space. Bill's mind is opened to a universe that is bigger and more exciting than she could possibly have imagined. But who is the Doctor, and what is his secret mission on Earth?'
Episode 1's 'next time' trailers previewing Smile, episode 02 Doctor Who went to Valencia Spain to film a strange city that's one of Earth's first colonies in space, only to find the people had died and it's inhabited to Emoji-speaking robots. WTF? Valencia is a cool city, and that strange looking building (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) is certainly a strange place, but why would they cut the building out of its surroundings? Anyway, here's a preview of what the Doctor Who team plans to do with Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences. Some kind of robots-kill-the-humans scenario.
Episode 7 (Extremis) image gallery The BBC has posted these images of Extremis, the next episode of Doctor Who Season 10. These pictures show a little more about the location (The Hereticum?), Missy's presence, the Monks, and so forth. For some reason they're going to the Oval Office (as in The White House), which I do not understand.
Everyone is missing another gap in The Doctor's regenerations The theories about The Ruth-Doctor point to a regeneration gap between Troughton's and Pertwee's Doctor, and therefore The Ruth-Doctor has to fit in that gap. However there is another gap that everyone is missing. The Ruth-Doctor could have fit into this other gap.
Extremis, Season 10 Episode 6 preview Tacked onto the end of Oxygen, episode 5, was a spoilerific preview. The Doctor became blind due to events in episode 5, and has been called to The Vatican for some purpose. The Next Time trailer contains a glimpse of Dr. River Song's diary, and a glimpse of Missy. We knew that Missy would show up later in the season, but River Song? WTF? And then there's another preview showing Bill's date with a cute black woman being interrupted by The Pope and some Vatican dudes. Despite being a Time Lord, The Doctor has no sense of timing.
Fake Amazon in Kerblam! asks 'Is this Fake Dr. Who?' - Kerblam! review, Doctor Who Season 11 In Kerblam! there is an interesting story struggling to free itself from a deeply flawed episode. The Doctor Who team is transparently panning Amazon while exploring modern automation and the role of humans in the face of ever-improving technology. Doctor Who has worked with these ideas before, but in this case where is the tension or the danger? Like so much of Season 11, the characters seemed to be sleep-walking their way through the story, and the interesting possibilities are buried under layers of ..er?.. cotton balls is the best analogy that came to mind.
Falling through Thin Ice to meet a big fish, Previewing Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 3 In 1814, Bill asks The Doctor whether there are 'side effects' to time travel, and whether he's killed anyone. Fair questions to ask at the beginning of such a relationship, perhaps. In the background is a depiction of a 'Frost Fair' on the Thames.
First trailer to Doctor Who 2018 season, first glimpse of 13th Doctor and team The first trailer of the new Doctor Who season is out, showing the new TARDIS team, and the fact that their culinary choices are not that healthy. That aside, aren't we supposed to take this as a preview of the season? Instead we're given a phrase, The Universe is Calling, and a few character snippets of each. The two guys are loners who seem to like hanging out at the same Chips place, while the young girl likes to hang out with friends and eat pizza.
Getting ready to Smile, Previewing Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 2 The Doctor Who crew flew to Valencia Spain to use the City of Arts and Sciences as a stand-in for a space colony on another planet. Having been to Valencia, I agree that building complex is very strange looking, like it came from another planet. Are Emoji-Bots really a dangerous monster, however?
Hartnell vs Cushing: "Anything You Can do I Can do Better" - DOCTOR WHO Concurrent with the Doctor Who TV program on the BBC were some Doctor Who movies starring Peter Cushing. Those movies reenacted certain of the Doctor Who episodes, but through a very different lens. Cushing played the same sort of Doctor as Hartnell did. Which obviously led someone to think that if the two ever met they might engage in some one-up-manship.
Has the Great Reset come to Doctor Who? I really do not like this Timeless Child idea that Chibnall is foisting on us. While I'm loving the Season 13 episodes about The Flux, and find them to be excellent Doctor Who episodes, it's clear that the story is leading directly to some more nonsense about The Timeless Child. In this weeks Doctor Who Podcast, one of the commenters had a kooky theory of the week that what Chibnall has in mind is a Great Reset of Doctor Who.
Hell Bent from Gallifrey straight to Big Finish - Maisie/Jenna as Me/Clara from now til the end of time Whatever else we make of the Doctor Who Season 9 finale, one thing is clear: Maisie Williams and Jenna Coleman have a long career ahead of them playing immortals "Me" and Clara, traveling the universe in their own TARDIS. That's how the episode ended, eh? Clara insisting on a return to Gallifrey to finish things, but to take the long way around. She cannot die because her death is pre-ordained on Trapp Street and, thanks to Time Lord technology, she is a walking frozen point of time waiting to return to her regular time stream, swallow the raven, and die. Until then she can roam the universe, accompanied by someone who swallowed alien technology that will keep her body fully repaired, and is also effectively immortal. There you have it, the perfectly sensible back story of a Big Finish franchise.
How Tom Baker Became The Fourth Doctor | Doctor Who Tom Baker was of course the Fourth Doctor, the longest-running Doctor, a fan favorite and all that. In this interview Tom tells how how he got the job. At the time, Tom Baker was not actively working as an actor, and had to work in Construction to make ends meet.
How will or can they explain the 13th Doctor not being in The Day of the Doctor? The Day of the Doctor contained the first cameo presentation of Peter Capaldi's eyebrows, and the phrase that all thirteen of the Doctors were there (Doctors 1-12 plus the War Doctor). The operative phrase being "No, sir, All Thirteen". As proper geeks our question today is, why wasn't it "All Fourteen" or "All Twenty"?
If The Doctor (Doctor Who) were blown to smithereens by a land-mine, would he die?

Time Lords famously are hard to kill, and those who die can cheat death by regenerating themselves. But, what happens if a Time Lord, like The Doctor, dies in an extremely dramatic fashion - like being blown to little tiny bits by a bomb - or vaporized in a nuclear explosion - would that Time Lord actually die even if s/he had several remaining regenerations? The evidence is mixed on this question, so let's take a look.

In Dr. Who mythology, if regeneration can result in a change of gender, why has it taken The Doctor more than 12 regenerations to become female? I found this question on an answers website and I guess there really is this conversation still going on about the legitimacy of Jodi Whittaker as The Doctor. Please, people, The 13th Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor, and Jodi Whittaker has already proved herself. But, it's a worthy enough question to ponder for today. Why did the BBC take so long to place a woman in the position of The Doctor?
In Season 11, has The Doctor decided to explore what a Doctor of War is? In Twice Upon a Time we had a geek-out-fest of The First Doctor meeting the Twelfth Doctor and lots of fun banter back and forth. It took The First Doctor most of the episode to get his head around what he had become. Instead of being a great Healer, The Doctor had become a creature of wars, fighting big battle after big battle. The Siege of Trenzalore is an example, that went on for 900+ years of all kinds of Enemies of The Doctor fighting with him. But at the end of Twice Upon a Time the First Doctor had his realization, that the Twelfth Doctor wasn't a war monger but instead seeking to heal warfare.
In which episode did The Doctor meet Clara Oswald

Clara Oswin Oswald, a.k.a. The Impossible Girl, has a convoluted history in Doctor Who. The character was first seen in Asylum of the Daleks but over her story arc she became entwined in the whole of the Doctor's life. How can we say for certainty when the Doctor first met Clara?

Ingrid Oliver is back playing Osgood in two upcoming Doctor Who games Two new Doctor Who games, The Edge of Reality, and The Lonely Assassins are slated for release in the Spring of 2021, and gives us a new chance to experience Ingrid Oliver playing Dr. Petronella Osgood.
Into the Evil of the Daleks - Doctor Who S08E02 and OldWho #038 We just watched Into the Dalek, and we have to acknowledge something - the story line references way back into Old Who, to a set of Patrick Troughton (Doctor #2) episodes collectively titled The Evil of the Daleks. In both cases we had a humanizing of Daleks, and Doctor#12's certainty there can be no humanizing of Daleks may stem from the experiences shown in The Evil of the Daleks.
Is Doctor Who trying too hard? Mid-season review, Doctor Who Season 11 New Doctor, New Show Runner, New Production Crew, etc, what could go wrong with all this new stuff? Doctor Who has always thrown stuff out and changed things around, and that's part of its reason for success. This time we have the first Female Doctor, new show runner, a whole bunch of new things, and a promise that we won't see any returning monsters or situations. Par for the course with Doctor Who. At the halfway point of Season 11 we're starting to get a feel for Jodi Whittaker, and she's a good Doctor, but I keep feeling that Doctor Who is trying too hard.
Is Nardole the Doctor's Boss? Why would The Doctor have a boss? - Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 2 Review We come to this episode wondering why Nardole is still active with The Doctor, and find him lecturing about an Oath the Doctor took as if Nardole has some authority over the Doctor. Its difficult to believe the Doctor would put himself under anyone elses authority, so maybe that's a misinterpretation. In any case, this episode's adventure has the Doctor and Bill playing hookey, visiting the first Earth colony on another planet, only to find the place inhabited by over-eager robots who might have accidentally killed the colonists.
Is The Division a kind of Time Lord CIA in The Fugitive of the Judoon? Fans of Big Finish audios were probably on the edge of their seats during Fugitive of the Judoon to see if The Celestial Intervention Agency would be named. Instead, in the episode Gat was only identified as working for The Division. But since it's obvious that The Time Lords would have a secret agent agency, let's talk about that.
Jodie Whittaker quits Doctor Who, as expected after Companions depart the show The typical Doctor Who pattern is that after a Departure of Companions, it's very likely The Doctor will depart shortly afterward. At the end of Revolution of the Daleks it was shown that not only had two of the Companions left the show, but a new Companion was joining. Two days ago (3-4 days after the airing of Revolution of the Daleks), the Mirror ran a rumor that Whittaker was leaving Doctor Who at the end of Season 13.
John Simms returning as The Master, opposite Missy, the female Master This week we learned that John Simms will play The Master this weekend, opposite the incumbent Master incarnation, Missy. Oh boy, that sounds like an insane explosion. The character itself is insane with megalomania and always concocting absolutely bonkers schemes. John Simms played The Master during the Tennant era, and that was quite a romp indeed. Then with Capaldi we had a season teasing this crazy woman calling herself Missy, which we learned was The Master incarnated as a woman. That's been quite a bizarre journey and I'm sure Roger Delgado is spinning in his grave (maybe). Of course it raises a huge question or three - of HOW do they suggest this Multi-Master story could happen. Since The Doctor has had several instances of multiple incarnations of himself at the same place/time working together, why can't The Master enjoy the same benefit? Still, the last time we saw The Master he was fighting Rassilon. That doesn't bode well for The Master's survival, but he's survived seemingly impossible situations before.
Jovanka Airlines, intro to Doctor Who season 19 DVD "Brave Heart Tegan" said The Doctor on many occasions. Ms. Jovanka was on her way to Heathrow to begin an airline stewardess career when The Master killed her sister, and Tegan Jovanka accidentally found her way into the TARDIS. Following that introduction to The Doctor, Tegan remained as a companion for most of Peter Davison's run, and now seemingly owns an airline?
Kate Stewart returning to Doctor Who in conclusion of The Flux The death of UNIT due to BREXIT was unwarranted and untimely and short sighted of the British Government. Don't they understand how often UNIT has prevented major catastrophe? The NEXT TIME trailer for Season 13, episode 5, Survivors of the Flux, contains a surprise appearance of Jemma Redgrave -- indicating a return of Kate Stewart?
Kate Stewart's UNIT team comes to Big Finish In Survivors of the Flux, it's fairly certain that Kate Stewart and UNIT is returning to Doctor Who. At the same time, Big Finish issued a teaser video announcing UNIT audios featuring a team including Ingrid Oliver, Harry Sullivan, with Kate Stewart as the leader.
Let's Kill Davros! Or, a review of Doctor Who S09E01, the Magicians Apprentice If someone pointed out to you a little boy, as innocent as could be, and you knew that boy would grow up to create the most evil the universe ever saw, would you kill that little boy and prevent that evil? Yes or No. And what would either answer make you to be? If you're The Doctor, and you're suddenly in the middle of a horridly crazy war that looked like World War I trench warfare but had biplanes shooting laser canons, and you met a scared little boy who was about to die, what would you do? You'd offer the boy a lifeline, and save him, but what if that little boy told you he was Davros and that you were on Skaro, and you knew exactly who this was because you'd fought that person and his creations (the Daleks) dozens of times before. What would The Doctor do?
Looking back at Doctor Who Unearthly Child with Mark Gatiss et al In 2013 for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, this gathering happened at the British Film Institute to discuss and go over the early early days of Doctor Who. The special focus was on the first four episodes, starting with An Unearthly Child. With those episodes the mold for Doctor Who was set, that you step into this thing which looks like a police box, that's supposed to blend in with its surroundings, but is intent on remaining a police box, and allows travel to all of time and space.
Looking back at Multi-Doctor stories in light of upcoming Multi-Master story It's been announced that, before the end of this season, the John Simms Master will play opposite Michele Gomez's Missy. May Roger DelGado rest in peace, but having multiple Master incarnations meet could be immensely exciting. It also violates various 'laws of time' for multiple incarnations of the same person to meet and interact. Think of what happened in 'Fathers Day' when Rose met not only her Dad and Mom, but herself as a baby. Even so, we've seen multiple Doctor's team up on multiple incarnations, and it wasn't a smooth ride. To get a sense of the fireworks likely to ensue with multiple Master's, let's review the times multiple incarnations of The Doctor appeared at the same place.
Looking back at Torchwood seasons 1-3 - Torchwood coming to the Colonies Last friday, Torchwood came to American television with a crash-bang-bazooka-filled show that's probably typical for modern American television (not owning a television, I don't see much TV, and have no clue what's common on American TV). Before getting into reviewing the new Torchwood, it's necessary to look back to where it came from, especially since it seems the new version will pretty much ignore Torchwood's origins as a spin-off from Doctor Who. There's two ways to appreciate Torchwood, as a spin-off from and participant in the Doctor Who universe, and as a standalone story. As a Doctor Who fan, my interest in Torchwood is its' role in the Doctor Who universe, but I do understand that some may watch the show on its own merit and not care about the blue box that spawned Torchwoods very existence.
Making a DIY Dalek from recycled components You want your own Dalek to grace your front porch and let everyone in the neighborhood know who you are and that you mean business. But you're on a student budget and cannot afford fancy schmancy materials to make a Dalek, especially given the price of Dalektanium these days. It's gotten ridiculous now that The Doctor destroyed Skaro. We're left instead to using cardboard and plywood and old CD's to make a thing that looks like a Dalek, and doesn't kill the planet, and saves a lot of money.
Making of The Day of the Doctor - full documentary The Day of the Doctor, when they rewrote the story we'd been told about The Time War. Rather than saddle the Doctor with the weight of having destroyed Gallifrey, they gave The Doctor a new story - that he saved Gallifrey in its moment of greatest danger. Which is what gave the Doctor the gravitas to later kick Rassilon off of Gallifrey. This documentary shows how they made the episode.
Masterfully not killing Missy, the Fake Doctor reveals secrets, Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 6 review How do we know whether the world we see is real? Many spiritual traditions teach that this physical world we see is not in the slightest bit real. For example 'A Course in Miracles' goes so far as to suggest our insanity is what creates this insane world we see (heck, politics this year is extremely insane, yes?) and that by waking up we can see the real world. Many spiritual traditions teach this sort of thing without causing those who receive that message to commit suicide. That part, people who read the Veritas committing suicide, was troublesome, especially when the story flips that around to suggest that suicide is an act of freeing ones' self from the illusory world. Really? I don't know what to think about that, but the episode was otherwise excellently convoluted.
Matt Lucas (Nardole) answers questions about Doctor Who Season 10

Want to know more about Nardole and Matt Lucas? This video has Nardole answering questions for a Youtuber named Crispy Pro.

Earlier we asked "Why is Nardole still around?" Because, well, it's kinda strange that a person presented as River Song's side-kick, and then disassembled and inserted into King Hydraflax's body, would be able to reappear as a functioning person helping the Doctor. But then this is Doctor Who.

Unfortunately our curiosity isn't answered by Matt's answers. He's very good at saying things and being funny without really answering questions or saying anything of substance.

Matt Lucas and Pearl Mackie's tour of the TARDIS console buttons Behind the scenes of filming Doctor Who, the actors play around with the set props. Little do they know of the power behind those buttons. Fortunately The Doctor set up automatic systems to disable the controls except while filming. Otherwise they might have destroyed the universe taking those balls out of their sockets.
Michele Gomez leaving Doctor Who, means a Missy/Master regeneration, or what? Michele Gomez recently held a Reddit AMA that was rolickingly fun. While advocating for a Missy spin-off show, Michele Gomez revealed in the AMA, and in news articles with other sources, she would not be returning to Doctor Who after Season 10. Which raises a question of what might happen within the show. The Master is always there to challenge The Doctor, so there would be a new Master sooner-or-later one presumes. What would happen to Missy to cause Missy to definitively stop being available in the series, though?
Nicholas Briggs - the Voice of the Daleks In modern Doctor Who, Nicholas Briggs is the primary Voice of the Daleks. In every appearance of the Daleks of the modern era, Briggs provided the voiceovers, and yes that included the scene where Martha Jones went to a castle in Germany with the Osterhagen Key and the Daleks were shouting EXTERMINATE in German.
Not quite happy with The Wedding of Dr River Song (Doctor Who S06 E13) The season 6 finale, the Wedding of River Song, was an amazing story but within five minutes of finishing the first watching an anger over the episode erupted. I recorded some of that anger in audio feedback for The Doctor Who Podcast, hopefully they'll play it. Anyway... it was an excellent story with lots of depth, as we've come to expect from Stephen Moffatt, but there's a bit at the end that is just griping me out to no end.
Nudity in The Time of the Doctor converts The Doctor from minor deity into leering teenager The Time of the Doctor, Matt Smith's final episode as The Doctor, was a fine romp through time and space, but had a completely horrible unnecessary plot point that rather derailed our enjoyment of the show: Nudity, rather, supposed nudity. Should this show, Doctor Who, be about unnecessary gratuitous references to nudity that add nothing to anything about the plot or characters or anything?
Officer Brendan has something to do with Capt. Jack, or else the Endless Child, in Ascension Of The Cybermen In Ascension Of The Cybermen one of the story lines concerns Officer Brendan, a found (abandoned) child apparently in remote Ireland, who becomes a police officer, who curiously survives a fall off a cliff, and who undergoes a strange mind-wipe procedure. It's all very curious, but includes signature bits related to Capt. Jack Harkness.
Oh my god YES, RTD is back as Doctor Who Show Runner Chris Chibnall has proved that even a Doctor Who uber-fan can screw up at producing Doctor Who episodes. The BBC has announced that Russell T Davies, the guy who started modern Doctor Who will be returning as Show Runner starting with the 60th anniversary episode, and "beyond". We are probably meant to take that he will be the Show Runner starting with the 60th Anniversary blow-out, and that the 60th Anniversary show will be something big.
Omega, The Hand of Omega, Rassilon, The Doctor, and the nonsensical story of The Timeless Child In the finale of Doctor Who (2005) Season 12, The Timeless Children, we were told a story about the origin of The Time Lords that is not only enraging the fans, but is silly nonsense. That episode would have us believe that what made The Time Lords so powerful was their ability to regenerate. Actually, what made the Time Lords so powerful was the energy source available to them, and their abilities to fiddle with time streams. Without access to nearly limitless energy, The Time Lords would have simply been a curious race of people on an obscure planet who happened to be able to regenerate upon death. Which gets us to a little scene in the Seventh Doctor story The Remembrance of the Daleks.
Orphan 55 is the latest Doctor Who to feature environmental justice, but its the most blatant Apparently Doctor Who Season 12's story, Orphan 55, is receiving backlash because of the preachy lecture at the end. Sure that lecture grated in how it was blatantly targeted at the audience. However, Doctor Who has frequently featured lectures about the environment and how human power structures are harming the planet. Since a core theme of Doctor Who is the fight against big power structures, and sometimes those big power structures are destroying ecosystems in the name of profit, therefore The Doctor will have seen his/her fair share of environmental catastrophes, and therefore have an opinion or two.
Overanalyzing the Timeless Children Preview video The finale of Season 12 is fast approaching, and the BBC has released both a Next Time trailer and a Preview trailer; since we already covered the first let's go over the second. Going by the Preview, the action will be split between Gallifrey and the Cyber Troop Carrier ship.
Oxygen, Season 10 Episode 5 preview
Peter Capaldi & Brian Minchin Interview - The Aftershow - Doctor Who: The Fan Show Peter Capaldi sat down for an interview about Episode 2, Smile. Somehow Capaldi doesn't mind having his running described as being like a penguin with its ass on fire. Is it important to tell stories about The Doctor where he almost gets things wrong?
Peter Capaldi cannot be regenerating during 2017 season The 2017 season official trailer ends with Regeneration Energy clearly emanating from Capaldi's hands as he appears to be struggling. Did that mean Capaldi's Doctor will regenerate during the season, and someone else is playing The Doctor for the Christmas special? Today, Cultbox is reporting that Capaldi is filming Christmas Special scenes this summer. Therefore, he is The Doctor for that episode, and presumably his Regeneration is at the end of the Special.
Peter Capaldi et al appears on Canadian Television The Doctor himself joins InnerSpace's Teddy, Morgan and Ajay alongside Steven Moffat, Brian Minchin and new companion, Pearl Mackie!
Peter Capaldi's earlier career as an ice cream salesman? Who's this new guy, Peter Capaldi, who's body is being used by The Doctor? He looks familiar, as in we've seen that body in ancient Pompeii. Did we see him anywhere else?
Peter Capaldi's memories of William Hartnell, the First Doctor Peter Capaldi's Doctor is in a way a reenactment of The First Doctor, given that his incarnation is the first in a new cycle of regenerations. Hence throughout Capaldi's tenure there were many homages to the Hartnell era. In this video we have Capaldi remembering who Hartnell was, and what he did for Doctor Who.
Previously - On Doctor Who Hilarious retrospective of the entirety of Doctor Who from 1963 up until late 2011 Matt Smith.
Pyramid at the End of the Earth, Season 10 Episode 7 preview The Doctor has a long history of rebuking the Military, and not using the Military's machinery. Here we see that a Pyramid has suddenly taken form in a desert place, that those crazy-looking Monks are the inhabitants, and the Doctor warning that these people have studied us for a looooong time, and then ordering an attack using military bombers. WTF?
Quantum-locked angels from the beginning of the universe - Don't Blink The Weeping Angels were born before the beginning of the universe, apparently. Their curious trait is that when observed, they are quantum locked and cannot move, and can move freely when unobserved. They feed off time vortex energy created by sending victims into the past, and feeding off the time potential of the life which was lost.
RTD starts Doctor Who show runner tenure by getting into fight with Culture Secretary Russell T Davies has barely begun his time as the future show runner for Doctor Who, and he's gotten into a political row with Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary under Boris Johnson. Ms. Dorries apparently slammed the BBC for its “very left wing, often hypocritical and frequently patronising views.” Of course, Russell T Davies obviously carries an agenda about acceptance of certain lifestyle choices, and of course Doctor Who has throughout its history aired stories making fun of people like Ms. Dorries.
Ray-shooting pyramid at the End of the Earth, Season 10 Episode 7 review It's part 2 of a three part story, so of course all heck is breaking loose, from an apparently dead helper, to a companion that just made a bad decision, and a next-time-trailer showing Missy plotting something, the Doctor working with the Monks, and someone being shot. Just like the proverbial Hero's Journey, every Doctor Who story goes through the belly of the beast before the hero emerges at the end with a treasure. What we have this time is a question about putting yourself at someone else's mercy when that person can control your perception of reality. Do you have the necessary wisdom to perceive correctly whether that person is deluding you into a bad choice?
Reclusive Time Lords, watching over all of time and space, what's their game? Gallifrey We first learned of Gallifrey at the very end of the 2nd Doctor's time when, in the conclusion of The War Games, The Doctor had to appeal for their help. After which The Doctor was exiled to Earth for a couple years. Since then we've learned more and more about Gallifrey as tidbits here and there have been revealed in episodes.
Regarding the Jan 1, 2022 Doctor Who holiday special The BBC today announced a teensy tiny amount of information about the January 1, 2022, holiday special.
Remembering The Doctor's past lives in Fugitive of the Judoon In Fugitive of the Judoon, The Doctor (both of them) said multiple times they remember who they were. Does any of us remember who we were? Who we are is made up of all the moments of our live(s). Even the bits of our life that we don't remember has an impact on who we become. Just as the show runners invented The War Doctor as a Doctor Regeneration that The Doctor forgot about, there could surely be another Regeneration that the show runners want us to believe The Doctor Forgot. But going by what's presented in the show, we the fans have a conundrum to solve, _Who is Who_? And, _When is Which_?
Review: Doctor Who - A Christmas Carol Typically you'd think a Doctor Who episode named "A Christmas Carol" would involve traveling to 1800's England, meeting THE Charles Dickens, and having an adventure with him that somehow inspired him to write A Christmas Carol. There are plenty of Doctor Who stories where they do this, visit some actual historical place or event, meet historical people, etc. This episode doesn't involve any such thing, while still being heavily influenced by the Dickens story. What we have instead is the, uh, spirit of A Christmas Carol while not having any actual connection to the author and not retelling the exact story.
Review: Doctor Who - The War Games The War Games is a fabulous classic Doctor Who story. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon. It originally aired from 19 April–21 June 1969, lasting for a lengthy 10 episodes, and has recently been released on DVD. The story line is a deep exploration of war and why we make war. The DVD package includes three DVD's, two of which contains the episodes and the third contains the special documentary content.
Review: Doctor Who S06E01: The Impossible Astronaut We were rewarded for our long wait since the end of Doctor Who's last season with an inscrutable episode title: The Impossible Astronaut. The episode does feature a strange astronaut character but leaves us with a zillion questions. Of course that's to be expected for the first part of a two-part story, because we are clearly in the throes of "all h__l breaking loose". It was an excellent episode that's also a huge departure from the norms of Doctor Who.
Review: Doctor Who S06E02: The Day of the Moon Before the opening credits we see both Amy and Rory shot (apparently dead), River Song jump out of a skyscraper, and The Doctor as a prisoner in Area 51. Yup. Before the opening credits. What happens from there is a twisty story which took 3 viewings to begin to understand. I recommend taking this show in the appropriate dosage. Several times.
Review: Doctor Who S06E03: The Curse of the Black Spot Okay, why are the black spots on the palm of the right hand, and in the episode before the recording gizmo thingies were punched into the palm of the right hand? Yeah, you noticed that too, eh? What do you think is the reason? I haven't a clue. Leave a comment below.
Review: Doctor Who S06E04: The Doctors Wife After the screwball tightly interwoven story arc laden season opener (Review: Doctor Who S06E02: The Day of the Moon and Review: Doctor Who S06E03: The Curse of the Black Spot), the powers that be must have realized we needed another "straight adventure" story with not a lot more than the episode in mind. That's more or less what we have - except the topic turns out to be something which fans for decades have pondered. Is the TARDIS alive, and what would the TARDIS be like as a person. That they got Neil Gaiman to do it is fabulous and the story which came out of it is simply beautiful. And, for once, the companion Doctor Who Confidential episode is actually worthwhile watching because it too is phenomenal.
Review: Doctor Who S06E05: The Rebel Flesh What happens when Doctor Who meets a twisted version of Frankenstein? What we get (this time) is Rebel Flesh, that is Flesh that goes on a rebellion. What happens when the creations of our technology take on a life of its own, starts running around making its own decisions, having its own offspring, and engaging in rebellion or perhaps what they might think of as a war of liberation? That's what we have in this story, a technology which can program "Flesh" to be "anything" hence create life, and what happens when it takes on a life of its own?
Review: The Time of the Doctor - Smith Falls into Capaldi after Killing a Wooden Cyberman The Time of the Doctor brings to an end Matt Smith's time as The Doctor, giving us a tame Cyberman head, gratuitous unnecessary nudity, a chance for the Doctor to sit in one place for a loooooong time, a return of The Crack, a rewriting of the whole Trenzalore thing, The Doctor teaming up with the Silent's (who we now know are high level Priests in the Papal Mainframe cult), a wooden cyberman of all things, and a nod to Fandom with an addressing of the 12 regenerations limit.
Review: The Two Doctors (Doctor Who) "When you travel around as much as I do, it's almost inevitable that you'll run into yourself at some point." This is yet another of the stories where the Doctor meets various instances of himself. This time the story starts in black & white (fading quickly to color), with the 2nd Doctor and Jamie heading to a space station (as big as 20 castles) to meet with some scientists. Thus ensues a rather screwball story that could only be Doctor Who.
Review: Torchwood, Miracle Day (Torchwood comes to the colonies) Torchwood is coming to the Colonies, that is, to America. I'm not sure if I like the idea, but it's what the people in charge of things decided to do and here we are, seeing the remaining Torchwood team-members brought to the land of loud car chases.
Second trailer to Doctor Who 2018 season, first step beyond 'Brilliant' The second trailer of the new Doctor Who season is out, and we learn that Jodi Whittaker can say more than 'Brilliant'. Cool. It's still obscure enough to not give us much clue about anything. We do learn it's all new this and all new that, which corresponds to a news article title saying the next season will be all-new monsters. What? No Daleks? No Cybermen?
Series 10 (2017) trailers - the gateway to everything you've been waiting for, or something like that Doctor Who Season 10 starts April 15, 2017, featuring the introduction of a new companion, Bill, and a continuing relationship with Nardol. We know that in the Christmas Special the Doctor regenerates, and indeed trailer#2 shows what looks like the beginning of a regeneration.
Skyfall 2 tries to have us forget The Redemption of Missy thanks to The Master's violence Skyfall 2 is an homage to The Master of Old, wantonly killing people, implementing an insane plan to destroy everything, and showing no sign of the Redemption of Missy we had during Capaldi's era. Instead we have a return of The Master of Old, causing violence just because, and implementing crazy-mad schemes to sow chaos and death and destruction.
Skyfall is not Skyfail in Doctor Who Season 12 first episode It's a given that no matter how seriously dead The Master is, that The Master will always come back. So, in the Doctor Season 12 opener we have a rollicking good Doctor Who story, full of twists and turns, and a big reveal at the end that I may have just spoiled for anyone who hasn't seen the episode. Given all the angst from Season 11, I think it's safe to say that Jodi Whittaker is truly in her stride as The Doctor, but I am openly doubting whether the Doctor Who franchise is in good hands.
Smith was 13, Capaldi 14, Whittaker 15, how many regenerations does The Doctor have remaining?

The first Female Doctor ever has been minted, now that Jodi Whittaker has taken over the role, but the big question is how many regenerations are left. By any rational regeneration counting, we ran out of regenerations -- supposedly Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times -- but the show has continued on. The in-show explanation is that the Matt Smith Doctor was given a new regneration cycle, letting us enjoy Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. But, how many regeneration cycles are remaining for The Doctor?

Solving the fate of Peri? In a DVD trailer? An enduring question from Old Who is, what the heck happened to Peri? We met her at the end of the 5th Doctors time, then she was a constant companion to the 6th Doctor, but had an ignoble end having been abandoned to a mad scientist. Now, there's an answer, of sorts, that is also a sales pitch for a new DVD set which refreshes the content of Season 22 and adds a number of interesting documentaries.
Songs for the Wood -- Knock Knock, Season 10 Episode 4 review In Knock Knock, we had a right proper horror movie embedded in a Doctor Who episode. We had some of the classic tropes, people wandering off and getting eaten, etc. But it was too squeezed for space, and the ending was way too easy, way too trite. For once a kill-everyone-in-sight Doctor Who episode had everyone survive, instead.
Sonics, Movellans, a Goatee'd Master, and the Mary Celeste: Easter Eggs in Doctor Who Episode 1 The opening episode of Doctor Who Season 10 was not only a rollicking romp through time and space, it had plenty of odd bits stuffed in the side of things to satisfy the die-hard fans. The story was billed as a good jumping-in point for anyone, and that it is. It was an excellent story -- dunno if it was worth the wait, but it's very satisfying. What follows are the odd bits I noticed.
Special feature - Planet of Giants Recreated - Planet of Giants - Doctor Who - BBC The BBC brought together Carol Ann Ford and William Russell to recreate portions of the 1st Doctor story, The Planet of Giants, along with a cast of actors to imitate the missing cast members.
Specific dates in Doctor Who Season 13, BBC's marketing, and scheduling The episodes of Season 13, The Flux, have named a few specific dates, which happened to be the date of transmission. There doesn't seem to be a special significance to those dates. But, because October 31, November 21, and December 5, were written into the scripts, the BBC knew the transmission dates months in advance. In November 2020, when the BBC announced the shortened season, it knew the exact dates, because those dates were inscribed in the episodes that began filming at the same time.
Surprise, surprise, NOT, John Bishop's character in Doctor Who will be from Liverpool At the end of Revolution of the Daleks it was revealed that two of The Doctor's companions were leaving the show, and that a new Companion would join it. That new companion, Dan, will be played by British comedian John Bishop. Apparently Bishop is not willing to develop the ability to act in other accents than his native Liverpool accent, and you'd think revealing that his character in Doctor Who will be based in Liverpool would not be controversial. But, that would be underestimating the BBC's ability to not be amused.
Survivors of Survivors of the Flux - Doctor Who Season 13 It takes a certain perseverance to watch a tense cliff-hanger that's waved away like a puff of smoke at the beginning of the next episode. What was all that build-up for, if there was no payoff in the story? The Doctor becomes a Weeping Angel? Yaz about to be disintegrated by a time storm? Instead this gave us a story with the astonishing revelation that The Master told the truth for once.
THE solution to the paradox in Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens Okay, it's Doctor Who, and maybe I shouldn't quibble over a paradox or two, right? It's nearly time for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, so I'm rewatching last seasons episodes. Ever since the original showing of The Pandorica Opens a question has raged on - just how did the Doctor get out of the Pandorica in order to free himself from the Pandorica.
Take a deep breath, don't hold it, we're going into the Dalek (Doctor Who S08 E01 E02 review) Doctor Who is finally back on our screens, and I'm going to squeeze my episode reviews together. It's a bang-up opening for Peter Capaldi as Doctor #12 (or is it #14), so it sure looks like this new guy will do well with the role. As for the content - the main theme so far is "identity". Who am I? Why do I choose this face to show the world? That sort of thing. And then there's the question of "who the heck is Missy?" Heaven? Surely that's a setup for the end of the season, so we'll have to be patient about that.
The "childhood fears" and "parenting" theme in Matt Smith's (#11) Doctor Who It's the morning after the showing of Season 6b episode 12, 'Closing Time', and for the fourth time this season we are shown a dad finding his fatherhood to be with his son.  Makes me long for a father who would have done that, but let's not take that detour.  Each of the three episodes would appear to be 'standalone', as does Closing Time. At first glance they don't seem to be part of the overall season arc, but when there's four episodes with similar themes in the same season we have to pay attention and take a look.  Especially when the season also contains portrayal of the twisted childhood of one of the most enigmatic characters ever in Doctor Who history, River Song.
The BBC lied about The Doctor's origin from the beginning? In Doctor Who Season 12, the season-long topic is the lie of the timeless child, and that the origin of The Time Lords was fake. The finale promises to have The Master present The Truth to The Doctor - as if The Master would ever tell the truth. The attached video makes the case that originally the BBC presented The Doctor as a brilliant HUMAN from the future, rather than an alien from another planet, and that the established lore of Gallifrey began with The Third Doctor.
The Dalek Supreme advertises Weetabix The Dalek casing that had been The Supreme Dalek was used to advertise a breakfast cereal.
The Dalek Supreme and the Planet of the Daleks A deep dive into the Daleks shown in The Planet of the Daleks shows a surprising source for the color schemes. Television Daleks have largely not used bright color schemes, other than those overweight Daleks that Matt Smith faced. But Terry Nation, when putting Daleks into non-Television formats, had used ones with bright color schemes.
The Doctor pushed away reliving her life memories for another day - Doctor Who Season 13 During Season 12, we were told that The Doctor is The Timeless Child, a previously unknown being from whom The Time Lords developed Regeneration and perhaps other knowledge. During Season 13, the whole season was about conflicts left over from those hidden memories. The season ended with The Doctor receiving a "Fob Watch" containing the whole story, and then The Doctor deciding to not open the watch but leave it for another day.
The Doctor versus WOTAN in The War Machines

In The War Machines, The Doctor encounters scientists developing an artificial intelligence computer which is planning to take over the world. The computer has been hypnotizing folks and ordering them to build robots (the war machines) that are meant to rampage around London and take over the city. These videos show different points in this episode.

The Doctor's new 'friends' give worst reasons possible to tag along It's a whole new TARDIS crew, a new Doctor and new ..er.. Friends. Not Companions, Friends. Unlike all other instances of the Doctor hooking up with a new Companion, these new Friends come to the TARDIS begging to keep traveling with the Doctor for the lamest of excuses. If I were the Doctor, knowing that me and my team are frequently in deadly danger, would I want to be assisted by folks showing that little enthusiasm for the role? The Doctor's Companions are there through thick and thin, getting into mortal danger, and occasionally dying. Therefore, shouldn't The Doctor want his/her Companions to have a strong positive rationale to come along?
The Doctor, Harriet Jones, Donald J Trump, and Hillary Clinton Sometimes the real world and the fantasy worlds of television shows collide. This week, the propagandistic reaction to Hillary Clintons illness strikes one with eery similarity to one of The Doctor's darker days. That was the day revenge drove The Doctor to take down Harriet Jones. The method, starting a whispering campaign about Ms. Jones health, is so much like this weeks whispering campaign about Hillary Clintons health.
The Great Serpent is clearly The Master? Doctor Who, Season 13 What's missing from The Flux story is The Master. At the heart of this story is The Doctor's history as The Timeless Child, a tidbit uncovered by The Master who told this to The Doctor. So, that makes The Master part of this story, but where is The Master? How could there be a cockamamie universe-ending plot without The Master being involved?
The Internet reviews Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 1 The title, 'The Pilot', was meant to signify a reboot of sorts, with the Doctor Who team shaping this season so it can be a jumping-in point for a new fleet of fandom. Is this really necessary? I think Moffatt has talked to us too many times about rebooting Doctor Who when it had already been rebooted. My criticism of recent Doctor Who seasons, under Moffatt's tenure, has been that it's too intensely intertwined with arcane history points of Doctor Who and perhaps that was unapproachable by regular folk. Perhaps Moffatt finally got a clue, and hopefully wants this season to downplay that aspect.
The Lie of Modern Age, Season 10 Episode 8 review

I watch every Doctor Who episode, at least once, sometimes a couple dozen times, but I almost did not watch this one. The preview information on this episode sounded like it was much too close to the reality we're living today. That's doubly so considering today's violence on London Bridge in which a 'Lorry Driver' drove his truck into a crowd of people, and in a possibly separate attack someone with a long knife attacked people in South London.

I apologize to anyone put off by my bringing reality into the enjoyment of Doctor Who, but that's what is in front of us in the real world. Once I did watch the episode, I found it to be excellent, and maybe after I write this I'll write a regular review. At the moment I cannot separate this from the concerns I have over what's actually happening in the world around us.

The timing of this episode -- June is six months into the year, and approximately 6 months ago the Trump Administration was being sworn into office. That's more than a curious coincidence especially given the assault on truth going on with the Trump Administration in power.

The Lie of The Land, Season 10 Episode 8 REAL DEAL review

This week's Doctor Who, The Lie of the Land, deserves a real review because it's such an excellent story. As I noted yesterday, this story strikes very close to reality given the problem we have with Fake News currently. This story goes way beyond Fake News to Fake History, and a telepathic broadcast of fake information to delude the population.

What happens when we're told an idea enough times? So long as the idea is plausible humans will eventually accept that idea and get on with their lives. This happens all the time in the real world with certain news channels routinely reporting falsehoods as if they're real, and fake ideas affect enough people to influence major elections. Witness last Fall in the USA, and several elections since then in France, and Moldova, and Bulgaria, and the Netherlands, where fake news propagandists had enough success to sway a few of those elections.

The Lie of the Land, Season 10 Episode 8 preview So far this season The Doctor has been shown 2 or 3 times calculatingly doing a subterfuge -- not telling the whole plan in order to keep the adversary from knowing too much, even if that left the Companions in the dark. In these preview videos we're told that The Doctor has already Lost, that these Monks were able to assert control over Humanity so much that The Doctor joined the Monks to work with them, and Bill and Nardole were left on their own. That makes one go WTF because it looks so bleak. An authoritarian government being imposed in the name of the Monks, etc.
The Master always survives; his involvement with the Cyber War, Gallifrey, using Gallifrey as a base for Cybermen, etc In Skyfall 2, The Master was surely forever trapped in that alternate universe. Anybody who believes that for a minute has not watched very much Doctor Who. The Master always survives and always comes back no matter how certain a death he'd endured. And The Master always has a cockamamie scheme.
The Master destroys Gallifrey because of a lie about The Timeless Child Skyfall, the season opener for Season 12, got us a new Master, and a huge twist to the Lore of Doctor Who. But we don't know what that twist is, yet, other than The Master claims there was a massive lie told to all Time Lords from the beginning of the Time Lord race.
The Mystery of Terry Nation's Special Daleks Planet of the Daleks featured a previously unseen Dalek, Dalek Supreme, with a distinctive black and gold casing. That Dalek came from Terry Nations private collection of Dalek casings. By carefully looking at physical characteristics one can trace the history of these casings through pictures appearing in magazines and elsewhere. Many think Terry Nation's personal Daleks are movie props from "Daleks Invasion of Earth 2150 A.D." A careful study of the Daleks in that movie identifies specific characteristics corresponding to the Daleks in Terry Nations collection. Even more careful study says that some of the Daleks in the movie were built for a stage play, Curse of the Daleks.
The Power of the Doctor and the near death experience The Master of course snarfed up everything he could carry from Gallifrey and in his eternal quest against The Doctor, he used the "forced regeneration machine". That sent The Doctor into a near death experience that was extremely unlike real NDEs.
The Ruth-Doctor fits the 'Time Lords are a lie' story line of the latest Master incarnation In Fugitive of the Judoon, we had a Multi-Doctor story where both were Women which we hope was done for legitimate story reasons, which is cool. Not only was the story good mind-blowing Doctor Who, it gave us a Doctor incarnation that looks to be kick-ass great. But it comes at the cost of a huge question about timeline and continuity and all those other picky details that keep Doctor Who fans awake at night. Especially considering what was shown to us by the new incarnation of The Master.
The Ruth-Doctor's and The Master's discovery of the 'lie of the Timeless Child' launches Doctor Who into massive rewrite The Doctor Who show runners launched us into a serious rewrite of Doctor Who Canon with Season 12. First we had a new Master who told us everything we knew about Gallifrey was a lie, so he destroyed Gallifrey. Then we met a whole new incarnation of The Doctor that flatly doesn't fit the known timeline of THe Doctor. At the end of Fugitive of the Judoon, The Doctor said time is swirling around her, indicating there is some serious flux going on. And we have to remind ourselves that what's kept Doctor Who alive all these decades is its ability to reinvent itself from time to time.
The biggest issue with Ruth-Doctor being pre-Hartnell isn't the TARDIS? In Fugitive of the Judoon, the BBC in its infinite wisdom thrust upon us a new incarnation of The Doctor which is presented as an impossibility. Being Doctor Who fans we're examining minutae to figure out how this could be, and one of the theories is that The Ruth-Doctor was a pre-William Hartnell incarnation of The Doctor. But the biggest problem with that theory isn't what most of us are talking about.
The disaster while shooting The Chase on the beach at Camber A part of The Chase was the first time Doctor Who was shot at a real location, the beach at Camber. There were special considerations for operating Daleks on a beach, which involved what was called a "Hover Dalek" that was light enough for the Dalek Operator to walk it around rather than roll it on wheels. That same Dalek was used in a later scene on the Marcy Celeste - it's the one which fell in the water - and in an even later scene at the house of horrors, when Frankenstein's Monster picked up a Dalek to smash it. This Dalek is known to have appeared in many other shows all the way to Remembrance of the Daleks. That Dalek's original purpose was to emerge from the sand, but they were unable to do so with a full size Dalek, and ended up building a smaller Dalek where they could film it emerging from some sand. The model was later used in The Daleks Master Plan.
The disgusting over-hyping of The Doctor's role in the universe In The Timeless Children we got the reveal promised throughout Doctor Who Season 12. And yes it rewrote Time Lord history from the beginning. But not only did the episode fail on several levels, it is simply a continuation of the over-hype'd role The Doctor has in the universe. The Doctor is supposed to just be a guy, living in a box, carrying a screwdriver, passing through from place to place, and helping out where he (or she) can. But the BBC seems it can't help itself, and has built a bunch of hype about The Doctor. Let's go over the history of that hype bubble.
The first TARDIS take-offs and journey in Doctor Who an Unearthly Child The first time stands out, doesn't it? The first TARDIS take-off was performed more elaborately than all other TARDIS takeoffs. It had to happen in the first episode of Doctor Who, to establish firmly this is a show that can go anywhere to any place in the universe. That first trip was all the way to 100,000 BC, or thereabouts, and was made in the context of humans having been allowed to see the TARDIS, and the Doctor knowing he could not allow those humans to return to their life because of what they had seen. Once the TARDIS landed, Ian Chesterton was incredulous but was asked by The Doctor "If you could the alien sand, and hear the cries of strange birds, and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"
The first question - the question that rings through all of time and space - Doctor Who? Matt Smith's era as The Doctor was interwoven with The Big Question. His first episode began with a crack through the very fabric of the Universe, but it seemed to just be about Prisoner Zero (whoever that was) and by the end of the episode he'd fixed the crack, apparently without even using any Bondo. But cracks kept showing up - cracks in the universe, not some other kind - until one showed up in Matt Smith's final episode, The Time of the Doctor. By then The First Question became A Thing along with The Doctor ending up on Trenzalore. But what was it all about?
The new TARDIS interior for Doctor Who Season 12 It's a new season of Doctor Who, and of course the staff has decided to change things up by making some changes to the TARDIS interior. I'm not sure what the point to the change was. The big thing I'm unclear on is - why are the roundels now hexagons? Throughout Doctor Who, the interior featured round things on the walls - roundels. But now they're hexagons. Why? Otherwise the interior reminds us of the interior used in the 1996 TV movie that was big and expansive.
The second-oldest question in Doctor Who: Why did The Doctor leave Gallifrey? In Twice Upon a Time, the uber-fanboys of Stephen Moffatt and Peter Capaldi got to fulfill a fanboy dream, and have a multi-Doctor story with a reasonable facsimile of The First Doctor. The opportunity was then in their hands to ask one of the oldest questions of Doctor Who - Why did the Doctor leave Gallifrey? Was he chased out after having done something wrong? Did he forsee that silly Hybrid prophecy from Matt Smith's era? Was he bored?
The torture of The Timeless Child in Doctor Who and what the story could have been For Doctor Who Season 12, the show runners promised us a story that would change everything we know about Doctor Who. Instead we were shown a child that was a gift from heaven, that was tortured with repeated deaths to find the secret of eternal life.
The unlikely way for the BBC to handle the 2023 holiday special after Whittakers exit It's been announced that Jodi Whittaker's final episode is in the Fall of 2022, and Russell T. Davies first episode is the 60th Anniversary in November 2023. If there is to be a holiday special on January 1, 2023, there is an extremely unlikely way to handle this which would be extremely interesting.
The yawn of the legend of the Sea Devils Jodie Whittaker's time as The Doctor is drawing to a close, and she deserves to finally get a good script to work with. An uber-fan like me should have excitedly watched the episode all the way to the end. This episode on paper should have been excellent. A chance to revisit a classic Doctor Who villain race, plus another historical story, and the promise of a large sea monster. But...
Thin Ice - Next Time Trailer - Doctor Who: Series 10 The Doctor and Bill, apparently having forgotten about The Vault back at the college, have gone to what appears to be 1850's London in the Winter with the Thames frozen over. We see carnival action, some kind of creature under the ice that must be fed, and on ominous question - have you ever killed anyone?
Thoughts on The Silence (Doctor Who S06) In Matt Smith's first season it was the Cracks in Time which was the puzzle. They appeared in every episode and we were told that "Silence Will Fall" the "Pandorica Will Open" etc. Part of the Pandorica/Big Bang episode was the destruction of the Universe and silence (as in no noise) throughout the Universe. Indeed the ending of Vampires of Venice had the Doctor go "shhh" and ask Rory to listen to the silence (no noise). It was fair then to assume when they talked about Silence Will Fall that they meant no noise silence. Instead it's clear now it's showing the unconscious mind, shadow self, as described by the likes of Dr. Freud and spiritual traditions from the millennia. Many aspects of recent Doctor Who has been explicitly exploring this subterranean part of each of us.
Timeless Children and Cybermen to finish out Doctor Who Season 12 When Capt. Jack told us about a single remaining Cyberman, and The Master told us about the Lie of the Timeless Child, and we saw Gallifrey destroyed, and we met a previously unknown Doctor incarnation, we knew that season 12 would be a game changer. As is usual for Doctor Who, what any of this means is extremely inscrutable until we see it aired on television, and of course even that will leave lots of unfilled details. For now, we have episode titles for the rest of Season 12, and most of the synopses, so let the guessing games begin.
Tom Baker first interview as The Doctor This interview occurred while Tom Baker was in caverns filming an episode, but before any of his episodes had aired, and Tom Bakers life had not yet been flipped on its head. He says he enjoys going to the pub and hanging out with friends, but expects that may change once the episodes are aired. See this to get an idea of what Tom Baker before the fame went to his head. Oh, and, "Would you like a Jelly Baby?"
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, on Swap Shop in 1976 Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen interviewed on the Swap Shop TV program. They'd been filming a season, that hadn't been aired yet, and therefore they couldn't say anything. Elisabeth Sladen quipped that it wouldn't be revealing anything to say they'd been filming in a quarry.
Was the Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos going to be a Christmas show? Doctor Who Season 11 There is no Doctor Who Christmas Special this year, because supposedly the show runners could not think of a good Christmas story, and instead we're due for a New Years Special instead. Okaaaay, that's the official story, which we can't quite believe. Especially now that The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos has aired, and shows a young man strapped to what is for all intents a Cross. Was this a failed idea for a Christmas special? If so, it's the closest Doctor Who has ever gotten to a tricky subject like Jesus Christ.
We can expect RTD to launch multiple Doctor Who shared universe shows? Who among us expected Russell T. Davies to return to Doctor Who? But, that's what is happening, with Friday's announcement that RTD would make an explosive return to Doctor Who with the 60th anniversary show and beyond. Now that the initial excitement has worn off, let's ponder what this will mean.
We finally know where The Fugitive Doctor fits into The Doctor's history One issue from the Timeless Child storyline is - where did Jo Martin's Doctor, a.k.a. The Fugitive Doctor, fit into The Doctor's story. It was clear the Fugitive was a previously unknown Doctor incarnation, but was it from the future, the distant past, or from an alternate universe? Some clues were strung into Once Upon a Time that we can now identify where The Fugitive Doctor fits.
What Doctor Who got wrong about the Pendle Witch Trials in The Witchfinders With The Witchfinders, Doctor Who season 11 continues its streak of pseudo-historical stories. The Pendle Witch Trials were an actual event in history, that have tied Pendle Hill to witchcraft so much that there is a local tourism industry playing up the connection. However, while Doctor Who got the history wrong it was nice for the ending to reaffirm the right of 'healers' to pursue their craft.
What Doctor Who left out about the real Montgomery Bus Boycott in Season 11's Rosa Doctor Who's original remit included visiting historical events to educate children about history. We should look at Doctor Who Season 11 through that lens, and rather than call Rosa a foray into unwanted political correct nonsense, it is a historical story compatible with the original mission. If we look at the real history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott we learn that Doctor Who got some things wrong.
What does TARDIS stand for?

The TARDIS is The Doctor's home and spaceship. TARDIS's were invented by the Time Lords, and contain a range of technology gizmos to manipulate time and space and energy systems and who knows what else. The TARDIS is therefore a central plot device in Doctor Who, and you could argue the TARDIS is also a character in the story since it has been demonstrated to have its own consciousness and will.

The word, TARDIS, has been treated as an "acronym" as if the letters have a meaning, just like the word RADAR is actually an acronym meaning either "RAdio Detection And Ranging" or "RAdio Direction And Ranging". The problem with thinking TARDIS is an acronym is language differences. Gallifreyans do not speak English, and therefore would not use an English-centric acronym as the meaning of the word TARDIS.

But, within the context of Doctor Who, several acronym/meanings have been given for TARDIS. Let's just go with that and hum a chant about timey-wimeyness.

What were Police telephone boxes?

Think "The TARDIS" and you think an old-style Police Telephone Box. TARDIS's are supposed to adjust their shape to fit their surroundings, but The Doctor's TARDIS refuses to do so. Supposedly it's a broken chameleon circuit, or maybe this TARDIS has a mind of its own. In any case there is a real history to the Police Telephone Box's in Great Britain. They served a public safety function, giving police officers a place to rest/work and keep in touch with their precinct, and it gave the public a quick way to contact the police for assistance.

What's in the Vault? Thin Ice, Season 10 Episode 3 ponderings In Thin Ice we got to see the Doctor visit the 1814 Frost Fair, after we learned he'd taken River Song, and had asked Clara to go. That was fun seeing how well they portrayed the Frost Fair. But, the little bit at the end, concerning Nardole and the Vault, that's pretty darn significant. It seems that Nardole isn't the Doctors boss after all, but some kind of hired hand or something, and that he's not entirely happy with the situation. And that whatever is in the vault is a sentient thingy, which Nardole can communicate with, and which can knock on the door.
What's the history of The Master? At least 24 bodies .... How did The Master become Missy? The announcement that John Simms is to play The Master opposite Michele Gomez's Missy, raises a question of The Masters incarnations and life stream. A careful study of history shows that Roger Delgado's Master was his 12th incarnation, 13th body, and that every instance of The Master since involved a theft of a body. And, the big question of the Master's timestream is how did he become Missy?
When do Cybermen scream? What kind of Cyberman makes other Cybermen scream? In The Ascension of the Cybermen we see The Last Cyberman waking up an army of Cybermen. In the process he has some kind of gun-thing, and the Cybermen are screaming. Since it was asked in the show, what kind of Cyberman can make other Cybermen scream?
Where did the Ruth-Doctor come from? Fugitive of the Judoon In Fugitive of the Judoon, we were treated to a previously unknown and nearly impossible incarnation of The Doctor. In the show they made it very clear that The Ruth-Doctor was The Doctor. But unlike every other multi-Doctor story, the two Doctor's did not recognize each other. It leaves us fans wondering what the ____ is going on. I found an interesting video on YouTube with a number of interesting theories, so here's what I think about those theories.
Who are the Eternals, Guardians, and the Toymaker named in 'Can You Hear Me'? (Doctor Who) Can You Hear Me was a rollicking good adventure in time and space that made a surprising reference back to shows from early Doctor Who. Old Who wasn't always about fighting the monster or villain of the week. Sometimes Doctor Who covered the immortal beings that lived beyond time and space, for whom these little universes we live in are mere playthings. The protagonists in this weeks episode, Zellin and his partner Rakaya, are two of those immortal beings, and Zellin named off several with whom The Doctor has had encounters over the centuries.
Who is Captain Jack and just why are we happy to see his return? In Fugitive of the Judoon, we had a lot of news jammed into one episode, one of which was a tangential visit by Captain Jack Harkness. You heard that right, Capt. Beefcake is back just when we thought his only return would be in audio releases from Big Finish. Since there may be a lot of Doctor Who fans who aren't aware of Capt. Jack, since it was maybe 10 years since his last appearance, let's take a stroll down memory lane and revisit just who this guy is. Capt. Jack's life story is right among the accidental immortals created by The Doctor.
Who is The Doctor? An everyman who travels and rescues people? Or a demigod from another universe? In the Season 12 finale The Timeless Children the BBC gave us a story that rewrote the lore of Doctor Who in a big way. While there are plenty of folks cheering the rewrite, some of us (obviously like myself) see it differently. The question we should be asking is - Who is The Doctor? That is what The Timeless Children challenges us to ask.
Why did Christopher Eccleston leave after just one season? When Doctor Who restarted in 2005, Christopher Eccleston gave a power-house performance. But, he left after 1 season. Why?
Why is Jodi Whittaker the 13th Doctor when Matt Smith was actually the 13th Doctor? It's firmly established that Time Lords (in Doctor Who) can have 12 regenerations, and therefore they have 13 bodies. By the accounting presented in Doctor Who, Matt Smith was Doctor #13 because his was the 12th regeneration. But, the BBC and everyone is crowing that Jodi Whittaker is Doctor #13. WTF?
Why is Nardole still with us in Doctor Who Season 10? We first met Nardole when he was River Song's assistant, before he was incorporated into King Hydroflax's body. That was cute, and then he appeared in the 2016 Christmas Special. By that time Nardole had apparently spent quite a lot of time with Capaldi's Doctor, though of course we saw none of that because no episodes were shown to us that year. Now we're in Season 10, and Nardole is still with us. He spent 10+ months living in Cardiff working on the Doctor Whom season. Supposedly he's here because he asked Stephen Moffatt to come to the show, and that's it. Really? That makes no sense. For character-continuity, Nardole had to be reassembled in some way, and in The Pilot we saw a mechanical piece apparently drop off his hand. We're supposed to learn more as the season progresses. And, Nardole isn't being billed as The Companion, but he's appearing in episodes enough that we should consider him as A Companion.
Will Capaldi's Doctor actually regenerate in Season 10? Does the Mirror actually know who's the Next Doctor? We know that Capaldi's contract as The Doctor ends shortly, which somehow connects with the Doctor's lifestream forcing him to regenerate. We'd thought the regeneration will be shown in the 2017 Christmas Special, but the season 10 trailer clearly shows regeneration energy action. Now, the Mirror claims to have an insider source telling them who will be the next life-stream-portal-representation-of-The-Doctor.
William Hartnell Desert Island Discs Interview 1965 This audio interview with William Hartnell discusses how he got into the acting business. Hartnell had a long history as an actor before becoming The First Doctor.
William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time The 50th Anniversary special An Adventure in Space and Time featured a reenactment of Doctor Who's launch, and these clips from the program feature William Hartnell. But not the actual William Hartnell, as the show reenacted the events David Bradley did an excellent job of portraying Hartnell.
William Hartnell in the Three Doctors During Jon Pertwee's time as Doctor, they wanted to have the first multi-Doctor story which came to be The Three Doctors. Unfortunately William Hartnell was physically unable to deal with the stress of performing an entire series of episodes. They came up with the idea to have Hartnell appear for a few minutes each episode, via a video screen, reading a few lines.
William Russell and Carole Ann Ford at Whooverville 9 In this interview at Whoverville, a Doctor Who convention in Derby, England, Carol Ann Ford (Susan Foreman) and William Russell (Ian Chesterton) retell their experiences as part of the first TARDIS crew.
William Russell returns to the role of Ian Chesterton after 34 Years After Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright returned to London to take up their old life, what happened? How did they reintegrate with British life after all they experienced? This short documentary answers that question, by visiting Ian Chesterton 34 years after their return.
William Russell: Ian Chesterton in the original TARDIS crew The original TARDIS crew had two couples, The Doctor / Susan and Barbara / Ian. Ian Chesterton was ably portrayed by William Russell. This interview was filmed in 2012 during the lead-up to the 50th anniversary, and has William Russell say a few things looking back over the history of Doctor Who.
Yaz and The Doctor playing hanky-panky? PLEASE NO NO NO NO NO!!!! The Season 13 holiday special, Eve of the Daleks, included a scene where Yaz was openly declaring her attraction to The Doctor, and crying over the unrequitedness. My belief is that Doctor Who is being diminished by such talk.
Young Chris Chibnall views on Trial of a Time Lord likely flavored 13th Doctor As a young member of The Doctor Who Appreciation Society, Chris Chibnall appeared on TV as part of a panel being interviewed about the controversial Trial of a Time Lord season. That season, and the 6th Doctor's run in general, likely set in motion the changes resulting in the cancellation of Doctor Who at the end of the 7th Doctor's run. What Chibnall said in his chance TV appearance as a 16-year-old Doctor Who fan has interesting parallels to what happened to Doctor Who under his tenure as Doctor Who Show Runner.