Category Archives: Doctor Who

Doctor Who, Podcastrovalva, Uncategorized

Podcastrovalva 1- Podshock

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“Podshock” is the longest-running Doctor Who podcast out there, with well over 300 episodes since it started in July 2005. It is based near New York City and features Louis Trapani, along with Ken Deep, Dave Cooper, Taras Hnatyshyn, and others.

This most recent episode, #300, honors the passing of Kate O’Mara, “The Rani”.

http://gallifreyanembassy.org/vortex/podshock300

This episode features a segment of O’Mara performing the audio book Shadow in the Sun. I found the inclusion to be a fitting tribute to O’Mara, as well as a showcase of her talent. You will also find Doctor Who news, and Chuck Rabb’s interviews with Mary Tamm and Janet Fielding in this latest episode, as well.

Louis’ podcast was “off the air” for a year due to the effects of Superstorm Sandy, but it did return in October 2013. I found the account of his experiences with the storm and its damage to be particularly interesting: Louis put a personal face on this disaster, which I had known before only from brief national news summaries.

http://gallifreyanembassy.org/vortex/podshock282

I started listening to Doctor Who podcasts during the storm-related hiatus of Podshock. However, since it has been back, it has been one I make sure to always listen to within a day or two of its release.

Podshock is found at the Doctor Who Podcast Alliance site, as well as on iTunes and at the Gallifreyan Embassy (gallifreyanembassy.org/vortex/)
You can also read a summary of it at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who:_Podshock

Doctor Who, New series, opinion

Happy Fish Fingers and Custard Day

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Fishfingers

Where were you four years ago today? Probably glued to the tv just like I was. After all it was the debut of a new Doctor. We mark the anniversary of Matt Smith’s first episode today and I hope you will indulge me as I reminisce for a moment.

 
I’ll start by saying that I was a big Tennant fan. The day that his final episode aired, I walked around in a state of dread befitting someone who actually lost a loved one, not merely mourning the changing of a fictional character. The End of Time was a bit of a disappointment for me, but that’s neither here nor there. What does matter is that I thought nobody could ever replace him. He was going to be The Doctor. The definitive article, as his most popular predecessor once said. Fans of the classic series may love to argue and discuss who’s their favourite from the first of the Doctor’s eight regenerations, but there was no doubt in my mind that Tennant was going to be the New Who Doctor that went down in history as the most beloved.
So with great trepidation I sat on the couch as The Eleventh Hour started. I had already seen some stills from it online and was in a foul mood. That new companion was dressed like a police officer. That’s ridiculous, she’s going to be arrogant and bossy and hard to get along with. I just knew that I wasn’t going to like her. And Matt Smith? Seriously, I have socks older than him. How can he possibly be better than Tennant?

 
The show started up and I was immediately hooked. Just from that opening scene with young Amelia Pond and the crack in her wall. The slapstick comedy of the Doctor walking into a tree. Fish fingers and custard. By the time we moved forward and got to the real gist of the story I was already warming up to the new guy. What sealed it for me is Steven Moffat’s writing. You can complain all you want about his jiggery pokery later on in the series, but he writes one hell of a heroic Doctor. Just look at the “is this planet protected?” speech from the end of the episode. When we see all the previous incarnations of the Doctor flash across the screen and then Smith steps through the hologram of Tennant to introduce himself as the Doctor? BAM! I jumped off the couch, fist pumping the air. That’s one hell of an introduction. From that moment Matt Smith was my favourite New Who doctor and he has been for the last four years. Oh and that annoying police officer companion? Yes she was arrogant, bossy and hard to get along with, but that didn’t stop me from loving her and her husband.

So what did I learn from my Tennant to Smith experience? Not to prejudge what will come. Maybe Capaldi will blow away Smith, you never know. Looks like we will find out in this fall.

Doctor Who, New series, rumour, Series 8

More Info On Gatiss Episode

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Spoilers abound from here on out, so this is your last chance to stay unaware.

We’ve already reported that Mark Gatiss is to write two episodes for Doctor Who and here’s some info on one of them. The third episode of the series, it’s rumoured to be called Robots of Sherwood and feature Tom Riley and Ian Hallard. Hallard’s character is apparently Alan-a-dale, one of the Merry Men.

Riley had this to say on twitter:

 

Doctor Who, New series, opinion

Doctor Who and the Interminable Waiting

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I remember waiting 18 months for a new series of Doctor Who once as a kid. I didn’t mind that much, and although Trial of a Time Lord wasn’t a very good series, at least it was back to being on at the same time of year, every year. Even if internal BBC politics meant that I had grown taller than usual in between.

I was used to the usual 9 month waits between series, as a child they didn’t seem as interminable as they do now. Even the 7 years between Survival and the TV Movie, and the 9 between that and Rose didn’t bug me too much.

Perhaps that’s more to do with the times we live in. The world has become a far less patient place. Because these days I HATE waiting for more Doctor Who. I HATE that Easter moves every year and that the series seems arbitrarily pinned to a date that can be anything from the end of March to the end of April. Just pick a date and have done with it!

I started to slightly hate waiting for Doctor Who at the end of The Christmas Invasion. Ok, it was only a few months, but they went and showed a trailer for the new series, making it worse…..and there’s Easter off in the distance…….and it’s moved……

I dealt with the Easter thing (although, New Earth wasn’t a strong start, sorry Russell), and got on with the fallow periods where you knew the series wouldn’t be on. Until 2009, the year where Shakespearian commitments for David Tennant, and the slow handover between RTD and Moffat meant only 4 new episodes, with Planet of the Dead rushed out into the world at Easter, and a 7 month wait for The Waters of Mars, during which I, knowing full well that there was a whole new series of Who being made with a new Doctor, silently, internally screamed “Just ****ing PUT IT ON!” more times than I could have possibly anticipated.

Things seemed to go back to normal in the early Matt Smith era, I can honestly say that I didn’t mind the split series the first time round (apart from people at work asking me “Why have they split the series?? How long is it off for??”), but once Christmas 2011 was over, what felt like the longest wait began, the road to Asylum of the Daleks.

I grew and shaved off several quite bushy beards. I got into and out of a relationship. I began to externally scream “Just ****ing PUT IT ON!” at my housemate (who has nothing to do with the black arts of BBC scheduling or the Doctor Who production office, but was very understanding). Nine whole months. No Doctor Who. And I couldn’t see why, until last year.

Basically, Steven Moffat, right from the outset of taking over as showrunner, had the date of the 50th anniversary in front of him, immovably set in stone, hence the transmission creep from series 6 onwards. His plans for Matt Smith’s Doctor were set up to end in a particular way, topping off the craziness of the anniversary year.

I got it, during the surprisingly painless wait between The Snowmen and The Bells of St. John. I realised then, that whatever happened during the year would happen when it happened. The War Doctor rocked up, and I was more than happy to wait 6 months to see what the deal with him was. The anniversary has been the whole reason for the last few years of shuffling transmission.

Now, there’s no milestone to meet, no need to mess around with the transmission pattern. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor makes his debut this year in a full, uninterrupted series at….

What’s that?

Oh, yeah.

It’s not on until Autumn this year.

*Facepalm*

Oh well, maybe we’ll get Marco Polo at Easter instead.

Doctor Who

The Best Of April Fool’s Update

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Happy April Fool’s Day to everyone who has chosen to venture into the dark and murky depths of the web on this most irksome day. Public Service Announcement, do not believe anything that you read online today, especially if it’s about series 8 spoilers or missing episodes. But you didn’t need to be told that, right? To save you some time and possible heartbreak, I thought I would collect some of the better/more interesting pranks out there today.

Let’s start with the rumour that Arthur Darvill is returning to Doctor Who! Amazing, Rory’s going to be back? No, he’s going to play the Master. Good one. I had a chuckle when I read that. Then there was the one that Peter Capaldi was actually going to play the Master, not the doctor.

Things get more elaborate from there, though. The next one was set up on a page to look like the BBC news and says that tv signals from the 60’s have recently been bouncing back to Earth from space . Of course Doctor Who missing episodes were among those signals. They have been recorded and will eventually be released on dvd. Full marks for the effort, but not the most ingenious idea, I’ve heard something like this before.

UPDATE: turns out I fell for this one. If you look at the date on the article, it’s actually from 5 years ago. That confirms my suspicion that I had heard something like this before, probably when I read this for the first time many years ago.

Did you hear about the Supernatural/Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover show being done by CW and the BBC?

 

 

And finally here’s a fake online ad for Marco Polo pre-orders. Quite pricy though.

UPDATE: Special mention has to go to the Doctor Who Germany Facebook Group that lost 23 members when they posted that they were no longer allowing discussion of David Tennant or the RTD era of Doctor Who.

So that’s where we stand, the best of the pranks and jokes for April 1, 2014.

Doctor Who

Update to the Update

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Looks like I got my Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion facebook page update posted just in time. A few hours after getting the news out that the Facebook page will continue on even after DWW and The Panopticon come back online, guess what? They’re back. Already there’s been a flurry of happy posts in the Missing Episodes thread, with familiar faces flocking back to the beloved forum.  But even as we celebrate, let’s say a big thank you to Pascal and the gang that kept us talking for the past week and not abandon them now, after all there are plenty of opinions to go around.

Classic Series, Doctor Who, missing episodes, Omnirumour

Missing Episodes Facebook Group Update

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facebook

So by now you have probably heard that Doctor Who Worldwide and its accompanying forum The Panoptican should be returning sometime in April. I’ve already told you about my plans for TIMD, but what of the facebook page that started up in its absence?

I caught up with Pascal Salzmann, the man behind the page, and asked him that tough question.

“I’m proud that the Missing Episodes Discussion group garnered so much interest that we are now at almost 500 members in only four days. When I created the group it was my intention to fill in the void that fan-favourite Doctor Who Worldwide and its forum, the Panopticon, left behind. At the time nobody was sure about the future of the now offline Panopticon, so missing episode fans who enjoyed the relaxed and familiar atmosphere lost a valuable platform for exchanging rumours and discussing theories. Now that the Panopticon will be back in April, the Facebook group will also continue, maybe even interacting with DWW in some way.”

On the difference between the page and a forum, he also had this to say. “The format of a Facebook group is very different. But in gathering familiar faces we form a new community in the spirit of its predecessor.” The most notable difference between a forum and the facebook group is the inability to hide behind a fake name and avatar. Tempers don’t flare and things are way less tense when everyone knows your real name.

Posters and lurkers are still flocking to the facebook page, searching out fresh and exciting news and viewpoints on missing episodes. Interested? Why not join the 465 who are already members.

Classic Series, Doctor Who, New series, Podcastrovalva

Introducing Podcastrovalva

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It is with great pleasure that I welcome Al Miller to the TIMD team. He will be doing podcast reviews for us in a segment called    Podcastrovalva. Al’s fairly new to the Doctor Who world, having become a fan just a few years ago. He’s more than made up for that lost time, his goal is to watch all the classic episodes before the end of this year. His first exposure to the show came way back in 1996 when he saw the last half of the TV Movie. His favourite doctor depends on who he is bingeing on at the moment, right now it is Patrick Troughton. He spends a lot of his time driving and that gives him ample opportunity to listen the all the podcasts he loves, up to a dozen a week.

So what exactly is Podcastrovalva? Al is going to talk about podcasts, new and old, anything he comes across that he likes. He doesn’t plan on a lot of dissection or criticism though. Each and every podcast is a labour of love that someone has put a lot of time and effort into preparing and he respects that.

 

Classic Series, Doctor Who, Lego, New series, Series 8

Monday Morning News Round Up- March 31

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Rani

Remembering The Rani

Kate O’Mara, the actress who played the Rani in Mark of the Rani and Time and the Rani has passed away at 74. She will be most remembered for her Doctor Who and Dynasty roles.

 

Classic Series Director Derek Martinus Passes Away at 82.

The man who directed some of the pivotal early episodes of Doctor Who from Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee passed away late last week.

 

gatiss

Mark Gatiss to write two more episodes of Doctor Who

eccelston

Let’s Celebrate!

Big week for birthdays as Patrick Troughton would have turned 94 and the New Series marked it’s 9th anniversary!

LEGO1

Lego Tom Baker Needs Some Support

You probably know all about the Lego Doctor Who project that has achieved the needed 10,000 votes before moving on to the next stage, but there’s an awesome underdog that needs our support.

bAGEL

Missing Episodes Found at the M&S Cafe

A humorous look at how obsessed some of us can get over the whole missing episode speculation.

Omni, Omni, Omni

What’s new in the omnirumour from the past week? There was so much that we needed two updates! Avengers and Callan, and the rest. Don’t forget the Omni Bite. Seriously, we had three Omni updates last week? Awesome.

Website Update

A few days ago the news began to trickle through the forums, twitter and facebook that Doctorwhoworldwide.com would be coming back up some time in the next couple of weeks. That’s great news as a lot of us were concerned when it suddenly went down and we were unable to reach the owner/editor. In the vacuum its departure left, I started up TIMD and I have decided to continue on with the site, even if DWW does come back.