What Who Are You Currently Watching? - Goes Fourth.

[Leah Betts]

Army of Ghosts.
If Torchwood did take Pertwee prisoner, they couldn't resist the temptation to open fire the moment he says "Hai!", strokes his neck, or grabs someone's chin...

[Dirk Gently]

I'm currently running through the Capaldi series. Next up, Listen.

[Andrew Curnow]

I'm still mainly working randomly through the missing story soundtracks, currently partway through Fury from the Deep. (I'm sure Pip would be pleased I'm finally getting around to it, I think it was his fave rave.)

I have rewatched a couple of random Capaldi's recently - unusually for me, not as part of a complete series repeat or anything like that, just because, well, just because I quite fancied watching them. So I did the Zygon two-parter, which I still think is rather good; and the Dark Water/Death in Heaven finale to season 8 which is... good... in places... but... no, I still really struggle with the CyberBrig bit!

And then I watched, for a third time, Twice Upon A Time (so I make that Six Times Upon A Time, though feel free to check my maths). I really like it except (sorry) Bradley's Hartnell is awful. It's not a bad performance, it's just totally unlike Billy - it was the same in Adventures in Time & Space, with the 'reenactments' but there it didn't matter because that wasn't the point. Here, though, it IS the point. I just wish, in hindsight, they'd got some less-known actor in, with a very clear brief to take home all the DVDs and do a darned good impersonation - rather than, as with David Bradley who is a superb actor and who I can understand them not wanting to give such a restrictive direction to, a 'reinterpretation'.

Anyway, for all that I still enjoyed it a lot, especially Peter's line "thankyou for everything you meant to me" and also for the joy of seeing Bill Potts again (I didn't realise quite how much I'd enjoyed the character in season 10 until I was thrilled to see her back at Xmas). So, I think, I'm now ready for the New Series!! Come on Chibnall, get a move on!

[Leah Betts]

I wonder how Team TARDIS would react to watching the DW DVDs. Hopefully during the "real" Logopolis Nyssa wasn't as caked in make-up as Sarah Sutton so obviously was in the BBC tv version...

[Leah Betts]

If the Fourth Doctor continued travelling with his final companions:

Tom: Here's Heathrow, Tegan, if you want to get off...

Tegan: *rushes out* *falls* AAARGH!

Tom:... as i was about to say, the TARDIS has materialised several feet above the runway, so you might want to stay inside...

[Stuart Wallis]

And Adric, remember what I told you about vampires? and standing in front of big flying machines with a pointy bit at the front? Hmm? Now who are you? Nyssa? Ah yes, you're the quiet one who behaves herself, aren't you? Do you know, I think we're going to get on!

[Leah Betts]

To those who say Vengeance on Varos predicted reality shows etc.,

I don't think Varos was exporting celebrity cooking videos to the galaxy, or that the Doctor would have been that bothered about them if they were.

Quillam: "And this is how i make a chocolate thick shake, just like the ones you get at those fast food restaurants!"

[Stuart Wallis]

More along the lines of Strictly Come Flinching and the highly popular Carry On Screaming film series...

[Leah Betts]

Evil of the Daleks is much more entertaining if you imagine Troughton saying "Not even for the lives of all the people in this room!" in the same tone as Homer Simpson saying "the Land of Chocolate!"...

[Stuart Wallis]

Mmm... Daleks...

[Leah Betts]

It's quite appropriate that the most recent incarnation of the Master is now appearing in the latest TV adaptation of 'Sabrina, the Teenage Witch', given that previous versions of both are famous for hanging out with awesomely terrible animatronic cats.

[Leah Betts]

Ashildr and Central Park at night sounds like an interesting combination, doesn't it. A guy tries to mug or rape/kill Me and finds out she doesn't die. Maybe he'd act like the Master and Captain Jack?

[Leah Betts]

with Joe Orton slagging off 'The Underwater Menace' , Salman Rushdie misinterpreting 'The Mutants', and Kenneth Williams expressing contempt for 'The Android Invasion' it makes me wonder why famous literary types always seem to have close encounters with really awful Doctor Who stories.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'd like to see what Joey Essex makes of Pyramids of Mars...

[Leah Betts]

There's a really funny story where the Tennant Doctor reads bad Tenth Doctor fan fiction. ("I did *what* to Rose with my "talented tongue"?! No woman would like it if i did that to their nipple!").

[Stuart Wallis]

Captain Jack would have an answer to that...

[Leah Betts]

Mulling over the DWCA fanzine's tongue-in-cheek comparison of Salamander's world with the Orange One... You know, for those who say DW is part of "cultural Marxism", do you think that they know or care that the expression "cultural Marxism" was coined by Hitler?

[Leah Betts]

Shada as a lost story... now there are more Shadas than ever!


It's hard to imagine the Doctor as a "Time tot" in nappies. Would be like Maggie Simpson and the Baby Translator ("I have soiled myself. How embarrassing!").

[Stuart Wallis]

This year's the fortieth anniversary - there's now enough versions of the story to do a Five Shadas special edition!

STOOOOOP! watching that - watch The Krotons instead. It's not all bad; there's unintentionally funny bits, Philip Madoc's in it...

[Leah Betts]

In Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hut - who lived during the height of the Old Republic - has completely forgotten how dangerous a Jedi can truly be.

In 2019, Ian Levine - who lived during the height of the junkings - has completely forgotten that they were already winding down without him.

[Stuart Wallis]

Did he ever forget the meaning of self-importance...?

[Leah Betts]

Levine is like Jabba the Hutt but with worse command of the English language.

[Andrew Curnow]

More missing ep' soundtracks - The Celestial Toymaker as a whole sounds better than the fourth episode looks. Its one-time classic status was forever shattered by the fact that an episode of it turned up, but I can't help think it could claw back a bit of status if we were to find one of the others. The first three episodes all subtly hint at the other players (the cards, the clowns the dolls) as also being 'real' people like Dodo and Steven, and there's a horrific edge to proceedings because of it. Part four doesn't bother trying to in anyway humanise Cyril (it doesn't much bother trying to in anyway entertain the audience!) but it's the weakest quarter IMHO.

Just finished off The Wheel In Space - nice to get a bit of context for the existing parts three and six. It IS quite ploddy, and the Cyberplan IS ludicrously over-complicated, and the ending IS a bit rushed... but against that, it's actually quite an engaging and intriguing story, in its own way quite intelligent. There's an attempt (albeit inevitably a distinctly 1960s attempt) at a multi-cultural, equality-based crew; there's some intriguing hints about the state of the Earth in their time period, Zoe's training background doesn't sound entirely 'happy'; the notion of psychology on people in space for long-periods is touched upon (most obviously with Bennett) - and also on the direction front, little details like when they are communicating by videoscreen, the Doctor (for example) looks at one person, then turns his head to look at Jamie (even though obviously Troughton couldn't actually see the actors on the other set). It really helps sell the technology.

I'm actually running out of stories now, by my reckoning down to the final six (and I've heard two of those before). Next up, The Myth Makers...

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh, and of course for obvious reasons I've been watching a bit of Season 19 recently. Kinda first (still good, and quite why Big Finish haven't brought back Nerys Hughes is beyond me) and just finished Time-Flight. It's first and last episodes aren't actually too bad, part two loses it, and part three is ludicrously chatty and dense and borderline incomprehensible (which is a shame as it's actually trying to explain 'the plot' to us). The guy playing Captain Stapley gives a marvellous performance, perhaps more than the script deserves, which helps lift things; and the Heathrow film stuff is especially nice. And, based on the extras, they had a whale of a time making it so I guess that's something!!

[Leah Betts]

Is it just me or would a story based around what Hayter thinks is going on have been a lot more interesting than the Time-Flight we got?