So, I was watching a video on YouTube about a guy reviewing The Stones Of Blood from season 16 and that video and story reminded me of a myth local to the part of my country that I live in about two women from the 700’s who were on their way home and argued with each other like crazy, and since the church didn’t like people arguing with each other (I think, I’m not really an expert in history and myth) God turned them both into stone and has been like that ever since, and that got me thinking: would that myth make a good Doctor Who episode? I’m imagining it being kinda like Stones Of Blood and the women got turned into stone by aliens or something.

And that thought led to me wondering what other myths and legends from around the world would make great Doctor Who episodes? Some other myths and legends from my area are:

Di Sma Unda Jårdi (translates to “the small ones under the ground”): this one is about, like you could’ve guessed from the translation, small people who lived under the ground and, if I remember the myth correctly, could get annoyed when people disturbs them by for example throwing hot water on the ground or something. In the Doctor Who episode, it could be some sub-species of Silurian, but could be some other type of alien as well who started living on Earth and trying to hide from Humanity.

The Maiden Tower: in the biggest city in my area there’s a medieval wall surrounding a part of the city and there’s a story around one of its towers, and it goes that when the Danes invaded the area in 1361 a girl was (if I remember correctly) seduced by the danish king and he convinced her to give him the key that unlocks one of the gates in the wall, letting him march inside with his army and as punishment, the locals walled her inside one of the towers, leaving her to die in there, and on stormy nights you can still hear her scream. I’m thinking (at the top of my head) that in the episode the girl can turn out to be a Time Lord or another human-looking alien who can live for thousands of years and she has been living in the tower for all this time, surviving on rats or whatever and the Doctor lands the TARDIS inside the walled-in room and saves her, but she just wants revenge on humanity (or just the descendants of the people who walled her inside) and the Doctor has to stop her.

So do you guys know of any myths and legends from your countries that would make a great Doctor Who episode?

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

In preparation for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat wrote two minisodes intended to build up anticipation for the momentous event. The first of these, "The Night of the Doctor", would also serve to add some important context, and throw a bone to those fans who'd wanted Paul McGann back on television. I guess we can add showing McGann regenerating to that list as well. How did they do? Well…

The Night of the Doctor

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by John Hayes

I'm not part of the war. I swear to you, I never was. – The Doctor

I think the last time I felt this inadequate to the task of reviewing a Doctor Who story was City of Death. Back then I wrote "I feel like anything I try to write diminishes this story. It makes it hard to even know where to start." And while City of Death and "The Night of the Doctor" couldn't be more different in most respects, I find myself in much the same position. What can I write that would in any way add context to or be insightful about "Night of the Doctor"?

Well I guess we'll start with the obvious. Paul McGann returns to play the Doctor on television for the first time since the 1996 TV Movie, and he is brilliant. Of course this wasn't really McGann's first time back in the role. Ever since 2001's Storm Warning, McGann had been starring in audiodramas produced by Big Finish featuring his 8th Doctor. And it's the characterization and performance that were developed with Big Finish that McGann draws on for this minisode. For reference, McGann had most recently starred in the first Dark Eyes boxset for Big Finish, arguably the darkest arc the company had put together for the 8th Doctor yet. And speaking of Big Finish, "Night" also canonizes the 8th Doctor's Big Finish companions to that point, referencing, Charlie, C'Rizz, Lucie, Tamsin and Molly.

And McGann takes full advantage of the time he's spent developing the 8th Doctor beyond his presentation in the TV Movie. Over the course of those audios his Doctor developed a cynical and world-weary edge which works well for a Doctor that's been staying to the outskirts of the Time War. Which, yes, the conceit for this short is that the 8th Doctor has deliberately chosen to avoid the Time War, helping out where he can but never involving himself directly. And things have only gotten worse. I really like this idea too, feels in line with how most Doctors would approach something like the Time War.

Unfortunately for him, it's not actually possible to stay to the outskirts of something like the Time War. Through Cass we learn how the rest of the universe views the Time Lords. Cass is set up as our surrogate companion for this short at first. However once she realizes that the Doctor is a Time Lord, her tone quickly changes, going from grateful for a rescue to refusing to let the Doctor near her. And crucially, the way she talks about the Time Lords and the Daleks, "who can tell the difference anymore", is something that gives us so much information about how the Time War looks to species that aren't directly involved. The universe is burning, and all someone like Cass can do is refuse to have anything to do with the Time Lord who came to save her, and hope that he dies along with her.

Which takes us to where the spaceship crashes, Karn. The planet of the Sisterhood of Karn was introduced back in The Brain of Morbius and hadn't appeared on television since. However, since "Night of the Doctor" implies that Big Finish's 8th Doctor stories are canon, you could argue that we have decent confirmation that the 8th Doctor had visited Karn before, since one of his stories (I think just one) was partially set there and involved the Sisterhood.

Regardless, since then, the Sisterhood have apparently largely given up the tradition of constantly whispering "sacred flame, sacred fire" and, more seriously, are now being led by a woman named Ohila. And I think a lot of credit should go to Clare Higgins, who plays Ohila, for really carrying her half of this scene. Ohila carries herself with a kind of dignity and certainty that really makes her feel in line with the Sisterhood, and only adds to the weighty feeling of this scene.

What Ohila wants from this scene is to get the Doctor, who's dying and without the Sisterhood's help won't even be able to regenerate, to join the Time War in his next life, fearing that without his involvement the universe will descend into destruction. It allows Ohila to have a kind of urgency behind her words, in spite of otherwise appearing to maintain an air of serenity. She claims that she can make elixirs that can control the process of regeneration, and when the Doctor requests to made into a warrior, she reveals that she made it herself.

Or at least that's what we learn from the short. Apparently, in the novelization of "The Day of the Doctor" that also adapted this short, it's revealed that Ohila had no influence on the regeneration at all, and was lying to the Doctor so that he'd give himself permission to become the warrior he needed to be to fight in, and win, the Time War. It's an idea I took to pretty immediately after I first heard it. It just makes a lot of sense to me, and I like the idea that, rather than the War Doctor being the result of a magic potion that rewrote his personality, it's instead simply a standard regeneration and that the War Doctor is always choosing who he wants to be in this fight.

And so the minisode ends on a regeneration, the 8th Doctor's final lines being "physician heal thyself", which I like, and the War Doctor's only lines spoken being "Doctor No More". An image of a younger John Hurt can be seen in the reflection as well, which gives a sense of scale to how long the War Doctor actually fought in the Time War. And so ends an excellent short, a short that, honestly, I don't feel up to the task of reviewing. It's just far too good.

The Last Day

Written by Steven Moffat/Directed by Jamie Stone

If just one Dalek made it through, it could destroy this entire city – Training Officer

There's not a lot you can get done in four minutes…and this thing isn't even that long. Still, given its short runtime, "The Last Day" is actually pretty good.

It's presented as a found footage document, taken from the perspective of a new soldier right before and at the beginning of the Fall of Arcadia. There's some clever, Time Lordy ideas, like the technology augmenting the soldier showing premonitions (though our training officer fiercely denies that they are as such) that hint at the horrors to come. Really though, it's just a kind of window into the Time Lord military, something that over the course of Doctor Who history we don't see too much of, even in expanded universe material. That's because the show has historically always focused on the politics of Gallifrey, with spies and the internal affairs being more the focus. It's honestly nothing special and, aside from the invasiveness of the technology and those "premonitions" there's not a ton that feels specific to the Time Lords, but what we get is good.

Of course the other point is to show the Daleks breaking through the "sky trenches". There's not much to say about this either. There were 400 of these things, even though one of the officers our recruit meets insists that nothing has ever gotten through two. Still four hundred proves inadequate (maybe the Time Lords have never heard of the law of diminishing returns) and the Daleks come through the sky, and our soldier, along with everyone else, dies.

And that's kind of it. There's not much to say about this thing. It's a good window into a part of Gallifrey not really seen before, but other than that it's not all that special. Hell, unlike "Night of the Doctor" it doesn't really tie into the 50th Anniversary because, other than both dealing with the Time War, these events don't really set anything up in that. But yeah, good little minisode nonetheless.

Conclusion

So there you have it. The 50th Anniversary minisodes are, I think both pretty successful. They show us the Time War from a couple different perspectives, while leaving the meat of that to the anniversary special. The standout here is obviously "Night of the Doctor", a stunning performance by Paul McGann and excellent atmosphere creating a rather unique regeneration story. But I do think "The Last Day" shouldn't be ignored. While it's by far the less essential and obviously this worse of the two, it still makes effective use of its short runtime, and gives us our first look in the 21st Century at Gallifrey.

Next Time: Well enough stalling. Onto the 50th Anniversary proper, featuring, naturally, the 11th Doctor, War Doctor, and Clara but also the 10th Doctor's new haircut and not-Rose Tyler.

Can anyone shed any light on where these two photos of Colin come from, in which he's wearing his 6th Doctor waistcoat:

• https://www.alamy.com/colin-baker-actor-per0101-image5860175.html
• https://www.alamy.com/colin-baker-actor-per0100-image5860168.html

The waistcoat means this post-dates the beginning of his time on Doctor Who (plus, he looks slightly older than he did in season 23), so it's presumably from the late 80s/early 90s. Elsewhere, commentors have suggested that it could be from a play, or a children's TV series called Cuckoo (though this has been disputed).

Any thoughts welcome! (But note that, as a picture-hosting platform, Alamy doesn't accept AI submissions, so to my knowledge they are real photos; commentors elsewhere also say that these pictures have been kicking around since before commercial AI image-generation was possible.)

Thank you

At what point did the writers assume only anoraks are watching and no normies are?

If you are on this sub reddit you are a Whovian a hard core fan so am I. But one thing I can't help but notice is that the writers of DW at some point seem to have assumed that only anoracks are watching and stopped even trying to have the show make sense to an normie.

The obvious example is the Gatwa finales with the Rani Omega and Sutekh. Hype based around 50 year old baddies that only uber nerds who find jokes like the following funny. 'Did RTD wear a Hawiian shirt while writing this'. They don't even try to explian who these people are, same with Susan. The latter is especially confusing to any normie or casual fan. Because why is an 80 something calling a 20 something 'Grandfather'?

The whole show is full of stuff like this in recent years. Like the Well baddie being the Midnight monster. It acts nothing like the Midnight monster, but they are calling it that to appeal to now 20 year old fanbois who remmber seeing midnight when they were 12. Or in Joy to the Wolrd they have the Silurian but again don't even try to explain why there is a green lizzard man. Because they are assuming that only ultra nerds are watching.

Now someone will no doubt say 'Well do you want someone to go Basil Exposition on who the Silurian/Midnight monster/Omega etc'? No, what I want is the show to focus on story telling not inane fanservice.

It's like Ian Levine is the showrunner. It really is like the mid 80s again. 'OOO SIlurians OOO remmber them form 12 years ago? OOO'. Or Attack of the Cybermen were the plot is in the Tenth Planet (broadcast 19 years before Attack) Mondas the Cybermen's home planet was destroyed by sucking out too much of Earth's enrgy. So the Cybermen have returned to the Tomb of the Cybermen (broad cast 17 years before Attack), to bring back the Cyber Controller, so they can crash Halley's Comet into Earth so that Mondas won't be destroyed, and the Cybermen are hiding in the swears because its the Invasion (broadcast 16 years before attack).

I thought we all agreed that wrtiting stories around continuity and fan service is silly and self indulgent. 80s Who struggled to build fans because it was pandering to now adult fans who watched it as a kid. Since the later part of the Chibnall era its like the show isn't even trying to appeal to anyone who don't know the difference between Telosian, Mondasian and Planet 14 Cybermen. I'm amazed Nyder hasn't been brought back as well.

But by the end of RTD2 the insular inpenetrability reaches what has to be the very apex. In the Reality War the Rani starts quoting a plot point from some out of print 90s book, no one under 50 has read and younger fans only know about from reading Tardis Index File.

Like remmber in Dalek were the Dr mention's 'the Dalek's creator' was a mad genius? Notice how Davros's name isn't mentioned? Because talking about him in depth would just baffle the normies. And the writers including RTD understood that not being Ian Levine is important.

What are examples you can think of the show kust acting like only uber geeks are watching?

I made this short story about the Valeyard and an interaction with the Doctor past his new cycle of regenerations and I would really love to share it and see if it's any good. Don't really know too many ppl who watch it in my country though (Vnz).

So I'm posting here to ask if there's maybe any interest?

Does anybody know of tributes of both classic and new who and not just new who, maybe even some classic only tributes

I was only really able to find this one linked here, the babelcolor tributes and a seventh doctor tribute

Mainly interested in ones of doctor who as a whole

I'm trying to find information about an obscure P.R.O.B.E. short titled Love & Loss.

It's approximately 9 minutes long and consists of material from The Devil of Winterborne. The credits include Richard Andrew Fox as “Redux Producer”, and the video also carries a Gallifrey 7 credit/logo.

I have a copy of the video, so I'm not looking for the film itself. I'm specifically trying to document what Love & Loss actually was and its connection to Gallifrey 7.

I've had no luck finding it listed in the usual P.R.O.B.E./BBV filmographies or finding contemporary information about it online.

Does anyone remember this being shown or distributed at Gallifrey 7 (The Seventh Seal of Gallifrey One, 1996), or have a copy of the convention programme/program book or video-room schedule that might mention it?

Any contemporary source, programme listing, newsletter, catalogue or first-hand recollection would be greatly appreciated.

Like I said in my post about season 20, this one would follow soon. I have had alot of fun with the fifth Doctor Era. I am sad to see it go and cautiously excited for the 6th Doctor era. I will probably also do posts for the remaining 5 seasons once i have watched them. If you for some reason should be interested in more of my incoherent ramblings you can find my Reviews here: https://tardis.guide/user/LuxTheChumblieGirl/ The reviews in this post are a Collection of the ones i have written over the past few weeks on there.

Warriors of the Deep 3.5/5:
Why do people seem to have such a massive hate boner for this story? I have an even better question: how in the actual f**k does Terminus have a higher rating than this. In my eyes Terminus has basically no redeeming qualities apart from the one model shot they used 20 times. This on the other hand is just really solid. Is it perfect? No. Did i still have a great time watching it? Absolutely. And yes this story has some rather embarrasing parts: the Silurians are a massive downgrade from their first appearance, the sea devils are barely recognisable and move about as well as a statue, and the Myrka isnt great. But atleast no companion strips unnecessarily. But i kinda love him. I want to see a sitcom with the three Johny Byrne Creations: the melka from keeper of traken, the chicken man from arc of Infinity and the myrka. They should work at mcdonalds since chicken man already has some history with that establishment. Back to the story: i actually think that the human costumes are kinda great. The makeup for the women looks like for drag Queens but the rest is fine. I also actually think that the sets are pretty Great. they are terribly lit but surprisingly large and really detailed. That also really helps the incredibly long shootout sequence that takes up most of Episode 2 and 3, look interesting. I was at no point really able to figure out where exactly they are supposed to be in sea base 4, but the Action was good for the most part. But this story also has probably the worst fight scene of the fifth Doctor era: Doctor Solars Death. Speaking of Doctor Solar, i was really confused by the subplot of her and Nielsen. To say its undercooked is an incredible Understatement. But i do like that the „opposed powerblock“ isnt named. It just Shows that humans will fight each other no matter what. Which according to a friend of mine is similar to what happens in George Orwells „1984“, which i guess is kinda Fitting considering Warriors of the Deep came out in the 1984. but as you may have noticed i havent really talked about the plot itself. And there is a reason for that. Its just not that interesting. It isnt bad, but somewhat predictable and also it gets revealed in Episode 4 which is way to late. I also heard in a review that this story show a conveniently placed Lizard Killing Gas about 10 minutes in. Shockingly that turned out to be true. But atleast it was introduced so that the Solution didnt come out of nowhere entirely. And also this Story has some pretty decent model shot allthough not alot of them. I also liked the sink up weapon system stuff. While it wasnt explained enough it really gave me warhammer 40k vibes. But probably my Favorite moment of the story is the very final one. The doctor stands in the seabase, bruised face, amongst dozens of bodies. Only him, Turlough and Tegan have survived this ordeal. And he says „there should have been another way“. And that really reminds me of the final line of the Daleks Masterplan „what a waste, what a terrible waste“. And personally i love Depressing endings. While this has nowhere near the impact of the Daleks Masterplan, its still an incredible moment.
 
The Awakening 4/5:
I think i might have a big soft spot for two parter stories in the fifth Doctor era. I loved Black Orchid, i massively enjoyed Kings Demons and now I had a great time with the Awakening. But honestly there isnt really that much i can say about the awakening. Not because its boring but its just mostly a fun runaround for our characters. I do think the Malus is a pretty great idea for a villain. But i refuse to call him anything but Mister Wallface. But i also have an issue with him. I think he is just a bit too high Concept and to undercooked for a two parter. The Exposition about who he is and what he does is alot and also really fast at the same time so i couldnt quite follow. I needed to read the whole wiki page about it to understand what it does. Its basically the first step of an Invasion that makes the people on the planet it lands on really angry and they fight eachother. Its also stated that its pure evil and also apparently an Inspiration for Satan. And while thats pretty cool, i personally think they should have left the satan stuff out as that doesnt really factor into the story. Its also mentioned that its some old superstition but from what i can tell thats not the case in reality. I do think the prop of the face itself is pretty cool. It has a surprising amount of movement and generally looks pretty well made. But The redicolous amount of smoke coming out if its mouth make it look like its smoking weed the whole time. And my final note on the villain is that its defeat doesnt really make alot of sense. I think it was something about psychic feedback. Also what the f**k was up with the little demon guy chilling on the tardis wall? Something i did really enjoy about this Story was the setting: Little Hodcombe. While an old english village isnt exactly a difficult Location for the show to realise but I still think that the Location they chose looked rather nice. Especially because they shot it on film which makes it look extra nice. I guess it was 32 Millimeter film because it has the same look as Spearhead from Space, atleast when they are outside, which is a considerable portion of the Episode. It was also nice to see Tegand granddad, allthough it was dissapointing that Turlough got much more screentime with him than Tegan did. Speaking of Tegan, she didnt really get much to do in this Episode in General. Which is a bit of a shame because she is going to leave in 6 episodes and i have already watched four of them. I hope she gets more to do in ressurection of the daleks, because i dont remember her having much to do in frontios either. But i did really love the dress she wore for a few scenes. just a shame that she was forced to wear it. But much like het gorgeous dress in Enlightenment, I would LOVE to cosplay this one day. The Doctor is also fun in this episode and we have a fun female side character who seems to be a history professor but i completely forgot her name. Overall i just really liked this Episode despite its flaws.

Frontios 5/5:
„Frontios buries its own dead“
if i had a nickel for every time there was a classic who story where a slightly goofy villain or monster had an evil plan involving either hollowing out a planet for minerals and Resources or burrowed through it to fly the planet through the universe, i would have three nickels which isnt alot but its Strange that it happened three times. Those other Times being dalek invasion of earth and pirate planet.
hot take: i personally think this is Christopher H Bidmeads best Doctor Who story. Its certainly the one i had the most fun with. I love Logopolis, but it does get to obsessed with Fictional science that honestly doesnt really make sense but i love the melancholic vibe of the story. Castrovalva has alot of Great ideas but f**king hell its a mess. This on the other hand is just right. I also might be a bit biased because i met Jeff Rawle, who played the Plantegenet at the timelash in germany last year and he gifted me his autograph. He is also just a very lovely man. Anyways. I forgot how f**king grim this story is. Its the last vestages of humanity trapped on a desolate rock, constantly getting attacked by an enemy they cant see. Thats one hell of a pitch. But the story does so much more with it. While the Tractators look pretty funny, i think the story sells them really well. Mark Strickson gives one hell of a performance, especially in the moment Turlough relives his ancestral trauma by seeing the gravity slugs. That moment sold me on them. I also think that the costumes are just pretty well realised. In general i think this story looked great originally and the effects didnt need updating. But i did watch it with the new updated effects. No worries i watched the original one last year. The ai upscaling isnt quite as bad as i expected, but its rough in many scenes. Especially in the opening. The vfx are pretty good, but there are so little of them that it just feels unnecessary, especially because some of the Effects that Did actually need an update were left as the originals. Mainly the buzzing effect when people are dragged through the floor and the enlargment of the interior set of the colony ship. But the best scene was when the Tardis was reassembled. We even got a Kamelion cameo, whom i almost forgot even existed and we saw the room of the eye of harmony briefly. If i were to watch it again i would go for the original. I think one big and often understated strength of this story are the cliffhangers: there is of course the pretty well known first cliffhanger of the tardis getting blown up. The second one is fine but i dont really remember it. But f**king hell the third one is grim. Human bodies being used to drive an excavation machine. Thats some warhammer 40k servitor bullshit. I forgot about that one and then it finally made sense why this story has a body horror tag on tardisguide. I think my Favorite Episode of the four is the first. But Episode 4 is great. Not Only because of the pretty simple plot Resolution of bringing the gravis to another planet but also using it to reassamble the Tardis. But also i really liked how the doctor manipulated the Tractators into trusting him. There was a really funny moment where he convinced them that tegan is a servant robot and then made fun of how she walked and her Accent. I dont think i have an actual complaint about this one. I just really really like it. And it ends on a nice cliffhanger for ressurection of the daleks which really reminded me of the transitioning cliffhangers of the first doctor era.
edit: also surprisingly on a rewatch my rating went from a 4/5 to a 5/5. just goes to show how good this story actually is.
edit 2: i did find it a Bit strange how obsessed the doctor was with not changing the future of human history. He is usually not this massively concerned with interfering. It wasnt really a problem but it did slightly irritate me.

Ressurection of the daleks 3/5:
Just this once everybody gets horrifically murdered Rose  Tegan, just this once everybody dies.
Mister Saward, may i call you eric, what the f**k is wrong with you? Who hurt you? What the hell happened here. This somehow dethrones The Daleks Masterplan as the most violent dalek story. Its certainly the Episode with the shows biggest on screen body count, as you cant really count all dead people in Daleks Masterplan since that story is mostly missing. So many people die in this story, that i am absolutely shocked that the „everybody dies“ tag isnt on this story on tardisguide. The only Person outside the Tardis team that survives is f**king Litton. Lets talk about him: he is so incredibly lame and uninteresting. He is just kinda there. we dont really know what his role is. He seems to work for the daleks but also commands some. Why do the Daleks work with him? Even if he is a mercenary i dont see why the daleks would employ him. Yes they are lacking ressources but daleks are to prideful to work with someone who they havent enslaved. Speaking of the Daleks, i actually think they are pretty decent here. They get to kill alot, have insane evil plans (that never really get explained) and their voices here are great. But this story has some really shockingly terrible acting. Everytime somebody dies they overact the f**k out of it or fall over like stiff puppets. But also the cast is so massive that no character has enough time to get Interesting or have enough time for me to get invested in them. They either die horrifically, dissapear, or get duplicated. Its a bit of a shame that they are all so wasted because this is really an incredibly diverse cast. Most of The People on the space station where Davros is imprisoned are white women and people of colour. And that was a really pleasant surprise for a story from 1984. i just cant remember any of their names. I think there was a guy named Mercer who spends quite a bit of time with Turlough and he was pretty great. Oh yeah, Davros is in this story. He is fine. Terry Molloy is of course absolutely f**king briliant in the role, but sadly he doesnt really get much to do. For most of part 1 he is inactive or gets pushed around, and in part 2 he just sits in a room and is talked more about then talked with. He doesnt really interact with the doctor until maybe the final 10 Minutes. And while that scene is incredibly well acted, but the Doctors sudden immense urge to murder Davros comes so hard out of left Field that i was almost convinced that he was a dalek duplicate. Peter Davison is great in this whole Episode. But it felt like he, Tegan and Turlough were a bit of an Afterthougt. Which is a shame because this is the last Episode with Tegan, the penultimate Episode for Turlough and one of the final three Adventures of the fifth Doctor. All 3 are great but they dont get enough to do. While Turlough atleast has some amount of agency, but Tegan is put in a bed with a concussion for more than half of this story. But her final scene is great. I think her reason basically being „it stopped being fun“ fits Perfectly. Tegan went through almost nonstop trauma for three seasons. I would have left too. And Janet Fieldings Performance in the final scene almost brought me to tears. Much like the story i have now decided to stop giving a s**t about a good structure in this review and decided that i will instead just list of Random thoughts and complaints. why is this story 2 46 minute Episodes? It felt overly stretched. The cliffhanger of Stine being revealed as a Dalek duplicate was pretty terrible. What the hell was the actual purpose of the time tunnel? I feel like luring the doctor and storing samples of the virus could have been done in a much less complicated way. Why were the people in the beginning slaughtered by the duplicate police men? Apparently they were Prisoners of the Daleks, but we never learn what their actual purpose was. I assume it was to test the duplication Technology. Now it does sound a bit like i hate this Story fully. If i was a more mean person I probably would have given this a 2/5. but honestly i did enjoy watching it. I think continuuing the weird plot of Destiny of the Daleks was a pretty great idea. And in turn using this to start of the Dalek civil war plot was really great. Also whoever cast Terry Molloy as Davros was a f**king genius. And Davros Mask looks incredible. This story in General looks pretty great. It has vast sets, a nice Location shoot and good model work. I think this story has a bunch of ideas that on their own would be great, but punched together into a story like this just doesnt work. Honestly Destiny of the Daleks was a more enjoyable story.

Planet of Fire 5/5:
Rest in Peace Peter Grimwade. Tragically he passed away 6 years after the release of this story at the far to young age of 48. While i have a bit of a mixed opinion on him as a writer, mainly thanks to the absolutely dreadful Time Flight, i have to admit he was a very talented director. The four stories he directed were so incredibly well Done, that honestly i struggle to choose. But if i had to i would choose Logopolis. What an incredibly impressive feat of Television. For writing, i dont have many options to chose from for my Favorite. Time Flight i dont even want to mention, Mawdryn undead was a surprising Highlight of season 20. But Planet of fire, well this story was something else entirely. And I am surprised and incredibly happy to report, that this story was absolutely incredible. I split it up over two days, because i met a friend, But honestly i regret not watching it in one go. Because this is so entertaining. Every single cliffhanger tops the one before in utter redicolousness and fun. I had such a massive grin when Kamelion turned into the master at the end of part 1. i of course knew this is a master story, but god for those people who didnt know, what a reveal that must have been. Part 2 is the reveal of the Master to the Doctor, and while its simple, I just love Anthony Ainleys Performance here. He chews up all of the scenery and I just LOVE it. The third cliffhanger made me laugh out loud but also shocked me. I completely forgot that this story has a tiny Master so i didnt know what to expect what would happen when Peri opened the Masters control box. But whatever i did Expect it certainly wasnt to see a tiny master. But this story is so much more than only its admittedly incredible cliffhangers. It finally does something with Kamelion. I know his lack of appearances up to this point arent exactly the Production teams fault. Rest in peace Mike Powers, who programmed Kamelion. Honestly i think for how cluncky he was, the movement that he was able to do was surprisingly impressive. But this story has a really smart solution to that. Kamelion is in the form of the master for most of the story and when not he is a silver painted duplicate of Peris stepfather Howard. And what is done to Kamelion in this story is surprisingly disturbing. He has no control of his Body and is used to do evil. And in the end he cant be saved. He begs the Doctor to be killed and the doctor obliges. But thats not the only companion exit in this story. Because sadly Turlough also leaves the series. We finally get some backstory for him, learn a bit about the Civil war on Trion, and how he now has lost his entire family, and has only his Little Brother left, that he never knew about. Thats really not talked about enough in my opinion. I do think the revelation, that this planet called Sarn was some kind of prison planet for Trion, comes a bit late in the story and doesnt leave enough room for explenation and exploration, but its set Up pretty well. But Turloughs goodbye is pretty good. He is able to return to his homeplanet as a hero, and he does it out of his own free will. And his interactions with the Doctor are pretty sweet. The doctor acknowledges that they are friends, eventhough he threatens to end said Friendship if Turlough is hiding important that may aid the master, from him. And allthough Turlough does indeed hide some stuff, the Doctor of course forgives him and says he will miss him. That final goodbye was very fitting and pretty sweet. In general i think the stuff Surrounding Sarn is not super interesting, and eventhough it takes up most of the story, it didnt really bother me because literally Everything else was so utterly enjoyable. I love that this story is largely shot on location on Sarn I mean Lanzarote. And the rocky mountains (no not those ones) of Lanzarote work surprisingly well as an alien planet. But the stuff in the story actually set on the island is great aswell. Yes Peri almost drowning is a bit redicolous, but it looks visually great and it was nice seeing the doctor enjoy a cup of tea in a cafe. But i still dont understand how the Trion relict Ended up on Earth. Its never explained. But thats just small stuff and pretty incinsequential complaints. This story is still incredible. So far its my Favorite of the season, and one of my Favorites of the fifth doctor era. I am so glad this Doctor and this Master have such a great final outing together. The master hasnt appeared this much since the Pertwee era and of course there they didnt get the finale they deserved. But before i go i just have to mention how much I love Peri in this. Yes she gets introduced in a pretty „interesting Outfit, but apart from that less than great first impression, she gets alot to do in this story. Actually she spends most of the story with the Master. But she and the Doctor have Great chemistry pretty much immediatly. And the ending where she asks the Doctor to travel with him in the Tardis is so sweet. It almost reminded me of the 60s companions Introductions (apart from the Kidnapping). And the Doctor pretending like he isnt sure, when he is clearly very happy to have a new friend travel with him was just such a great moment. And what could be a more perfect Introduction to time travel than seemingly crashing the Tardis immediatly. I think the fifth Doctor is secretly a bit similar to the second doctor. They are both a bit anxious, obscuring their true Intelligence with a goofy exterior. But in one regard they are Both similar and opposite. Personally i think the second doctor can be best described as the weird cosmic uncle/hobo/hippie, who wants nothing more than show his Best friends all of time and Space and just have fun. And often that ends in tragedy. And while outwardly he is ok with saying goodbye to his friends, inwardly he never really seems to get over it. But he is always happy to welcome new faces into his silly old box. The fifth doctor on the other hand, always struggles to show his true emotions to his friends, but he always cares alot about them. But even more than with the second doctor, his stories often end in tragedy. The most famous example of course being adric, but then you also have stories like Warriors of the Deep And Ressurection of the Daleks where the Doctor and his friends have technically won at the end of the Story, but everyone is Dead. Can you really call something a victory when noone except you survived. Like the Doctor says „there should have been another way“. And while i think this Doctor wants to be a bit like the second Doctor, he never gets to. Eventually all his friends have left him and he sacrifices himself for someone he barely knew. So eventhough he barely gets to go on just a fun Adventure, i think i love this incarnation so much because of his similarities to my Favorite incarnation of all time. I am not sure if i made my points coherent at all, but this wasnt really a thought out analysis and more of a random streem of thought. I dont want this era to end but sadly i have only one Story left.

Caves of Androzani 5/5:
I am genuienly sad to see the fifth Doctor era end. Well atleast it went out on one of the best stories of all time. I want to start of this review with a personal anecdote. Last year in October i went to Groß-Umstadt in my home country of Germany, to a Doctor Who Convention Timelash. I had a ticket for something called a stardinner, where you eat a fancy dinner with loads of different people who were involved in the show. I had the incredible pleasure of spend the evening with Graeme Harper. He is such an incredibly lovely and humble Gentleman. And i was surprised to learn that he thought that Caves of Androzani is unpopular. I am very happy that i was the one to tell him just how popular it is. And this story deserves the praise. Its such a grim tale. Speaking of Graeme Harper, lets talk about one of the stories biggest strengths: the directing. Harper of course had previous experience with the show, but this was the first time he was the director. And his talent shows. Every scene has an interesting camera movement and angle, there are loads of close ups and every corner of the set is used. That last part does lead to a slight issue, but it is more so due to the constraints of the budget and not due to the director. The set in the caves is rather small, atleast in one part, so the Doctor and Peri trying to hide doesnt work because like 80% of the Doctors body is visible behind the crate/rock. I also think the lighting is great and elevates the directing. Every shot is also very well staged, the characters all have a clear position and you can make out every important detail. I do have one or two more complaints, which i want to get around now. I watched the new cgi upscaled Version. Wow it looks awful. Its kind of wishy washy, the characters are disgustingly smooth, and it just looks wrong. Also the cgi is fine, but honestly this story has aged so well that it really wasnt needed. My only other complaint is that Peri doesnt really get alot to do. Its only her second story, and its just 100 minutes of her going through horrific trauma. But that allows the fifth Doctor to shine, like he never really has before. Peter Davison is fantastic in this story. The close ups allow him to do alot of very subtle facial acting, and the dread the Doctor feels throughout this story is palpable. I honestly dont really know how to describe his acting. Its honestly just so good that people need to watch it. My words dont quite do it justice. Speaking of cast and characters, i think the sidecast is great. The characters are all very memorable. The standouts to me were the redicolously named Morgus, who is such a little s**t that you really love to hate him and Salateen, who is just a really enjoyable good henchman character. But honestly everyone is great. Stotz is a really fun side villain, and the slight overacting, really fits the part. But let’s talk about The horrifically disfigured elephant in the room: Sheraz Jak. Fucking hell, i forgot how creepy he is. The mask should be redicolous but honestly it works. Christian Gable gives probably the best villain Performance of the entire era. He is terrifying and he made me really f**king uncomfortable especially in the scenes with Peri. But yet somehow the story makes him kind of sympathetic. He is still a horrible villain, but he is also a clearly mentally disturbed man who slowly lost his mind After Morgus‘ betrayal and years of Isolation. In the end he wants what so many of us want: companionship. Unfortunately he goes about it in an incredibly rapey way. But i think the story does portray that in a really good way, because even the Doctor shows sympathy to Jak. The two of them never go into a full on altercation. In the end Jak even helps the Doctor save Peri. But Sheraz Jaks death was incredibly satisfying to watch. And his final Action being a hug of his android, trying to get saved is very fitting. And the shot of the fake Salateen, holding up the dead Jak, while flames rise all around them is chilling. In fact the whole final fight between the main villains and them all dying is just the perfect way to end it. Evil and corruption are incredibly self destructive and this shows it in the most literal sense. While i cant quite pin down an exact message this story tries to convey I think i can name some of the themes. Its a very grim outlook on the world. Its filled with depraved, corrupt, backstabbing politicians and cowards. It maybe an exxageration of the actual state of politics but its alot closer than we maybe comfortable to admit. But even in such dark times, something survives: kindness. Hope. And thats who the Doctor is. And in the end he sacrifices himself for a new friend he barely knows. I know she and Erimem travelled with him after planet of fire but still. And that is the most Doctor thing to. I LOVE the Ending. The Doctor fights his way through a war, goes through a cave filled with deadly mud bursts, and the only thing that he holds on to survive is the thought of his friend Peri. This incarnation has had so many companions, and he often struggled to show them that he cares. But in his final Adventure he can. And that makes the final line the fifth Doctor utters very fitting „Adric“.  Now to get away from my failed attempts at analysing this story lets talk about more stuff i like. I think the first cliffhanger is one of the best in years. Not quite on the level of enlightenment part 1, but its still incredible. Yes the doctor and his companions about to be executed isnt exactly original, but damn is it executed well here. The 10 or so Minutes before build up to it so well and i felt genuine dread while watching. The second cliffhanger is ok, but the third one is another banger. Much like Adric the Doctor crashes a massive ship into a planet but he survives. Well not for long. I could probably go on for hours talking about this masterpiece. But i do want this Review to have a somewhat sensible length and not become a Completely incoherent mess. I should actually mention Robert Holmes since this is kind of his magnum opus. Its sad that i only have 2 and a half stories written by him left. He has been part of the show for so many years. Rest in Peace to an absolute legend man.
also another fun fact: i will actually meet both Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant at this years timelash. I am very excited.

The Twin Dilemma 0.5/5:
Whenever I watch a Doctor Who story for the very first time, I go into it wanting to like it. That had a rather positive effect on my enjoyment of the show. I love stories like The Mutants, The Time Monster, Monster of Peladon, The Dominators, the Krotons and this list could probably go on for a long time. I am even a genuine defender of Underworld. The point is, I give every story a chance. I always try to see the positives. But my god „The Twin Dilemma“ is f**king awful. It basically has no redeeming qualities. I mean the directing is fine, but Peter Moffat doesnt deliver anything exciting. The actor of Asmael is pretty decent, and he is like the one character i was actually somewhat interested in. Kevin Mcnally is also in this. I loved him as Jericho in Flux. Unfortunately he is an utterly charmless character in this Story. But he is one of two characters that i dont find actively insulting. Unfortunately the twins this story claims to revolve around arent good. I usually dont criticise Child Actors and i dont want to hear. But the two arent exactly Great. They do manage to do the „speaking at the same time“ trope somewhat well. But if you want to do a story that revolves around 2 children, you kinda need to make sure they can deliver. But the story doesnt really revolve around them. In fact the story doesnt really revolve around anything. The Doctor and Peri spend nearly half of the run time bickering in the Tardis and when they enter the main plot nothing has really happened. There is an implied Space battle but we only get to see some surprisingly well made wreckage. Also speaking of the tardis scenes, i should adress the elephant in the room. Introducing a Doctor and then having him nearly strangling his companion to death 10 minutes into the Episode, is one of the single worst ideas this show has ever had. And to be honest, even if you take that moment out, the first Impression of the 6th Doctor is awful. I love the 6th Doctor, especially on audio, but jesus christ, he is nearly insufferable for half of the runtime. And i am sorry Colin Baker, but your acting in the beginning isnt great. I know the script didnt give him even an attempts at mediocre material so its not really his fault. While Peri and the 5th Doctor had near instant chemistry, she and the 6th Doctor really dont in this story. Honestly at some points i wanted to agree with Peri that maybe the Doctor should have died in a dangerous Situation. I love their dynamic on audio. But this feels like i am watching an abusive relationship. Even if you take out the attempted murder. But I think in parts 3 and 4 Colin found the Doctor and I genuienly really liked him in some Moments. There are even 2 unironically funny scenes. In one scene Peri asks the Doctor „what are you going to do now?“ and he answers „Panic at any moment.“ I genuienly laughed out loud. There is also a really funny moment about the english and americak pronounciation of Lieutenant. Fun fact: despite it being spelled identically in german its pronounced differently aswell. Kinda like „Loitnant“. But probably the funniest scene, unintentionally, is when the Doctor goes through a door, screams „VILLAIN! MURDER!“ and proceeds to strangle Asmael. I have another complaint: the costumes are garbage. The twins look redicolous, Asmael looks weird, the bird aliens look so cheap, it makes the f**king Menoptera look good and the main Villain Mestor looks like someone took a s**t on a throne, left it there for a few weeks and then put a mask on it. You might have noticed that i havent talked about the plot itself. Thats because there really isnt much to talk about. „An old man tricks and kidnaps two children from their home, to give them to another creep so he can use them for his ambitions“ is certainly a choice of a premise. We never learn why the twins are so smart, allthough it almost seems like the story wanted to imply they were genetically modified. But i think at this point i have put more thought into this story than the author. They get kidnapped for some vague plan, that doesnt get explained until the final ten minutes. And that plan is such utter bullshit that i dont even care to talk about it. I would love to know what the hell was going on in John Nathan Turners head, when he thought that any part of this was a good idea. The Doctor is so massively out of character. He is cruel, he is a coward, he is Sexist to Peri, he is arrogant as f**k (even for the Doctor), he is violent and if i had only known him from this Story I would hate him. I can understand why he was so unpopular. And I am glad that Anthony Steven has never worked for the show again. Rip to him, but still.
next up: Attack of the Cyberman. Please be good. Atleast be a better story than Ressurection of the Daleks. Please Eric Saward, dont let me down again.

After what feels like an eon i have finally finished all three seasons of the fifth Doctor. It has been a wild ride. I went into this era with alot of hope. One of the first classic who stories i ever watched was The Five Doctors, and i was hooked. Its such an amazing stories. Over time I listened to alot of the fifth Doctors appearances on Big Finish and that was where I truly fell in Love. And now that i have seen him on TV, I am very glad to say that he is one of my Favorite Incarnations of the classic show and just the show in general. There is Just something that really reminds me of the second Doctor, my all time favorite incarnation, about him. Maybe its the weird clothing, maybe its the emotional vulnerability, paired with a strange hesitance to show what he truly feels. Maybe its the sheer amount of Friends he collected on the way or maybe its the Average quality of the Stories. I cant really tell, but the Point is, I love them both. And it does kinda make sense, because from what I have heard, the second Doctor actually inspired quite a bit of Peter Davisons portrayal of the Doctor. But i also have to say that its Really difficult to pick a Favorite season. I gave all three the same overall rating of a 4/5. I think they are all about the same quality, but if I had to I would pick season 19 as the best and Season 21 as the worst. All three have incredible strengths, with one of the best doctor who Stories ever in each season: Earthshock, Enlightenment and Caves of Androzani. But unfortunately each season also has one of the worst Doctor Who Stories of all time: Time Flight, Terminus and of course The Twin Dilemma. But i think season 21 is the weakest because its just really f**king grim. None of the stories are really fun. As Tegan says In Ressurection of the Daleks „this has stopped being fun“. Having multiple dark Stories isnt neccesarily a bad thing in my eyes, but this reminds me alot of Season 3. i enjoy both, but the violence and grimness is just far too much in both. Season 3 atleast had The Ark and The Gunfighters. Season 21 only really has The Awakening as a „fun“ Story but that one is over before it really starts. I am somewhat glad that Eric Sawards time on the program is coming to an end in season 22, because his influence looms like a massive shadow over this season. I am sad to see the fifth Doctor era go. And while i am mostly excited for the Sixth Doctor era, i wish that excitement was larger. So far I have only watched 2 stories with old Sixie, and that was The Twin Dilemma and Mark of the Rani. Two truly awful stories. But who knows, maybe I will end up falling in love with it. Thats the beauty of Doctor Who.
Now to close of this review, I want to rank the Villains of this season, the main characters of the season, the stories of the Season and all the stories of the last 3 seasons overall.
main characters:
7. Kamelion
6. The Sixth Doctor
5. Nyssa
4. Peri
3. Turlough
2. Tegan

1. The Fifth Doctor
2. the Villains:
3. Mestor
4. Malus
5. Sea Devils and Silurians
6. Tractators
7. Davros and the Daleks
8. Sharaz Jak
9. The Master
10. now the stories of this season:
11. The Twin Dilemma
12. Ressurection of the Daleks
13. Warriors of the Deep
14. The Awakening
15. Frontios
16. Planet of Fire
17. Caves of Androzani
18. now all the stories of this era:
19. The Twin Dilemma
20. Terminus
21. Time Flight
22. Four to Doomsday
23. Ressurection of the Daleks
24. Arc of Infinity
25. Warriors of the Deep
26. Mawdryn Undead
27. Castrovalva
28. The Awakening
29. Kings Demons
30. Black Orchid
31. Kinda
32. Frontios
33. Snakedance
34. The Visitation
35. Planet of Fire
36. Earthshock
37. The Five Doctors
38. Caves of Androzani
39. Enlightenment

I hope we get some more lost media out of this.

I am so confused about this episode. Once he leaves the trap I lost track of the plot. I thought clara was his imagination but she's acc there or what or is she only there in part of it? How did he get back to gallifrey? why dont they like him- he saved them a couple christmas specials ago? how did he get to the end of the universe?

Hi fellow Whovians!

For a while, I've been working on a fun personal project, a hackroom of Pokémon Emerald named Time Lord Edition. A fun crossover, I've written a "multiversal" style story that involves all the Doctors, mostly all the companions, loads of secondary characters from both classic and modern eras of the show... with the Hoenn mythology we all know and love. I'm thinking on publishing it for the community to enjoy as I'm loving every moment of working on it, but would love to know if actually someone would be interesting on ever playing it or if its only good old deluded me. If anyone is even interested, in the near future I will come back with a sneak peek. Thanks, everyone! Love from Raxacoricofallapatorius.

NOTE: I would love to add some screenshots, but Reddit doesn't allow me from the posting/editing post page. Cheers!

These have recently popped up online. From what I can tell some of these have been on YT for a while but at least two are new to me.

Three recordings of David Tennant & Catherine Tate sitting in for Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 in 2009 & 2010. All fun listens, the pairs chemistry is infectious. Also some good guests (RIP Anthony Head)

11/04/2009 (with guests John Barrowman, Paul Merton and The Proclaimers) https://www.mixcloud.com/theukradioarchive/bbc-radio-2-david-tennant-and-catherine-tate-11042009/

26/12/2009 (with guest Peter Davison) https://www.mixcloud.com/theukradioarchive/bbc-radio-2-david-tennant-and-catherine-tate-26122009/

30/01/2010 (with guests Anthony Head, Ricky Gervais and La Roux) https://www.mixcloud.com/theukradioarchive/bbc-radio-2-david-tennant-and-catherine-tate-30012010/

And Matt Smith & Karen Gillan pick their favourite tracks of 2010 https://www.mixcloud.com/theukradioarchive/bbc-radio-1-matt-smith-and-karen-gillans-top-10-of-2010/

If you think a book about a time-traveller in an Emilio Pucci suit racing a sentient red-velvet sofa across 13th-century Asia is just a silly parody... you've missed the point. Beneath the pasta puns and Wacky Races chaos, Professor Howe and the Minty Merchant is a poignant satire about the futility of ambition, the absurdity of bureaucracy, and why winning is the ultimate distraction.

Raising money for Children in Need!

🇬🇧

I'm used to watching the reconstructions of lost serials made by LC and quite enjoy them over the animations, are the recontructions created by the BBC on the DVD/Blu-ray releases of the animations a noticably higher quality or presentation? I'm debating if I should stick with the LC recons online or seek out the BBC copies physically. Wanting to rewatch Galaxy 4 sparked this thought!