DVD Review: Doctor Who and The Planet of The Spiders


DVD cover for Planet of the Spiders.

I had never seen Pertwee's final story. So I was overjoyed when an anonymous reader got it for me from my wishlist. It is an utterly bonkers story which nearly makes sense. Let's address the elephant in the room first. The "yellow face" isn't acceptable now and shouldn't have been acceptable back then. Kevin Lindsay […]

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The Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - The Four Doctors (1993)


Photo of Pertwee, Colin Baker, McCoy, and Davison standing outside the TARDIS. They all have 1990s mobile phones.

The Mirror has a rather wonderful image gallery of behind the scenes photos from Doctor Who. Lots of lovely black-and-white photos of classic stories. And then, right at the end, this: Cor! Four classic Doctors each with a mobile! This photoshoot was, apparently, done at the Hammersmith Ark which was holding an exhibition to celebrate […]

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Theatre Review: Big Finish *LIVE!* Doctor Who - The Stuff of Legend


Promo poster for The Stuff of Legend.

Big Finish have been pumping out Doctor Who audio dramas for quarter of a century. But this, apparently, is the first time they've recorded one live and in front of an audience. It was glorious! Big Finish could have cheaped out - even with a bare set and a cast of newbies, the fans would […]

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Yet another AI Racism example


Sophie Okonedo wearing a red cloak and brandishing two laser pistols.

Here's a good pub-quiz trivia question - which Oscar-winning Actors have appeared in Doctor Who? It's the sort of thing that you can either wrack your brains for, or construct a SPARQL Query for WikiData0. I was bored and asked ChatGPT. The new Omni model claims to be faster and more accurate. But, in my […]

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Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Season 14


Ruby holding a phone.

Guess who's back, back again! If you're new to the blog series, this is where I attempt to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions. The 2024 series is incredible. Lots of plot, not too much exposition, and a whole bunch of mystery. I love it when Doctor Who goes […]

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The DALEK World (1965)


Garish cartoon cover of an annual. A Dalek is exterminating something.

You're a big Doctor Who fan, right? If I asked you what the world DALEK meant, you'd probably tell me that it is an anagram of KALED - the original name of their species. You'd be wrong. In 1965, it was clearly established by a canonical source, that the world DALEK stands for: Destroy without […]

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When does Doctor Who meet historical figures who are alive today?


Video call showing Patrick Moore.

In a recent episode of Doctor Who, we see a lovely sequence where The Doctor has a nice chat with Paul McCartney of The Beatles. Great larks! The Doctor often meets real people - Dickens, Shakespeare, Rosa Parks. But, crucially, all those people are dead by the time the episode airs. Macca is unusual because […]

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Why do Doctor Who companions leave?


Mel leaving in Doctor Who.

If you got the chance to travel in time and space, with an immortal alien, and got to rescue the universe again and again - would you ever give up that life? Would you be content to go from unravelling the mysteries of the universe and fighting DALEKs to, I don't know, marrying a stranger […]

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Dark Season - Russell T Davies' new show starring Kate Winslet


DVD cover featuring various baddies and Kate Winslet.

A dark and shadowy figure is using laptops to terrorise a school and convert its pupils into mindless automata. Only one person can stop this dastardly scheme - Kate Winslet! Who, for some reason, plays a 15 year old. Because she is 15. Because this is 1991 and Russell T Davies has written one of […]

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The Mobile Phones of Doctor Who: Paradise Towers


A man in a silver uniform stands next to a wall-mounted phone.

I'm loving the fact that BBC iPlayer has all the classic Who stories available to stream. I've been dipping in and out of the ones I don't have in my DVD collection. Paradise Towers is a brilliant story. It is well directed (which makes a nice change) and the story actually makes sense (mostly). The […]

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