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 does an "accent" which is, thankfully, mild. But would it really have been so difficult to have found actors of even vaguely the right ethnicity to play the various Tibetan…
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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 30 years of Dr Who. There isn't much information about it online - other than this press cutting - but there is another photo from the same series: …
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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 have flocked to it. Instead, we got this lushly decorated set: The console pulsed away during the interval. Swirling lights played around the TARDIS when the *Vworp Vworp* SFX played. And the DALEK told…
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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 WikiData. I was bored and asked ChatGPT. The new Omni model claims to be faster and more accurate. But, in my experience, it's wrong more than it is right and is a bit more racist. I asked "Which Oscar winners have appeared in episodes of Doctor Who?" Here are the results: OK, first up, those are…
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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 off in a new direction. Let's take a look at the handsets used in these stories. The Church on Ruby Road First up, bit of a cheeky inclusion, the police officer is packing a TETRA handset - the…
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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 pity Attack without fear Live without conscience Eliminate without worry Kill, kill, kill, kill! I ain't even lying! WTAF? A few years ago, I picked up a copy of this - The DALEK World. A 1965…
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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 we could, theoretically, call him and ask what it was like meeting The Doctor. So, how many times has The Doctor met a historical figure who is alive in the viewers' time? Not many, by…
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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 or going back to your old life? The joy of Doctor Who is that we - the viewers - are the constant companion. We might be able to take a little break now and again - but the Doctor is always waiting to take…
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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 his first proper dramas for the telly. Albeit Children's BBC - but we've all go to start somewhere, right? While watching the fabulous "Imagine" documentary on RTD, I learned about "Dark Season".…
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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 set decoration and story elements directly influence the modern series. And - most importantly of all - it contains a mobile phone! I'm not talking about the Walkie-Talkies which are…
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Let's do the time warp 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 2023 shows were an absolute blast. Some classic stories and a whole lot of running around. But were there any phones? Oh yes! The Star Beast First up, we get a gaggle of extras filming and taking selfies with the spaceship hurtling towards Cardiff London. All a bit blurry, but there are some iPhones in the mix. Shaun…
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As I've discussed previously, I'm helping a collector who has acquired loads of mobile phones used in Doctor Who. Today's edition - The Poisoned Sky. As the Sontarans choke the Earth, the Doctor and UNIT battle to keep both Martha and Donna alive. A large plot point is Evil Clone Martha stealing a UNIT PDA and using it to HACK THE MAINFRAME. At various times she prevents missiles being launched: And disrupts UNIT's abilities to defeat the Sontaran menace: That original PDA is now…
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