Everybody’s gonna love today. It’s true! I heard it just now on the wireless. And it’s spring – can’t you tell?

Anyway, enough about the wireless, here’s your actual August in retrospect:

Everybody’s gonna roll those Rs (Enough! Ed)

RADAGHAST!
Last Return we remooted the possibility that the Seventh Doctor might finally get some big screen treatment in the shape of the future Hobbit movies, possibly to play the older Bilbo. Well now the rumour’s back, but it seems the Bilbo bit’s not in it, and that Sylv himself is intimating he might be in line for a more wizardly role, that of Radagast the Brown, mentioned only by name in the book, and replaced by a moth in the LotR movies. Charming! Anyway, it sounds like a good fit as Wizards go – Radders isn’t described in great detail in The Fellowship of the Ring, so a height difference or stray accent wouldn’t rock the boat surely. Let the campaign for Tom Baker for Beorn begin here!

RENT!
Series six split in two? A game-changing cliffhanger to see us at seat’s edge betwixt Easter and November? No Daleks? 2011 gets more intruguing by the day!

READ-OUT!
NZ fanzines. Are there any about? It’s a weird and contrary business, their absence coming as it does whilst the phenomenon seems to be enjoying something of a boutique revival overseas (as noted by Paul on his blog). There’s possibly space for an Editorial column on this, or a Media Circus one, but the shorter version you’ll read from Zeus Blog is well, perhaps at last paper press has finally had its day here in NZ, regardess of well-meaning attempts to resurrect either TSV (resting between editors) or RTP (er…) As much as we love hard media there’s more life currently online than in print, and perhaps it’s time for NZ fandom to migrate there, whether in the form of a PDF-zine – or none at all.

Good news, somebody… please!

REGION 4!
Oh so excellent news for next year’s 15th anniversary of the TV Movie – the McGanniversary we’re calling it around ZeusBlog Terraces. Thanks to skillful negotiations the TV Movie is to be released as a solo package here (oh, and in some other non Region 2 areas too, apparently) – no need to buy Revisitations if you don’t want to again! 2Entertain can do no wrong!

REVENGE!
Also available early next year, twin cyber dilemmas Revenge/Nemesis released with nice extras but no CG or extended editions. We knew this for ages and clearly the money’s not there but not everyone’s happy, as no less than FOUR derailed message threads on OutpostGally indicate. 2Entertain can do no right!

At least there’s that very cool doco on pirate videos to watch. Speaking of which…

RUINED!
BBC Books and BF writer Johnny Morris has a go at watching regionally televised Trial of a Time Lord from back in the day via his old VHS tapes. Hilarious!
(researching for a Colin/Bonnie BF script? Let’s start the rumour here!)

REANIMATED?
Ian Levine. Telesnaps. Restoration = shudders. 2Entertain can do no right! And yet Dan Hall mentions a ‘ReAnimations’ project? Intriguing… but we bet we’ll not see anything happening on this for a long long time yet. If at all. There’s probably a ‘Revisionista!’ column in this, surely?

REGENERATION!
In the mean-time let’s return to Sylv and whet our appetites for the forthcoming Time and the Rani DVD by watching this skillful fan bash at one of the series’ least succesful fudges…

AFTER THE SILENCE FALLS…
Fandom implodes. So let’s see what they’re all talking about over the webs…

FIRST RETURN:

Quality stuff from ’84. Only wish I knew where on the Internet I found it… (sorry)

MOFF ON TWITTER – WHAT A GOOD IDEA! OR IS IT? TWEET TWEET…
Yeeah. After proclaiming that he doesn’t browse the forums any more does it make much sense for an already busy man ( i.e. Steven ‘Two Shows” Moffat) to allow his followers, detractors and petitioners 24-7 access to his In box, 120 letters a time?

And why does he look so much like his son, eh? Eh? Cloning or self-interview by time travel?

WELCOME FLOYD!
Did anyone notice a new NZDWFCMBTSVUB40/apple  contributor to hit our shores recently? Who? Well, the clue’s here: Mr Floyd Kermode, infamous Antipodean serial corresponder with the Judge Dredd megazine and its current editor (not that) Matt Smith. A lovely chap, active on the (late, lamented) 2000ADReview board and overdue a decent welcome in our back yard. Welcome, cobber!

THE DALEK ROCKS!
Proof that there’s life beyond the Dalek teasmaid in the land of miniature kit bashers? Well, how’s this for an improvement on the new design Dalek?

THE BALLAD OF SYL-BO BAGGINS
So is it true or is it false? Is it rue or false? The rumour/speculation/flim-flam that the next ‘hasn’t aged in a day’ Bilbo Baggins will be played by none other than the Seventh Doctor has resurfaced amid tales of Peter Jackson ‘scouting’ for actors whilst abroad (and entertaining Brad Pitt in Wellington at the same time?)  It’s a nice thought – particularly so to think that a couple of years back some form of loose dress rehearsal could have been played whilst McCoy and Sir Ian McKellan were visiting Jackson while here for Lear (Sir Ian even stayed in Bag End!), but is it true? Time will tell. It’s a little disconcerting though to see evidence to the affirmative trotted out by Tolkein fans based on that twenty-two year old publicity shot from Ghost Light…

AND FINALLY…
Madness!

Hello! And isn’t it all getting exciting! Enthusiasm races around Zeus Blog Terraces like a bad case of wind as we hurtle through the netherdays of last month to bring you the usual flim-flam and pith. To whit:

WE’RE LOVING
Big Finish’s continued exploration of past possibilities. As Colin Baker’s Lost Stories wind to a close and the Hartnell/Toughton collection draws near, further casting for the Seventh Doctor ‘Lost Season’ is underway. And who’s this for Brig? Why, Battlefield‘s Angela ‘Bam-Bam-Bambera’ Bruce. Marvellous! This is a great nod to McCoy’s television tenure and adds a welcome latter days/New Adventures kick to Andrew Cartmel’s story-set in a way that having Nick Courtney or looking around for a newer Brig replacement simply couldn’t have achieved. Plus it’s audio, and it’s sad to note that if Bambera were to turn up on the telly now many new DW fans would likely only see her as a cheap Magambo substitute. Shame.

HOT POTATO HOT POTATO!
Elsewhere in Big Finish rumourland there’s the persisting vibe of Big Tom putting in an appearance in 2011, which is rather lovely, particularly as we’ve still got another Magrs-tastic multi-part BBC Audio for the Fourth Doctor to come later this year and to tide us over. Oh, and the latest Vortex magazine hints at BF doing a Sontaran story at long last. Seriously, how long has this taken? They’d better have Chris Ryan on speed-dial!

HOW COULD WE HAVE MISSED THIS?
Michael Moorcock doing a DW novel? MICHAEL MOORCOCK

MANY (HOPEFULLY) HAPPIER RETURNS
And it’s another hooray to the latest comeback boyo in Torchwood. Yes! Just when things were looking bleak post-CofE Stateside for the franchise, it seems that the team (well, Jack and Gwen) will be back in business, sans van, sans Hub, sans pterodactyl and coffee maker of course. Avec Amerkins though, possibly. Rusty maintains it’ll still be very ‘Welsh’. Sounds intriguing!

WE’RE NOT LIKING
Talk of magazine rumblings. Torchwood Magazine folding – well, we weren’t buying it, so we can’t complain too loudly, plus there’s still a comic to come in its stead. But more dark mutterings on the subject of comics with the last tenth Doctor DWM reprint collection The Crimson Hand apparently cancelled, with possibly no further titles after that. Now that’s worrying.

QUICK, BETTER MAGAZINE NEWS, NOW!
Okay, it might be better news for previously-ailing Doctor Who Adventures who, if the Lead Adventure Forum are to be believed, are tapping into that tricky middle-aged-men-with-a-hobby market and their ‘free’ gift of models of the new humpitty Daleks on the cover of issue 170. Oh, if only they could be found here! Apparently the new Dalek design is so outlandish the usually rather rum cover giveaway toys are not only a pretty good likeness (fanta orange plastic and all), but they’re also now to scale with the 28mm models popping up all over!

ECCLES’ JOHN AND NAOKO’S YOKO
The frankly titled Lennon Naked, starring the above and confirmed for the 23rd on the Beeb and likely screengrab-oriented websites mere hours later. Just sayin’.

…BUT I KNOW WHAT I LIKE
And if it’s pretty pictures you’re in the mood for after that, then head straight over to Guanolad’s Domain, where another of TSV‘s former acolytes has sourced some great visual nods in the recent Vincent and the Doctor. Nice work, G!

[Just imagine we're a little closer to April and a little farther away from June... ahh, better!]

HE WON’T BE HAPPY UNTIL HE GETS IT!
With the Second Coming of the Norton having materialised last month we know, deep down in our hearts, that a third manifestation must not take place. Rather, like the prophetic envelopes given to Pope Pius by the child witnesses of Our Lady of Fatima in 1912 (I’ve overstretched this simile, haven’t I?), the final revelation is a horror that needs be resealed, lest the world itself end upon the unveiling alone. Or something. Or maybe not? Look, he’s done it twice now and since then has expressed a devout wish to be in the programme – has it occurred to anyone that the best way to head these horrors off right now and for all time is just to throw caution and reason to the elements and give the man what he wants?

WHO WON THE WAR ANYWAY?
Miniature modellers really are quite ingenious people, even for their size (ha haaa!). No, really. With Victory of the Daleks having dashed the collectibles market for old school styled Daleks, or at least while the tin-pot terrors have been reinvented, you’d think there’d be not a lot of use for the old, slightly more affordable and sadly out-of-production Micro-Universe Daleks. But no! Because the chaps over on Lead Adventure Forum  have come up with a terrific and fitting conversion on the aforementioned plastic figures. Months before Character Options probably eventually think of it too, I’d say. Droool!

CGIDW
Speaking of games, isn’t it great that we’ve finally got The Adventure Game, a spin-off in-series and interactive computer game featuring a current Doctor and companion and even the Daleks? They really didn’t need to go all out and make it ‘canon’ – we fans are supposed to be the ones anxious about that stuff and besides, the last time the Beeb tried to call something ‘canon’ it had the name Dimensions in Time, but the design is great and the dedication and fidelity to a weaponless Doctor is admirable. How long before other Time Lords get thrown into the mix, we wonder?

IAN LEVINE VERSUS COMMON SENSE
Have you been over to the Galleybase ‘Frontios’ forum for present and future DVD releases? Scary. Oh yes, we’ve got a new Cyberman box-set coming out with Revenge and Silver Nemesis in but wait! It’s not the old VHS Special Edition Nemesis and doesn’t have the hokey US doco on it! The Restoration Team’s eventual (and pained) explanation tying in the issues of rights, budgets and (fittingly) the memory cheating over the actual quality of the cuts in the old VHS SE sound pretty reasonable by day. But not to a certain elder statesfan and apologists who’d also like all of Mind of Evil coloured now now NOW too please. It’s ugly. Forum threads opening, being closed again, then invading other threads like some young fan asking about animations. Action being threatened… it’s enough to make you take to your TV set with a hammer, surely?

MIND YOU
We’re still a bit peeved the TVMovie update isn’t all that either, what with those extra scenes and alternative opening being overlooked. Where’s that hammer?
AND FINALLY…
And also on the subject of revivals, reinventions, restorations and reimaginings, here’s the latest recolourisation from the really rather talented Babelcolour. It’s The Invasion as never filmed – in colour!

Yes, we’ve been persuaded to Return! And as the caption says it’s a vast one, a full three months’ worth. Of course we won’t be covering it all in minutiae because not a lot happened really – thanks to the new Production team’s rather better secret-keeping skills perhaps. And of course because nothing happened. Except for a few things…

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY
There’s a new series on the telly you know! Even in our fair isles. Well done Prime for getting it screened so quickly again – you’re on a roll (love the channel promos too, by the way)! So local fandom is also reinventing itself, addressing the changes, meeting to talk about the new series, that sort of thing. Oh hang on, is it? What about the fanzines? Nothing yet…?

Never to mind, because in all but name we know that local zines have changed too – courtesy of local reportage again they’ve gone tabloid! Who needs TSV and RTP when you can have ace reporter Al ‘Scoop’ Hughes (covering Cribbens, McGann and Killan in six short weeks) turning Fairfax media into NZ’s newest, most-widely distributed local DW fanzine? Go Al!

STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS
Elsewhere off the printed page (a dot matrix printer in this case, apparently) Big Finish continued their releases of the ‘Lost Stories’ of the Colin Baker era. In January this meant Christopher Hamiltron Bidmead’s The Hollows of Time, once thought to be aka Pinacotheca, but now apparently not. And it’s a tricksy beast due to its mysterious villain ‘Professor Stream’, whose name was likely once a wheeze of an anagram but due to edicts from Cardiff remains an enigma deep fried in mystery and the true identity of the malignant mister a lingering question which hangs in the air long after the story’s closure like a visit from a chain smoker. Just who was that mysterious man? We DON’T CARE! We’re still wondering why you bothered to put Tractators (including a Gravis) in your story and not utilise them effectively either! And as for the trick of a seasoned actress voicing a twelve year old boy… or is it another sleight of hand, a clever trick? Or IS it? Or is it? Oh we give up. We’re still asking what you did to the story, pal (and what we did to deserve it!)

DAVE IS NOT YOUR LAWYER EITHER
Barely six months on from The End of Time and the Tennanth Doctor’s next US-based opportunity has been quietly rested. Not good news for the man of last year’s hour when conventional wisdom would be for him to sell sell sell while his stock is high. There’s his much-lauded turn in the Danish play of course, but let’s be honest: after seeing him everywhere last December it’s unnerving to have young MacDonald absent from our screens for so long. We wish him all the very best for opportunities ahead, we really do.

RUPERT THE BURIER
Also Stateside is the recently newish venture to launch Torchwood for an Amurkin audience. A bit odd for a programem based around an institute set up by Queen Vic, especially from an entertainment industry committed to the mental image of England as being bowler-hatted frights sipping tea through bad teeth, but hey ho. It was all set for Murdoch-owned Fox, so at least with an Australian owning the network you could imagine some understanding of the complexities of Her Majesty’s service, maybe. Hmm… Fox handing Who property. What does that remind me of…?

Never mind. We see it’s been recently ‘rested’ as a project after “disturbing” rumours of attempts to iron-out sexy flexy Captain Jack and some of the fans haven’t been keen about that (memo: calling yourself “Woodies” in a US context might not help your bargaining position). For the moment, file under US Projects (pending) in the T section, after “Tennant”…

DON’T GO – TAKE ME WITH YOUUUU!
Now, we’d not be so uncharitable to suggest that the Tenth Doctor himself is yesterday’s man, but it is 2010 now and time’s winged chariot has marched. Oh but some have found it hard. Very hard indeed. It’s cheering to hear the younger generation (he was born after Hartnell’s debut, you see. Unlike … er, not very many of us at all) and for this Tennant’sDoctor(heart) the parting has been such sweet sorrow. Can he find it in his (heart) to forgive Matt Smith? We’ll see. In the mean-time, oh the anger, the regret, the ridiculously large embedded image in local PC caches now everywhere…

Might be time to make a few changes to that sig file, don’t you think buddy?

SAME JOB, DIFFERENT OFFICE
Still, some Who-related spinoff success from LA it seems, as Rusty has written for the Sarah Jane Adventures. An episode featuring the new Doctor saying hello to her again after having just said goodbye a couple of times in his last body (Too Soon!) So that’s worked out well, hasn’t it? And it’s got Jo Grant in as well, which is nice. Although at the current rate of the SJAs acquiring Who nostalgia we fear it won’t be long before that long-clamoured for McGann return gets shunted there as well.

SPEAKING OF MCGANN…
Wasn’t it nice of Neville to give Paul a great local welcome down in Christchurch? That’s our boy!

I DON’T CARE IF THERE IS AN ELECTION ON!
And so to the new series and the first return of old nasties (must we? Oh alright then). And if it’s a visual spoiler and if it’s Daleks then you can count on the Radio Times again to provde the necessary illustration for the story in question’s gasp-inducing sequence of images – to this end, teletubby Daleks. Talk about being spoiled in six different colours. Wouldn’t the mock-up ‘ironsides’ propaganda poster have been more fun and more collectable? Ah, but it just had the one version, didn’t it? That’s not going to make the fanboys buy six different covers now, is it?

Spoilers for Ep 8 & 9 follow… (more…)

Well here we are then. The last summing up of an arbitrary period of days and weeks within what might loosely be described as a month in a year in arrears.

So let’s kick off in traditional style then: how was your Christmas?

PORTENTS OF DOOM PORTENTS OF DOOM PORTENTS OF DOOM OOEEEOOOOOO…WEEE-OOOO…
It may have come to your attention over the past week that the last special Christmas story of the Russell T Ennant era began. Part two is tonight/tomorrow/once enough ‘seeds’ go up on Bit Torrent or whatever the young people do on their iPods these days, but in case you did miss it (and I did, hence the stalling), here are a couple of other Xmas-related Doctor Who things of the past month you may have also missed:  

1. The BBC Christmas ident. Possibly the greatest moment of Time Lord Victorious. Witness the bending of time to a single man’s will as several reindeer tow the TARDIS across the sky and make a corporate logo.

2. Death in Blackpool. Yes, you heard me – Death. In. Blackpool. This is how Big Finish resolves the Lucie Miller as companion story arc and wishes its susbcribers (“Subscribers Get More… with Big Finish” – ‘more’ being followed by ‘depressed’, one assumes) a happy festive season. At least it’s summer here.

3. Hive of Horror. This is more like it! The anti-Big Finish if you will as Mad Tom, Mike Yates (ret’d) and novelty curmudgeonette Mrs Wibbsey round out Paul Magrs’  Hornets Nest story with a cracking Christmas feast in darkest Sussex. Okay, so you may wish to hear the previous installments of the story first – yes, even if very little happens in them all the while. But at least you won’t be able to say you’ve heard the likes of it before (muttermutterPlagueoftheDaleksmuttermutter).

2009 - A MIXED BAG
But looking back on a lean year Who-wise there was still a fair bit to please the average punters. An improving DWM (the December issue is a wee cracker, making up for the moment for the inevitable price hike), no outrageous story leaks from der press to spoil Christmas, some new stories for Old Tom Baker and some old stories for Old Colin Baker. Of course those were a bit of a mixed blessing, offering new sounds and familiar ones, but you could understand some slavering de-vo-tees being a little nonplussed with the results. Tom returning as a finer amalgam of the fictional Doc and the fictional Tom (the Little Britain/Tui beer ads one), Colin in stories from the 80s that sound and plod like… stories from the 80s. A lesson there in being careful what you wish for. Nostalgia’s a fickle beast, but on the whole we’re better for having these stories around than not, right?

DEAR LORD – ABORT! ABORT!

Benjamin Cook lines up another back page triumph

Speaking of the latter Baker years, silly us – we thought 2007 had the best curmudgeonly DWM back pages interview of them all with the triumphant party poop of a distinctly un-Joyboyish Clive Swift’s putdown, but NO! 2009 saw a pretender to the throne when from out of the bushes came Nabil Shaban with some terrific moments in locomotive catastrophe.  Utterly bonkers, and a little bit scary (he’s been banned from YouTube!) Confessions of “loony leftism”, pot-shots at Bush and Blair, the Beeb (they’re all in on it you see) and to crown it off “And they’ve never invited me back!”. Move over Swifty, there’s a new show in town!

BUT WHAT WILL WE TELL THE CHILDREN?
Yeah it is a worry, what with there not having been much on the telly of the new series and precious little of the old, whether we’re doing enough to educate the ‘new’ fans of the show that it didn’t begin in 2005 and that the series’ long and noble history isn’t anything to do with the granddaughter of Wilfred Mott. Thankfully there are a few tools of the trade out on the tubes to help us in that quest. First, and a cracking read it is, an article in The Independent by Matthew Sweet. THE Matthew Sweet, you ask? Writer of the rather splendid Magic Mousetrap for Big Finish? I like to think so. It’s not just the existence of the new series that Sweet covers, but the phenomenon of new fandom claiming the show as their own, arguably in ignorance of what groundwork was actually laid down in the last years of the old show, plus of course the not inconsiderable contribution that the show has provided the BBC in terms of viewers and ratings. For all the nudging and asides over the last five years it’s something to ponder; in the not too distant future wise heads will note that just as a long break gave Doctor Who a new energy, direction and audience, so too did the Time Lord save Auntie.

ON THE OTHER HAND
If your charges over the break are lacking in attention spans and in need of a good belt of past to present series education as part of good parenting/guardianship, then look no further than Babelcolour’s Guide to the series. Stupendous! And with Farmergeddon having produced pretty much fanny allen on YouTube in recent years (but look out for his handywork inthe extas for  The Twin Dilemma), we may have an heir apparent.

AND FINALLY…

This is it. The final end. I’ve redecorated, and it feels different this time – where there’s life the moment has been prepared for. And with that, this is the last posting for Zeus Blog. Four pretty good years – that’s longer than most New Zealand fanzines managed apart from a few venerable notables, and longer than the original Zeus Plug four times over. It’s been fun, but it’s been work too, at times, and there’s so much more I’d like to do outside of this blog and I can’t wait to get started.

A huge thanks to those who stuck with the blog, encouraged me and it, and posted regularly, especially to Foo, Dave, Jono and Jamas, who provided content as well as backup, and to Alden for the space to host this rather idiosyncratic corner of the Web, and the know-how to stop it falling over, or prey to the spam wolves.

That just leaves me to say “A Happy New Year to all of you at home and on holiday!” Enjoy 2010 and all ports beyond. Enjoy fandom, and share it wherever you are.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, somewhere the tea’s getting cold…

Peter A

 A new Fast Return – already? What? Whaat? WHAAAT? Heh, that never gets old, does it?

Anyway, so November has come – what did we learn last month?

PRIME TIMING
A bouquet to Prime TV from Zeus Blog for screening Waters of Mars so soon after its UK airdate. Whether it’s a programmer realising the importance of timeliness to a fan base, or perhaps someone seeing the hazards of giving impatient would-be viewers too much downloading time, it’s a welcome move. More of this for 2010, please! 

YEAH, BUT IS IT SF?
I don’t know the answer to that question (if I knew I would tell you). But that Lawrence Miles gets EVERYWHERE! Here he is, or mention of him at least in the movies blog on Stuff. And an opportunity for a fellow fan/Retrospace to help a sister out too, maybe. 

DID THE CHILDREN REALLY NEED THIS?
Enough wth the cheering though. Who’s for some complaining?! I thought so.

That trailer. Yeah, that one.  High definition leis and ray bans all in the name of chariddy. Is the Doctor mad, bad, or just his loveable whimsical self? The jury’s out, but as it’s a genuine excerpt from The End of Time and not a specially-made knees-up like Time Crash we can assume that all that fluff and the bit with the car lock sound is part of the Rusty Masterplan. Huh. Interesting…

“I SHAGGED HER ROTTEN, BABY!”
Yeaahhh. Not sure how to take this rather prurient bon mot from the Children in Need trailer. At face value? Well, it seals a storyline up that wasn’t screaming out to be (cf the Face of Boe and Captain Jack) and some might say it cheapens the Doctor to create a past sexual liaison with Elizabeth I for the sake of a one-liner. But you know, he could just be mad, or bad, or something. Maybe I’m wrong and DW‘s core audience man and boy, girl and woman are out there still punching the air and saying “Yesss! Get in there my son!”

Couple of points though:

1. Character milestones like this really need longer build-ups to ‘sell’. The Chase isn’t yet out on DVD, so plenty of time for the Restoration Team’s CG boffins to insert some stirring ‘neath the Hartnell trouser during the Space-Time Visualiser scene, perhaps. Continuity is so important!

2. Perhaps the gag works best because the Doctor is over 900 years old obviously so young and virile. So we’re probably supposed to picture him in union (if we must) with, say, the likes of Miranda Richardson’s Elizabeth or Cate Banchett’s version of the Virgin Queen. And not, say, the versions portrayed by Judi Dench, or Glenda Jackson. Or Quentin Crisp. As fine as they all were.

Me, I just pity the poor parents who have to explain the joke to the kids.

JUST IN TIME FOR XMAS: A BELL-END.
But of course it’s also time for another novelty alien head, after the Moxx of Balhoun (a ringpiece on a blue bollock), the dreaded Dalek Sec (a one-eyed willy-go-round on a pair of gonads) why not do the same for the already squeamish-looking Ood? So step forward our new super Ood for the end of the year finale, with a bonce that looks for all the world like a… well. Moving on, who’s the special guest star voicing this specimen then? Brian who? Oh dear…

AND FINALLY…
Doctor Who turned 46 last month – hooray! Now there were a lot of tribute videos made to mark the occasion and you might want to cross over to some blogs such as Morgue’s or Jamas’ to see some, but here’s our pick. It’s not a tribute per se, but a nice linking between the old and the new, the first and the most recent. Set TARDIS desktop pattern to Old School…

Play safe everyone!

I have a confession to make! Actually I don’t, but I’m hoping that with some swift footwork of the likes we’ve not seen since… oh the caketin last night (woohoo!) all expectation of a Waters of Mars review published here before the patented Pattersonmatic gets kicked into gear on the NZDWFC Board will be forgotten. Speaking of Waters of Mars, isn’t it weird that it should debut on the same weekend we have NASA confirmation of water on the Moon? Spooky. And so, on that note here are some random observations of the past few days…

1. NOOOOOO!!!!

Foo sent this, suggesting it’s more the work of the Master, but the “radical internet postings” thing seems to make a terrible sense…

2. NO BIKINI AT ALL? (Atoll, geddit?)

Far be it for me to speculate on fanboy (and I largely do mean ‘boy’ in this sense) reaction to the delay/rescheduling of the so-called Anti-smac Kamelion Box Set from 2 Restoration’s forthcoming release schedule, but I bet there are a few disappointed pause button fingers out there what with Planet of Fire being an essential element of that set. Talk about your anticapointment – it’s enough to spawn a whole tide of radical internet postings, surely?

3. POST-MORTEM

Braaaaainss!!!!

It’s old stuff again, but hey – aren’t those Whitcoulls ‘classic including McGann’ Doctor Who postcards great – you know, the ones that come with the price-reduced DVDs? So who’s your favourite zombie Time Lord out of them?

4. SPEAKING OF ZOMBIES…

…and old gags, is everybody else absolutely fizzing to see Whatevers on Mars? The promotion on this has been great, with lots of cool and spooky images, but not too many spoilers. Even the guest cast announcements have been low key, what with Lindsay Duncan and River Cottage‘s Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in it.

5. DOCTOR WHO IN A VAGUELY COMPREHENSIBLE ADVENTURE IN JAPAN WITH THE WRONG MASTER AND SOME EIGHTIES CYBERMEN.

Al asked for this, others have posted it, and it’s old stuff again, but if you’re not tired of Doctor Who anime yet, you could do worse (I’ve not checked, but I imagine you really could) than check out Otaking77′s channel on YouTube. Animes, he’s dun three of them now, each topping the last, and each with some great Pertwee/Courtney/Ainley and weird manga cat-girl action in ‘em.

Here’s Part One, here’s Part Two, and here’s Part Three.

Snarking aside though, this is top work and must have taken weeks if not months to do. Could still do with less cat-girl though.

6. JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE LOST DOESN’T MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING

Hooray! More lost stories found and recreated by Big Finish! And it’s in two flavours this time – Eighties with Syl and Soph through the original Season 27 (should put paid to some of the more outrageous creations of that old DWM article a surprisingly large portion of fandom took at face value) and Sixties with the disjecta membra of the Hartnell and Troughton years featuring re-tellings of Prison in Space, the Heady Orange Scent of Something and lost-stories-darling-of-the-day Farewell Great Mastodon. That last one is a bit of a worry what with the script, an audio and Paul’s ‘what if it were made’ article you’d think some dark and colluding fanglomerate might be doing a certain semi-regular RTP! column out of a job…

7. WHAT IF IT WASN’T AN OWL?

And finally, Dave sent me this link to some disturbing news featuring a recent incident with Torchwood radio play star the CERN Large Hand-drawn Glider* A baguette? An owl? A handbag? (whoops, wrong play). It has to be a set-up, or at the very least a cry for help from the future. I bet the pterodactyl did it.

(*at least that’s what my wife thought I said it was called. Bless ‘er)

And that’s it for the moment. I have the odd feeling I left the bath tap running, and I’m sure that’s not a good thing at all!

Happy halloween everybody (you do know we should be observing this in April, don’t you?) What an October we’ve had – like none other. For those seeking spoiler images they’re out there and not hard to find. We could cover them here, but we won’t instead, here’s a quick round-up of the infernal webs for the past month:

Here Come the Waterworks:
How the Tenth Doctor might kark it (apologies for the lack of credit – finding this has been a nightmare)

Speaking of Water…
We have a date for “contacting friends in the UK for off-air video copies of Waters of Mars” – the 15th of November. Shame it couldn’t be tonight being Halloween (see above), but it’s not a big shame, especially when it sounds like the story itself might be a right cracker.  Advance word from Off The Telly’s Graham Kibble-White says it’s good: ‘One of the best Doctor Who stories yet. Easily the most challenging.’ (minor spoilers for the spoiler-wary)

Speaking of Reviews
You know, this probably isn’t the place to be going on about print news media and their issues and dramas.  But Planet Clifton is a strange and interesting place, isn’t it? By which I mean the place where Dom Post/Stuff TV reviewer Jane Clifton presumably lives. She dun’t like Dr Who and says it’s going bad! Now she thinks David Tennant is the best yet! of course reviewers don’t have to have fixed opinions on anything, and if fandom wants to hang onto every word whether chill or ill then that’s fandom’s business. But what are we to make of the times when Planet Clifton’s influence extends to other spheres, such as the Business pages and columnist Nick Smith (not that one, the other one) starts going on about The Bees? If that’s not the weirdest intro to an otherwise innocuous agricutural article then I don’t know what is.

Speaking of Bees
Still on bees, or hornets at least, Go Tom! Hornet’s Nest: The Stuff of Nightmares and its two follow-ups have now been released and so far the story’s a good ‘un! A little unorthodox in its telling, but it’s Tom don’t you know, so if anyone can get away with ‘unorthodox’, it’s him. Oh, and if you simply can’t wait for the edited highlights, it’s been added to the recently-revived Disc-Continuity Guide.

Speaking of Classic Revivals
October was also Stocktoberfest, with the comic strip Doctor’s favourite overexposed English Village of Stockbridge being a teeny tiny feature of the new RTP! Cheap news, I suppose, but honestly, the issue was a wee pearl and it’s a shame local fandom doesn’t support it more. Oh, and Big Finish went there and all with part one of their Stockbridge trilogy being released this month too. Bit of a parson’s egg, apparently.

And finally…

Speaking of the Classics
It’s last calls for a YouTube inclusion and we could add a few, but we’re saving them for another time. Instead, here’s a little ditty that I know Al will just love.

And that’s October! Easy peasy. Happy weekend everyone, see you again soon!

‘BIT OF A THIN THCRIPT THITH WEEK…’
Yes, it’s true. Nothing grand happened in the last month – or very little. Fandom’s as quiet as the editing desk of… well, you know. Truly the Slough of Despond sloshes at our doorstep. We lost Koquillion, people! And Garron.  We’ll not see the likes of these Jethryk-swiping, alien-drag antagonists in these days of L’NDA and Allons-y, and that is a Sad Thing.

‘Happy’ me someone, please… ooh! This is more like it:

SIXTH DOCTOR DEBUT OFFICIALLY BEST STORY – DWM POLL
Well at least something grand happened, and it’s this – The Caves of Androzani, the story that introduced a feverish and panting fan community to Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor has this month been adjudged Best Story Evar(tm) in the pages of Doctor Who Monthly. With rumours of a revisit by the Restoration Team to make an even more super version we can all be very happy that this highly significant and deservedly-celebrated story is prepped for a new generation of fans. Especially as…

THE TWIN DILEMMA BECOMES LAST SIXTH DOCTOR STORY TO MAKE IT TO DVD
Blimey. Who saw that coming?

NORTHERN BIRD GOES WEST
Awww and we were just getting to know her again! Sad news from Briggs Finish Productions in the shapely form of Sheridan Smith, aka Lancashire’s Lucie Miller, audio companion of the Eighth Doctor since 2007 (what do you mean you didn’t follow them? For shame!!) departing the TARDIS in the forthcoming story Death in Blackpool (eek!). In our humble opinion simply The Best Thing to have happened to the Eighth Doctor since he went all audio, Lucie was brazen, shouty, a little bit fick and best of all wasn’t remotely interested in the Doctor romantically. Did we mention she was a temp? Indeed, we’ve not seen the likes of that sort of character in the new TV series at all, no sir. And now she’s leaving us. Boo.

On the bright side, Sheridan is rumoured to be in the next series of Who On The Telly, so that’s good. But not as Lucie. Bah!

CREDITS WHERE THEY’RE DUE

It’s true, every word of it’s true – very little happened over September, mere weeks from The Waters of Mars breaking over us. Rumours abound, if you’re into that sort of thing, and hopefully it won’t spoil anyone’s day to hear that one rumour involves a new title sequence/logo, potentially spelling the end of that logo some cruelly dubbed ‘the flying turd’. We all have a dream title sequence in our heads of course (some actually feature our heads – go on, admit it – you know who you are). How about something styled after the classics? Like, say…

MacGyver!

Love Boat!

Dallas!

Or, if you’re not up for that sort of thing, why not just enjoy all of the 60s and 70s themes at once? And if life’s still not exciting enough, there’s always the 80s, 90s and 00s together - awesome!

Right, I’m off to bed. Happy October-rest one and all!
(and thanks to Alex and Dave for the MacGyver link that kicked things off)