Is it fair these days to expect a lot from a series/new Doctor/companion/production team debut?

Rose was a story largely about an earthly girl who meets a recognisable alien amid a rather subdued alien invasion. Five years on with all of the above to take into consideration you’d expect to be seeing much the same thing, the requirements being more or less identical. However since then the series has been at pains to outdo itself. Series finales and Christmas specials have come and gone, each besting the previous in spectacle. Story arcs have had emotional undercurrents, and the Doctor’s own personal emotional journey is something now traced in parallel with those of his mortal accomplices. Continuity has been built upon, extrapolated, and of course introduced anew, but left open in ways sometimes frustrating to the regular viewer.  So how, with all of this beforehand, were Moffat, Wenger and Willis to continue the show – potentially a more daunting task than resurrecting it, without upsetting its faithful viewers while attracting more?

The answer appears to be: change little narratively and change much visually and tonally. Much has been made by now of the new theme arrangement (Not sold – still, sorry), logo (er, it’ll do, but it is less important) and casting. The latter is uncannily on the button, with Matt Smith’s first ‘real’ scene as the Doctor delayed to great effect. Of course we saw him at Christmas and yes, he’s there in the TARDIS pre-credits haging on for dear life, but as the story opens who do we meet? Amelia Pond. Not Amy Pond of course – it’s another delayed introduction, as though Moffat’s saying “I know you know who these people will be, or who you think they will be, but have a look at this instead!”) And of course some of it is a trick. Bits of former stories and beats stitched together form the back-story of The Eleventh Hour, particularly Moffat’s own past stories for Who, but as in Rose the story isn’t the thing, rather it’s the meeting of the Doctor and Amy, and Young Amelia is crucial to the character of older Amy, as is the Doctor’s abortive earlier visits. It’s clever of the writer to play on this; for the past five years we’ve become used to finding out little bits about the Doctor – his recent past, his world, feats, mistakes and personality. Here Moffat mines the other aspect of the Doctor-companion dichotomy, and gives us someone whom we initially recognise, then find ourselves asking more questions about as the story unfolds. She’s an interesting one, this Amy Pond, certainly a little ‘unbalanced’ – Could it be that the crack in Amelia’s wall spread to her head?

It’s difficult to review Matt Smith’s performance without echoing so many reviews already available – very physical yes, but in a less-stagey way than his predecessor’s affectations. This new Doctor moves in mysterious ways, but in a natural manner – Matt Smith is either some sort of genius or he’s genuinely like this – all fingers and thumbs, near-constant expressions of surprise and gangly walk. In the body of another actor it could make for a tiring show – so much of this screams how NOT to play the Doctor, but I don’t think Smith is putting anything into his performance that isn’t already there (certainly his Jonathan Ross interview demonstrates much the same body language). Tempering this is a less manic style which takes him away from simple caricature and into something just as believable and natural. I think he’s a truly engaging figure, and can only agree that he is a real ‘find’ for the Doctor – young, physical, charismatic, but comfortably distanced from those same notes hit by David Tennant. His quiet moments with Young Amelia were the highlight for me, so it remains to be seen how he will aproach the other moments necessary for the role – the extremes of righteous anger that past Doctors have sometimes wobbled on (no names…), and similarly his ability to convey genuine authority. Something to look out for in stories to come.

It could be an interesting ride, and perhaps that’s the key-word to Moffat’s new style, ‘interest’. After five years the risk of things going stale was palpable – particularly after what almost amounted to a year-off with heavy saturation for Christmas in Tennant’s last year. You get the feeling that Matt Smith’s debut is ever-so-carefully weighed and measured to ensure enough familiarity is there while opening up new ways to bring the audience in. And it’s carried off so well, and so very effortlessly – a counterpoint to the bombast and spectacle of the RTD era, but skewed enough visually (an eyeball in space! A barking man!) to unseat one’s expectations from time to time. I’m happy to say I laughed a lot during this episode, and warmed instantly to Smith’s interpretation (isn’t he good with kids?). Perhaps in summing up I could say that what needed the sense of change was not so much the series, but this ever-so-humble viewer, and I’m happy enough with that. There are loads of places the show could go from here, and once again I’m hooked along for the ride, waiting to see where.

PA

[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!

Doctor Hoo by pu sama (DeviantArt)

Move over Amy Mebberson…

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… Read the rest of this entry »

Available from www.vworpvworp.co.uk

The role in which Doctor Who Weekly and later Doctor Who Magazine has played in Who fandom is one which cannot be underestimated. In 2009 it celebrated its 30th anniversary, and this year the title becomes the longest-running official magazine based on one television show. Despite having arrived rather late in the game  during the last years of the Tom Baker era it has survived Doctor changes, dwindling television ratings, a publishing collapse of Marvel UK, the two distinct stages of Who fandom’s own Wilderness Years, pre and post 1996 TV Movie, and now stands a true success story, flanked by sister publications for its spoin-off shows and a junior title. More importantly, beyond its longevity and tenacity the magazine can truly be said to have had and continue to have an influence on fandom, and even on the show. Without The Star Beast it is argued there would be no Smith and Jones. Big Finish have produced audio adventures with comic companions and villains alongside their ‘official’ television incarnations, and of course past and present letter writers and contributors to the magazine now feature in the credits of the new series. In short, DWM is one of the pillars of Doctor Who fandom – it’s a big deal, and it’s loved. Vworp Vworp, whose onomatopoeic title was coined in the magazine’s own strip, is a love letter to Doctor Who Magazine, and a better-written one you’d be hard-pressed to find.

It’s beautiful, from its alternative colour perfect-bound covers – one a collage of the magazine’s past and present cartoonists and artists featuring a Doctor apiece, the other a photo mock-up of initial strip The Iron Legion, to its irreverent letter’s page and its faithfully produced transfers stuck on the front (just like in issue one, but with Matt and Karen instead of Tom). Everything down to the retro tyopefaces and page layouts seems meticulously chosen, yet the zine is no mere facsimile. There’s room to gently mock the conventions of the early issues (a particularly bonkers ‘Letter from the Doctor’ included). Coverage-wise it tracks down a lot of the early, big names – Skinn, Bentham, Howe, Pixley, plus creative partners Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons deconstructing the opening episode of The Iron Legion, and later Adrian Salmon, Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty and Alan Barnes’  on final Eighth Doctor strip The Flood and Salmon and Barnes’ early collaboration Cybermen. The latter article’s been interesting for me to revisit that strip, at the time so revolutionary with the artwork and minimal storytelling, yet at risk of being overlooked simply becuae of its unconventional nature – having no Doctor and a plot which veered toward the surreal in places, its chances of appearing in a Panini trade paperback are slim for the mean-time. Thanks be to Vworp Vworp‘s enthusiasm then, for giving Cybermen a worthy platform. The zine’s original comic strips, Time Leech, The Master’s Life on Mars and Daryl Joyce’s Ice warrior/Silurian face-off vary as you might expect between cartoonish and highly skilful. I’m not sure which of the three I prefer, although Joyce’s is certainly the nicest to look at, it’s slight and begs for more instalments. On the other hand I’m unsure whether more episodes are intended, and to that end am reassured that Time Leech lives on through the creators’ Kasterborous site – serialised fiction of any kind is too often the abandoned child of a short-lived zine.

Not that Vworp Vworp promises to be a one-off, as the brilliant news is that its creators have a second issue in production, including a feature interview with Steve Parkhouse and look-in on The Tides of Time. With issue one being so very full of DWM‘s names, faces and stories you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s little left to cover in another issue, but in this case I’m left with no doubt that editors Colin Brocklehurst and Brian Terranova will surprise and delight us yet again.

Very highly recommended.

PA

Reviewers of Logopolis and Season Eighteen in general have often fallen back on that word used in The DisContinuity Guide to describe the same story – funereal. That a whole season could be seen to encompass the theme of entropy and inevitable decay is taken as a truism these days, and to hang with the question of whether it awarded (or in the language of the Tenth Doctor “rewarded”) its protagonist a hero’s death. The End of Time and by some small extension the Tenth Doctor’s final year draws some neat comparisons with this, and yet with The End of Time being not only the end for Tennant but also Davies, Collinson and Gardner, the sense of this story being a metatextual finale has loaded the two-parter with weighty significance. There the similarities falter, because with the handing over of the TARDIS keys to Smith, Moffat, Wenger and Willis the anticipation of a new series and new everything has been greater than John Nathan-Turner merely changing his lead and script editor (an oversimplification, sorry, but you get my meaning). Investment in the last hours of Tennant’s tenure was amped up to incredible levels, with the staggered ‘gap year’ and numerous cameos, TV idents and animated specials further loading the significance onto arguably the most hotly anticipated regeneration to date.

Reading the updated edition ofThe Writer’s Tale it’s very much apparent how much was up in the air leading up to the 2009 specials. While the Sarah Jane Adventures were cruising along in assured hands the proposed third series of Torchwood very nearly collapsed, and having farmed out the specials to other writers and built the finale around virtually one single scene it appears that RTD’s well was dry. A desperate situation to be in with the aforementioned investment building. Perhaps that’s why so much of Part One is spent gathering together the various strands – the return of the Master, the Doctor returning to Earth, the growing threat that will pull both together to face… what? We don’t really know until Part Two. I was immensely frustrated with this first half, I certainly had a lot riding on Tennant’s last story, to my surprise. For five years the tricks and sleights that RTD was able to pull off (mostly) writing in the ‘now’, leaving plotholes open and only filling in the background with the lightest of touches – worked, because for the most part the end wasn’t in sight. We didn’t think we needed to know that much about the Time War, as tantalising as it seemed, or whether the Master was really dead at the end of Last of the Time Lords, or what the Doctor meant about being truly alone or whether Rose would return (…) Having an end to all that and, as predicted by many, no clear indication that Steven Moffat intends to continue those stories forces the whole Davies Era into sharp focus. New Who is now composed of story arcs, for better or worse, and the greatest investment of fans in The End of Time was surely that of all season closers this would be the one that wrapped the story up as neatly as necessary and possible. Did it happen? Well, Mostly. But it took over an hour of building up new storylines to do this, seeding the conclusion with supporting characters – some practical (the Vinvocci), some indulgent (the Silver Cloak – a lovely idea but narratively pointless), some little more than grease for the wheels (the Naismiths). And that’s without mentioning the Woman in White who will likely remain a figure of fan debate for ever more. Thank God then for Bernard Cribbens’ Wilf, the kernel of the story.

Between an insane Master, a remote and self-absorbed Doctor and a ruthless Lord President this old soldier is the glue of the story, a stoic core orbited by men who will not accept their time has passed. Having Wilf as de facto companion is simply the cleverest and most sensible thing Russell T Davies did for The End of Time because of the states he put the aforementioned Time Lords. Queen Bess and Ood Sphere prologue Doctor notwithstanding this is a story with the Doctor in a torpor comparable to his Fourth incarnation’s last day. The end is nigh, and Death – seen palpably as the Tenth Doctor’s death rather than a renewal this time, has his scent. He is out of ideas. Where he shines are the moments with Wilf, where the action must be slowed (in the café in Part One, aboard the Vinvocci ship in Part Two) and Murray Gold is dispatched for a coffee before the booming and bombast return. With all companions previous spoken for it is fitting that Wilf is the ear to the Doctor, two old men comforting each other, bolstering one another (“I would be proud to have you as my dad”) and if ever it needed saying, speaking much the same language.

I love Wilf, I love his undying affection for the Doctor, his natural reaction to the TARDIS (“I thought it’d be cleaner”), and the way he makes me cry, so it was a perfect moment that his part in the Doctor’s demise (I only saw it coming when he entered the booth) was treated with the same quiet gravity that their earlier dialogue had shared. Beautiful. The rest of the story? Disposable, which is a shame. The Time Lords return for long enough to be a fly in the ointment due to a technical loophole that simply didn’t need to be so complicated. Likewise, Donna’s appearance was a mis-step, a cheat of a cliffhanger (couldn’t she just have gone snorkeling again?) and like Lucy Saxon, window dressing in an already packed story. Which leaves John Simm’s Master, as barking as Crufts and as hyperactive (and annoying) as in The Sound of Drums, yet granted with a heroic send-off and character arc resolution (“All My Life!!”) that I hadn’t seen coming and found highly rewarding for a character I’ve never warmed to. With his phantom skull recalling The Deadly Assassin in his final(?) moments, I’d be immensely satisfied if this was the last we saw of him.

And so to the regeneration and coda, both of which have been subjected to intense scrutiny. “I don’t want to go” is a loaded phrase, impossible to detach from its creator and performer – I can’t hear it as anything else than self-indulgence, but for me the Tenth Doctor had for twelve months been a man after his time. At least I’ll say this – it wasn’t from my chair that the repeated cries of “just get it over with!” were coming. The Tenth Doctor’s protracted regeneration and revisiting past acquaintances could have been trimmed too – for the most part these are stories that had already been resolved elsewhere (Mickey and Martha, and particularly Sarah Jane who has now been farewelled three times by this Doctor) or remain problematic (Jack). Donna’s farewell is fittingly really Wilf’s, disingenuous to say yet another quiet scene for the reaction it provoked in me, but there it is. By far the most important, and the most restrained is that of Rose Tyler – God bless Russell T Davies’ self-control in scripting this scene, for leaving one conclusion untouched (better late than never), and deservedly revisiting happier times and places. In times to come I believe I could just begin watching The End of Time at the beginning of Part Two and have done with the over-stuffed lead-up, not so much a ‘reward’ as voiced by the Doctor for services rendered, but as a single installment almost perfect.

And then… renewal, the destruction of the coral TARDIS console (I never warmed to it, especially the tatty foam rubber), and the arrival of Matt Smith as scripted by Moffat. The verdict on the new man? Too early to tell at the time, more on this later, but even at the time the sense of change and newness, despite a distressed suit and flaming interior, was there. Onward and upward.

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

This old blog of mine is wearing thin, and so with days to spare and a heavy conscience, here are a few things that slipped through the cracks this year and didn’t make publication as promised. First up, a couple of bon mots from Foo Discovers. Chief among Foo’s puddings is his shot of a tube ad for Mark Wallinger’s celebrated mirror TARDIS, formally titled ‘Time and relative dimensions in space’ , late of the Venice Biennale, 2001.

Good god 2001 is a long time ago! Here’s a pic from the Independent showing the work in ‘action’. Phew.

Secondly, and more intimately, a flavour of home, abroad. Foo was ever a great attendee of the Wellington ‘Chapter’ (ho ho) pub meet at J.J.Murphy’s, and was a welcome presence in the snug. And so, as a gift to us all back home, he provided us a ppicture of what surroundings we could one day aspire to be seated in:

…Although something tells me membership may be a little select.

Foo also proved himself a right terrier with his search for the Truth about The Doctor. Although it seems he struck a bit of a blind alley with that famous family casping aspergers his way. Still, it was a stressful time and who knows what things grief will drive people to?

 Ooh! And how could I forget his discovery of Vwoorped’s twisted version of DWM‘s Deathworld? Well, clearly I did forget. Criminal of me, because it’s fantastic!

Page One, Page Two, Page Three, Page Four, Page Five, Page Six, Page Seven and Page Eight

And on that high note, a big thanks from me to you Foo for providing the updates, the whimsy and the inside skinny on life in the UK!

We’re at the end! How boxing clever of us, and we’ve days to go now to the last half of Tennant’s and Rusty’s home run, the end of The End of Time.

Last question then, and for inspiration let us look to the original Doctor, the Governor, Mr William Hartnell, who created the character from so very little and gave his successors such a fantastic canvas on which to work.

Question 12: After 46 years and especially the last five years the Doctor has changed greatly, becoming younger, more active, and more vulnerable. He increasingly wears his heart on his sleeve, and has a long personal history. In a way, it could be said that the fans of the last two Doctors could claim to know him in a more intimate way than any other incarnation. So with that in mind… Has the Doctor lost his mystery, and if so, can he ever get it back in the years to come?

Who is Doctor Who now?