It goes ping when there's... stuff

Great episode. Particularly identified with the bits where the Doctor stuggles to explain things he obviously understands, to other people. That's so me.

Best line "The windows are too big". An in joke at the fact the Tardis prop isn't an exact replica of an old London Police Box!

Who to believe?

Yesterday the Sun carried a story about the fact David Tennant, Russel T Davies, and other key members of the Doctor Who production team are moving on after the 2008 series. Only the spin was that they would all walk out at the same time and this was a plot to axe the show.

Today the Guardian have their own unnamed source, said that RTD was always going to move on after a while, and that the work schedule is too gruelling. Their source recons the BBC will not let Doctor Who disappear now it's so popular and will look for replacements for the key players.

Speculation among online Doctor Who fandom reckon that the Sun's source is none other than their own wild and fevered speculation on Doctor Who fan boards. The Sun has got it right, but fans put this down to the infinite number of monkeys using typewriters theory.

Time for a chat

This weekend like Paul Walter we watched Friday night with Jonathan Ross and Parkinson.


Jonathan Ross was anarchic. I find the programme, and his Radio 2 show, entertaining,

It started off well with one of my favourite comedians Eddie Izzard, who was fab as usual and apparently in Ocean's 13. Then it was Janice Dickinson, who was just OTT, and slightly crude, which set the tone for the rest of the evening.


John Barrowman and Andrew Lloyd-Webber were next and interviewing Janice seemed to take JR to a new level of smut. I do find Jonathan's near the knuckle comments a bit much when he's interviewing John Barrowman, but simultaneously I think Barrowman is an entertaining person to listen to. Unlike Lloyd-Webber, whose innuendo about Sarah Brightamn was just... gross...

So the next day it's Parkinson. I've heard many people criticise Michael Parkinson for being sycophantic towards his guests, and that they find the programme difficult viewing. Personally I think there's room for both the Ross and Parkinson style. Chat shows are entertainment, not investigative journalism or gladiatorial combat, and Michael Parkinson is still one of the best. He wasn't afraid to confront Piers Morgan on his Sunday Supplement radio show the other week.

Anyway the first guest was George Michael who came across as quite sensible and agreeable. When he was interviewed on his own that was. While he can be a bit of an idiot with regards his personal life, I have to agree with him that having paperazzi camped on peoples doorsteps is a bit much. "George Michael charged by police" is news. "George Michael opens front door of own house" frankly isn't. While I accept Piers Morgan's point that a big sector of the public are interested in celebrity coverage and gossip masquerading as news, I don't see how harassing people in their own homes adds anything to the coverage.

I do disagree with him on one thing, I don't think being gay has anything to do with the treatment he has received, because I don't think reigning in his flamboyant lifestyle would be being untrue to his sexuality.

Stephen Fry was the second guest, and we were looking forward to listening to him, but unfortunately some things he said set George Michael off, and he would not shut up. I appreciate that the press has given him a hard time, but we really wanted to hear what Stephen had to say.

On Sunday it was the Television Baftas. I think Brenda Blethyn should give a masterclass in how to present awards because some of the people were dreadful. Joan Rivers was also good- she either knows her UK celebrities or had prepared well for her 30 seconds of speach time. The worst was an award won by Jonathan Ross, where Kelly Osborne and Kris Marshall droned and mumbled their lines like a couple of schoolchildren. John Simm looked sour when he missed out on the best actor BAFTA to Jim Broadbent, but perhaps the Life on Mars team had had their hopes built up too much by the media. Maybe not, as they won the award voted for by the general public.

Eurovision

We listened to the end of the Eurovision song contest on Radio 2 on Saturday night, having spent the afternoon in Manchester. Ken Bruce easily matched Terry Wogan's commentary, but I found the songs all blurred into each other.

It was depressing to see Scooch get so few points, and even more depressing to read the vitriol of those in the media. While I don't believe Flying the Flag deserved to win, compared to the rest of the field it was fun, melodic, and contrary to Justin Hawkins moans, it was an actual song.

Mike Reed, former radio 1 disk jockey, comments that the song was weak with appalling choreography. Yes it wasn't the pop equivalent of Stoppard, but did any of the detractors listen to the stuff it was up against?

I think though the fact the Ukraine and Turkish entry scored so highly in the UK illustrates our predicament with Scooch. We selected Scooch because of their silly campness, and how that fits in with our opinion of the contest. And perhaps rightly so. We voted for the Ukraine, whose song was awful (yes I agree Will) because of the extremeness of the drag act. And we voted for Turkey because of the British belly dancers.

You can't eliminate the voting for your neighbours aspect, without getting into a silly level of blind voting that will spoil the whole thing, or looking like a petulantly sore loser. We all have our prejudices and that will affect how we perceive the quality of the entrants. There is also the argument that cultures blend across borders and that neighbouring countries will have similar tastes in pop music. Indeed if a country put up an act with an existing high profile, they will be instantly popular with the voters just across the border.

At least Serbia won and not that silly act from the Ukraine. Even if that means someone lost money.

The return

People may be interested to know that both Robin Hood and Torchwood have been renewed for another year. Cynics may say that this is because it's cheaper to spread the set-up costs over two "seasons" but I know plenty of fans for each programme!

Torchwood has even made the leap from being a programme targetted at the BBC Three market, to a BBC2 show. Whether this will mean any changes to the tone we will have to wait and see.

Television

Not Torchwood, but another programme from the top 5 things on TV at the moment (and yes that is more a comment about everything else out there).

Robin Hood appears to have had a bad reception in many quarters, however Sarah and I love it and try and watch it together. It's obviously taking advantage of Russel T Davies' reinvention of the family genre with the laddish swaggering Robin, and strong female supporting heros. Sarah especially likes the way Jack is much brighter than the male outlaws.

It is amusing how of the times it is, we have political intrigue and correctness, but far from dragging it down the political correctness actually makes Robin Hood more entertaining. Especially as you can imagine nutters from Tonbridge Wells foaming at the mouth.

“The most dangerous thing about Torchwood is Torchwood”

Well it’s two episodes in and what do I think?

I’ve enjoyed Torchwood inside, but am not sure whether this is me being a fan of Doctor Who, Russell T Davies or this sort of thing, or whether it is genuinely any good. What does strike me is how silly many of the criticisms are.

Torchwood is a different programme to Doctor Who. It is unashamedly niche, post watershed sci-fi. Where pre-watershed the swearwords would be edited out and replaced with “Flippin Hell” and the like, it doesn’t happen with torchwood. Many have said the swearing was shoe horned in, but I would say I barely noticed it.

There has been a fuss from parents who have “suddenly” learned (despite it being made clear way back that this would be niche and post watershed), that it’s unsuitable for their children, and grumbling that they’re having to tell their who mad offspring that they’re not allowed to watch it. These are the sort of parents who want others to say “no” so they don’t have to.
The BBC aren't telling parents what to do either, they're clearly letting them know what it is and letting them decide, however this didn't stop some loon at the Express going on about how the BBC was encouraging parents to let kids watch sex and violence. [1]
Torchwood in this respect is the show for the people who’ve grown up with Who and then complain the new programmes aim too much at the kiddies. It’s not more Doctor Who to fill the gap between seasons.

Likewise there has been a great fuss over the fact that Torchwood employees are not angelic cartoon heroes, but actually a bit dodgy. Torchwood blatantly don’t care about the world beyond their narrow clean up and cannibalise role, they’re not even as goody too shoed as The Doctor. Sato is quite uncaring and amoral, valuing the challenge above anything, and Owen, according to some interpretations, nearly commits date rape in episode 1 and is shown to have a violent streak in episode 3. Ianto seems to be a human sonic screwdriver, there to deliver witty lines, but also to explain why they’re not spending two thirds of every episode doing boring stuff. Jack is a driven man, the Doctor and Rose’s good influence is wearing thin, and the obvious façade is cracking. He doesn’t care that his team are dishonest, so long as they obey the ground rules and the job gets done.

So yes they’re dodgy characters, but thing is so what, this is post watershed, they don’t have to be role models for the kids. The rules don't apply and if they did there is no rule that says the central characters of Sci Fi must be whiter than white. It is signposted that this is a dangerous crowd Gwen is getting involved with, so these actions are not condoning or endorsing any form of immoral behaviour. The question is: Is she going to be their moral compass or become as corrupt as they are?

The Jury is out over Torchwood in my house, however if I do criticise it, it will be over what it is, not how it fails to be what it’s not supposed to be.

[1] Thanks to nutterwatch

Doctor Who News

With 27 double sized Doctor Who episodes under her belt Billie is the longest serving Doctor Who companion since Janet Fielding, who played Tegan the Australian air hostess in the early 80s.

She's also beaten by Liz Sladen as Sarah Jane and narrowly by Katy Manning as Jo Grant.

Rose's week off

Anyone notice that Billie had a week off during the filming of Saturday's episode of Doctor Who. The role of companion being played by Tommy Connolly. Great feel, loved all those valve and Bakerlite gadgets, and Maureen Lipman was fab as the wire.

Some nitpickers have pointed out that the simulated 50s TVs obviously have 00s tubes in, and that you could see UPVC windows in some shots, but I will also point out that at standard definition you're not supposed to sit closer than 6 screen diagonals to the TV set.

TV

Last night I caught snatches of two TV programmes. I Love Being… Mad on BBC3, and Help me to Talk on Channel 4.

Both were quite difficult programmes for me to watch, and I'll admit I didn't stick with either. And although both dealt with different issues, there was a common theme, how people can be prejudiced against people who don't behave in a "normal" way.

The most upsetting line for me was on the stuttering programme. A mother of a severe stutterer discussed her son's desire to do performing arts at college. He'd been advised that it was a bad idea, which made him all the more determined. His mother, and this is the bit that made me switch off, said she had told him he would make a good labourer. The very idea that someone who doesn't quite communicate like others do being bared from any profession that involved any degree of thought was outrageous to me.

Thankfully the fears of the people in the BBC Programme are unfounded as the government's draconian mental health bill appears to have died a death. However it does seem that the bill simply pandered to popular prejudice against those who don't interact quite as expected, and even with the failure of the bill, the prejudice is still there.

The Countdown has begun

Good news, shame about the coverage!

Doctor Who is back on 15th April.

Travel

I'm so excited!

I have booked flights for not one, but two excursions abroad this year. In April Sarah and I off to Sardinia for 5 nights. Over the last couple of days, the hotel bookings were finalised. It's going to be great.

I've also booked a flight to Olso in July, and will be staying a night there before meandering down to SAGGA Summer Camp by train. I have 2 weeks off, so I'm not sure where I will be going on to at the end of camp. I need to start negotiating with people travelling by car ferry as to how my tent will get home.

I did get raised eyebrows when I revealed I would be flying RyanAir both times.

Life is sweet, I'm very happy at the moment.

2 Weeks to go

I need to organize how I am going to move to Steeton from here, there is a van hire company locally who charge the same basic rates as the one we used to use in Leeds, and the cheapest over in Manchester. So if anyone's available on 3rd December or anytime in the week following please let me know and I will be gratefull. I will probably be only moving small items on the 3rd.
The precice day of moving the big stuff is dependant on when the electrician can do his bit, if I have time to let him fix the consumer unit and kitchen before I move in fully, I'll do that, otherwise it'll probably be the Monday.

I have been doing further maintainace on my PC, the Firefox plugins were causing me some problems, but I fixed it by changing some registry values.
Suffice it to say its been a real learning experience in how Windows XP/2000 works, which on top of the virus that AVG and Spybot combined couldn't fix... I am looking for a free development environment which will allow me to write programmes for windows. (OK non-technical types can now continue reading).

Other maintenance done includes having fixed the curtain rails, one of the brackets had broken and several runners were missing. I ended up putting all the runners I bought back on as someone in the past has used the wrong ones, which was what was causing the curtains to snag.

Friday was children in need and we got a filler scene from the Doctor Who team. I enjoyed it and was assured by my sister Anna that non-fans also thought it entertaining. If you missed it, go to the BBC Doctor Who website and click on the link. Oh and give some money to Children In Need while you are there. It's a good job they weren't soley relying on the standard of the entertainment to raise the cash, which typically consisted of actors you don't know for their singing doing a musical number and later on west end shows doing a few songs to plug their existence, I mean entertain the masses.

Last week's news round-up

So last week. The BBC unveiled the new face of the cybermen. And Billie Piper is rumoured to have handed in her notice on Doctor Who.

On and the Prime minister lost a vote.

Forgive me for being dismissive of the 40-odd Labour MPs who caused their leader a headache by standing up for democracy rather than their party, but life will go on. I mean if we're really making a song and dance about MPs standing up for the intersts of the people of this country we're in deep trouble. My new (Labour) MP voted alongside my current (Conservative) MP, and the ones I helped get elected in Leeds and Manchester. Perhaps some people will learn that there must be more people running the country than one man at the top.

What did go almost unnoticed was a few weeks ago when Claire Short drew to our attention just how much power is in the hands. A few years ago the King ruled by Royal prerogative. Now we have a parliamentary democracy, and the powers have merely been transferred to those in government. Claire Shorts private members bill attempted to put just one of those powers under proper scruitiny, the power to ignore parliament and take the country to war. The bill was defeated by lack of time of course, but brought these powers to the fore. The main problem is that with an uncodified constitution, we have no record of the extent the powers the Government has under the Roayl Prerogative, or who is qualified to wield them.

Over a lovely evening meal, one Sunday evening in Blackpool, some nice people tried to convince me of the importance of this issue, and as "homework" we were asked to write to our MPs. Well I can't help but hope this is one issue our elected representatives have a chance to return to.

Last Doctor Who post for a while

Note, in case someone stumbles on this who hasn't seen the episode, there is spoiler protection. Highlight the blank spaces to read the text.

I really enjoyed "The Parting of the Ways" last night. Thousands of Daleks swooping through space, death, destruction, heroism, love, comradeship. It was all there. I am assured (by Outpost Gallifrey) that Captain Jack will be back on board the TARDIS next year, just not in "The Christmas Invasion".
And David's Tennant's first lines (the title of the previous post) were fantastic too.

Favourite moments

• Chris addressing the Daleks behind him on how many languages he can speak before turning round and yelling at them, making them wheel back half a metre.
• Chris again in the TARDIS, resting his head against the doors with his eyes closed.
• Billie's ethereal yet scared acting at the denoument
• Chris's "I'm dying, yet breaking it gently to Rose" performance.
  

Only dissapointment was that Mickey didn't stow away with Rose, but i'm sure it made more dramatic sense for him to suddenly decide he wanted in, only to be cruelly denied by Bad Wolf. Oh and yes Bad Wolf turned out to be an amalgum of Rose and the TARDIS, so in any sweepstake I would pay out on both. The Bad Wolf Message was a message from Rose to herself to encourage her to become Bad Wolf.

Some people have expressed incomprehension at elements of the episode, but having seen it again I feel that some fans have a seriously restricted imagination. Either that or the lack the ability to pay a-sodding-tention.

One element that has gone virtually unremarked were the kisses. OK more spolier protection, highlight the text to read it. When he's leaving the Doctor and Rose to lead the space station staff to their deaths, Captain Jack kisses both Rose and the Doctor on the lips. Later in the episode the Doctor kisses Rose, ostensibly to suck out the vortex energy that's killing her, but from the scene there is a little more emotion than that. Given the furore certain aspects of the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie caused, it's remarkable as to how far we have come as a society that only a tiny minority of fans on a message board have said anything about it. OK, according to MediaWatchWatch one of their spokespeople was provoked into a tizzy by the Star, but there's nothing on their own site so perhaps they're trying to pretend he didn't say anything.

If you're after a decent review try my mate Eddie on Shiny Shelf. Or if you want a place to express your views on "The Parting of the Ways" they have a poll for you. Do check it out, it's ace. Nick also has a review.

Spoiler Space

If there's one thing hard core Doctor Who fans get all jittery about, it's spoilers.

While a sizable minority are in secret locked messageboards trading any advanced titbits about how tomorrow nights episode will pan out, the rest are paranoid about having the episode "spoilt" for them.

This concept has really grown up on the internet, where fans of several nations meet together to discuss their favourite shows, which is fine when its been over for years and everyone's seen it, but not so for a currently running show, which may have been shown in, say the USA before the UK. So it was invented the concept of the "spoiler"- information that may spoil your enjoyment of a TV programme, and the spoiler space with which to protect the unwary

Fans have somehow managed to turn spoliers- in both the seeking and avoidance of- into a religion. I'm told it's a good job that I've not read any newspapers this week as many have contained inconveniently placed spoilers.

Tomorrow nights episode has already been spoilt in some sense, by the press getting hold over casting information for series 2. So we can guess at what might happen, if not predict the entire plot.

I suppose its the price you pay for liking somthing popular.

Doctor Who - Series Three!

Like BBC1 showing a new trailer for Saturday's Doctor Who every day, I seem to be doing the same blogwise.

Woke up this morning to recieve an email with the news that the BBC have announced that a third series of Doctor Who has been commissioned, alnog with a second Christmas special and a second series of Doctor Who Confidential to run alongside the second series of Doctor Who.

Read more here. Or the article on BBC News. I did smile when I saw that Doctor Who appears to have brought the concept of "spoiler space" to a mainstream news organisation like the BBC!

Well, for those of you that aren't Doctor Who fans, or at least "like Doctor Who, just not that much" it will be off the air after Saturday until Christmas. So I'll be back to talking about Scouting, politics, and the general egg and chips- yay!

Bad Wolf Warning

And so the rollercoaster of a ride that's been Doctor Who 2005 reaches its conclusion. On Saturday we found out what the whole "Bad Wolf" mystery was about.

Well we did and we didn't. We found out that the Bad Wolf Corporation was the media in 2002nd century Earth, when the Doctor, Rose and Jack are drawn into three of the corporation's deadly game shows. But the corporation is a front for something darker, hiding out on the edge of the universe. It turns out that the terrific trio were kidnapped by the controller of the station herself, in a last desperate attempt to defy her masters and save humanity from the plight it is blind to.

Why am I bothering summarizing this? Odds are you've either seen the episode yourself, or that you're not in any way interested. Anyway Bad Wolf was the first of two parts, so I'm probably best waiting until the weekend to say how brilliant it was. If you want a review now, read Nick, but I warn you he's a tad enthusiastic.

In my opinion we're just coming to the end of 13 weeks of excellent Saturday night TV. It certainly seems to have captured the imagination of most of my friends, and has spread its tendrils halfway across the internet. Ditching the technobabble and padding for adventure, wild concepts and silly names. Say after me, "The Mighty Jagrafess", "Blaidd Drwg", "Raxacoricofallapatorius." Brings something back to me, although I'm not sure what.

People who know me know I'm a Doctor Who fan. My name, Biscit, first appeared in a Doctor Who novel way before I started using it on the internet myself. But my interest has waned over recent months, I don't buy the books any more (save of course those written by my friends), have stopped purchasing DWM, and like my Doctor Who friends had become jaundiced towards the group of people mysanthropically referred to as the "Big Finish Mafia".

But then out of the blue, in late 2003, it was announced that it was coming back. Not only that, but the show would be shaped by TV god, Russell T Davies. Perked my interest, but only slightly. But then my friends started to get excited, and I couldn't work out why, having almost forgotten why we were friends.

As it got closer and closer to 26th March, and the anticipation grew. I told myself, I can take it or leave it, I'm too old to care too much. If I didn't like it, Doctor Who would be there for a new generation, and I could revisit the classic series whenever I could be bothered. I didn't expect, aged 32, to get this excited about a TV programme. I certainly didn't expect it to become must see TV.

So now 12 weeks in of some of the best TV in ages reaches its climax on Saturday. It's been fantastic. I'm going to have horrible withdrawal symptoms.

Update 14/06/2005: According to the Times the identity of "Bad Wolf" is yet to be revealed! See also today's post.

The Blaidd Drwg of Raxacoricofallapatorius

Just seen this weeks Doctor Who, more of a character piece than an adventure, but still very good. One niggle though: if The Doctor, Rose and Jack can understand Alien languages through the use of the TARDIS' telepathic abilities, why can't Rose understand Welsh?

Now the cat is out of the bag, The Doctor has drawn the viewers attention to the Bad Wolf References. Will we find out what it all means before this series ends? Well next week's episode is called "Bad Wolf".

Russell T Davies, in TV & Satellite Week, has this to say on the whole "Bad Wolf" thing and this weekend's reveal:

I didn’t think people would notice, but I should have known that science fiction fans would spot it blindfolded from 300 miles! All will be revealed next week. A lot of people think it’s a super-villain, though I can’t imagine why he would graffiti his name all over the place! It’s a bit subtler than that. It’s a lovely pay-off. But there’s no big panto villain.

(As spotted by Scott).

Protecting the splendid chaps of the world from the scum of the universe since 1968

Some of my readership watch Doctor Who might in interested in the fact that you can actually access UNIT's website on the Internet. UNIT are a United Nations section dedicated to protecting the world from alien incursion. They mostly appeared in early 70s Doctor Who episodes, and were last seen being electrocuted by the Slitheen on Saturday night last April.
Oh and I hacked the site- the password to the secret secure section is "badwolf". Unless you're the doctor, then it's "buffalo". I is l33t.

It's not the only website dedicated to aspects of new Doctor Who. Clive's site featured in the first episode whoisdoctorwho is still up and running, and is apparently being run by Rose's boyfriend Mickey. Henry Van Stratten's Geocomtex site is still running, but then his Dalek doesn't run amok until 2012. Oh and for those of you who've been noticing all the references to Bad Wolf, there's a site that tells you, well not much more than you already know if you've been observant.

Someone at BBCi has been having a lot of fun it seems.

Apologies

I didn't make the following post last Saturday:

For those who haven't been paying attention, Doctor Who is on at 18:30 tonight, not 19:00, so don't tune in late and miss it.

I've lost count of the number of people who've asked me what happens.

'The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe' I call him Max

Doctor Who was good again this week. I think it was subverting expectations to have Adam survive the episode, but also good to see a companion not make the grade.

And yes I did only make this post so I could put "The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe" in my blog.

Dalek!

Nothing much to say about this episode, except it was excellent.

According to Doctor Who confidential there were about 5 people operating the Dalek at one point. That's far more care than they ever got in the original series.

World War III

was great.

The Doctor Who episode broadcast tonight called World War III that is.

There were some particularly naughty political allegories in both episodes that had me giggling like a loon. For example the cliffhanger to Aliens of London had the Depty Prime Minister misusing ID cards to deadly effect. And this episode had some rather more obvious parallels to British premiers warning of threats from non-existant weapons of mass destruction.

So the moral of the tale is vote Lib Dem. As well you should.

"Gentlemen..." part II

David Tennant has been confirmed as the new Doctor in Doctor Who. He'll be in the Christmas special and the next series, as will Billie Piper.

As anticipated by Nick

"Gentlemen. If you could do what I can do, then you would do it too. But you can't."

BBC4. As someone says it's a channel which always has somthing on that's worth watching. Unfortunately that doens't mean it always has somthing on that I feel like watching.

Last night was an exception, however. I turned on the TV, and flicked through the channels until I chanced on a documentary by and about the McLibel two's struggle in the courts against McDonalds. While I don't agree 100% with their cause, they came across very well, and seemed quite admirable in their stand for free speech.

And then just as I was about to switch over, on came Marcus Brigstocke's Late Edition, an enjoyable mix of talk show and satire.

Then just as I was about to switch off, on came a repeat of "Russell T. Davies: Unscripted", which I'd missed on Monday due to making my tea, and thinking it was longer than it was. Russell, for those who don't know, is the writer of the moment. He cut his teath on Childrens TV, working on "Why don't you" before moving on to create "The Dark Season" and "Century Falls". Via a string of acclaimed dramas for ITV and Channel 4, his latest projects are as key writer and executive producer on the new series of Doctor Who, and also as writer of the BBC3 miniseries Cassanova. Both of which I enjoyed. As I did the documentary. Russell comes across as an immensley likable chap, and is a talented writer, even if an odd bunch were queueing up to sing his praises.

When is "Century Falls" coming out on DVD?

What a week

Saturday, Doctor Who returns along with the Nestene animated Autons, then on Tuesday it is revealled the episode was a smash hit in the ratings, with 10.5 million people watching at one point with Ant and Dec averaging 7.8.

Then on Today it was announced that the BBC had greenlighted another series for 2006, with a Christmas special for later this year.

However it's a roller-coaster as I've just heard that the news is out that Christopher Eccleston has decided not to continue in the lead role for another year and the role will be recast yet again. Was it fears of being typecast, the absolutely hysterical media attention, the 84 hour weeks, or being faced with the reality of his likeness as 9 inch tall plastic action figure. Who can tell?

We shouldn't grumble. From all accounts there are 12 excellent episodes yet to come to Saturday nights, and possibly a Christmas special. And next year 13 more with a brand new Doctor. It's an interesting time to be a Doctor Who fan.

Last night on digital TV

Emotionally wounded by the death of his father, Hamish MacBeth, and the events four years previously at Hillsbourgh stadium, he snaps when confronted by a shop keeper who argues over 4p. He goes home shaves his head to fit the football hooligan stereotype, and kills the shopkeeper. He then goes on to kill the criminal psychologist on the case for what he says about him. The whole thing then becomes a revenge kick for Hillsborough and his fathers death.

The police team, headed by Doctor Who and Lilly Potter, initially dismiss Rubeus Hagrid, who then goes home to his wife, Rose Marie, and says how much he likes police work. Rubeus is rehired when it is found he is right about the shopkeepers killer.

Hagrid, Doctor Who, Lilly and other police officers go on a house to house enquiry with an e-fit of Hamish. When a policeman eventually calls on Hamish, Hamish takes the photos of the victims of his wall while the policeman’s back is turned then uses a letter from the hospital to his father to claim he lost his hair due to cancer.

Meanwhile Rose Marie moves out of Hagrid’s house taking their daughter with her.

While shopping in Asda, Doctor Who spots Hamish MacBeth and runs after him. Hamish lures Doctor Who back to his house and stabs him. Hagrid works out who has stabbed Doctor Who and where he his and he and Lilly drive across Manchester to find him dying in the street.

In later episodes the police replace Doctor Who with Jim Royle.

Doctor Who News

I don't know if this shows how much the new Doctor Who series is anticipated, or the higher profile writers get, or how easy it is to bang news items on to a web based news service, but there's an article on BBC News about the new writers of Doctor Who.

All the people mentioned are fans of the show and have written Doctor Who in book or audio form before.

Should be something to set the video for or even stay in for.

He's back- again

The BBC have announced that they're bringing back Doctor Who. While I'm beyond getting too excited about this, the series is being written by Russell T. Davies. So it should be good and fill the gap Strange failed to.

And it's being produced by BBC Wales, which sounds good too!