The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide For The Whovian In Your Life..(PART ONE)

Merry Christmas everyone and to all my Jewish friends and blog guests (especially Geoff and Viv.) Happy Hunnakah!
We've (and by we I mean just me, Mike.) have spent hours trawling through the internet for holiday gifts to please any Whovian or your plain old garden variety fans. Whether it's for you Mum, Dad, brother, sister or assorted friends you're sure to find something to both please and delight the Doctor Who fan in your life.
Because Destination Gallifrey is an international site, I've tried my best to include merchandisers and retailers from around the world, if you see something that is from a country other than your own, please do contact the store/manufacturer. You are more than likely to discover that these stores have international shipping whilst others have overseas branches, at the very least you'll be able to make a note of what you like and learn whether it's available where you live.
Got your paper and pen ready? Good. Without any further ado, here is Destination Gallifrey's 2014 gift guide.

TARDIS TREATS.

The TARDIS has become such an iconic symbol that the term 'bigger on the inside' has fallen into common language. Here are some of the best TARDIS mechandise on the market.
gifts for the Whovian foodie:

Who wouldn't be happy with the ultimate fan biscuit barrel/cookie jar. Great talking point and shows the TARDIS in all its glory.

Available from Forbidden Planet Amazon UK and Amazon U.S.A.

Give your boring old dinner some of the TARDIS treatment with these nifty salt and pepper shakers or you could just keep them as part of your Dr Who collection.

Available from: Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

 

Here's the ultimate in bottle openers, it actually makes a dematerialisation sound when you use it. Available from the abovementioned reatailers.

Here's an exquisite coffe or tea mug with a keep warm lid, I think it would make an ideal pencil and pen caddy for your desk

Please visit Forbidden Planet to check out this mug and also the the other fantastic mugs they offer, even "toby Jug" style one in the shape of each Doctor.

Other Whovian Homewares.

How about sleeping with the Doctor, metaphorically speaking of course. This TARDIS duvet (for we Aussies AKA doona cover) make a great gift and very practical too. 

Available in Single and Double (check for other sizes from BBC Shop and Forbidden Planet UK
These 16oz glasses celebrate 50 years of our favourite show and com in a set of two. The glasses feature all of the Doctors.

Available from BBC Shop 
and Entertainment Earth in the U.S.A.

Latest Who News

Have YOU been a good Time Lord Doctor?

Nic Frost to appear as Santa in DW Christmas Special.

*Well known and loved actor Nic Frost, normally associated with his roles alongside friend and fellow actor, Simon Pegg, will be appearing alongside Peter Capaldi as Santa. Whether Santa turns out to be a Time Lord, an alien or a three headed monster or the real Kris Kringle remains to be seen. We can reveal that the story does take place at the North Pole and does involve some sort of alien.

Clara For Christmas.

*It has been confirmed that actress Jenna Coleman will reprise her role as Clara Oswald. Even though her character said goodbye to the Doctor at the end of the series final episode, Death In Heaven, having her reappear in the Christmas Special nicely rounds out Series 8 and clears the decks for a new companion(s) for Series 9.

Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi to return for Series 9

It's been confirmed that showrunner and scriptwriter, Steven Moffat will continue on in those roles for Series 9. Many fans have voiced a lot of criticism over the direction that Moffat took during Series 8. Some of these criticisms included, uneven story quality, too much emphasis on the Clara Oswald character and overriding the show's canon. It's hoped that the complaints have been taken on board and Mr Moffat once again gives Whovians the "wow" factor. Peter Capaldi will also be returning as the Doctor. Peter too, has come in for some criticisms. Some fans believe his portrayal of the Doctor is too dark and unlikeable but it really is important that he is given the opportunity to develop the character of the Doctor before judgement is passed.
AND FINALLY.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOCTOR WHO! 

On the 23rd on November 2014 the world's longest running sci fi program and our favourite show turned 51. Destination Gallifrey would like to wish the show a very happy birthday and a big birthday thank you to all the cast, crew and others who made the show possible and so well loved..Cheers to the next 50 years!

For mor great Doctor Who news, reviews and interviews, visit Whoogle and Doctor Who News

He's Just A Cosmic Girl..An Analysis Of Gender & Regeneration Within Doctor Who.

We Two Are One.

The revelation that Missy is the Master has caused more than a ripple of anger amongst fans and whilst I don't have any official figures, I would assume that most of the disquiet has come from long time fans that have been watching the show during some period of the preceding fifty years.
Rather than looking at the gender change through an emotional angle, let us examine this change in terms of the impact it has/will have on the dynamics of the show in the future.

Previous DW Controversies.

This isn't the first time that the subject of regeneration has caused controversy. In the 25th Anniversary Special, The Five Doctors, the Master was asked by the High Council Of Gallifrey, and more specifically, Borusa, to go into the Death Zone and help the Doctor. In return for helping the Doctor he was to be given a full Presidential pardon for his past crimes and a whole new regeneration cycle.

Whoa! Back up, a whole new regeneration cycle? How is that possible? It was continually pointed out that Time Lords can only regenerate a maximum of twelve times before they died The 25th Anniversary Special was written by Terrance Dicks who is a previous Doctor Who script editor and writer as well as the author of numerous Target Novelisations of the show.It's very hard to believe that someone who is virtually Who royalty would've forgotten or ignored show canon.

In the Peter Davison story, Mawdryn Undead ,Mawdryn and his accomplices attempted to steal Time Lord technology in order to give themselves a regeneration cycle, instead it gave them one life with a perpetual mutation.

Mawdryn, the would be Time Lord.

In order to end their suffering they required the fith Doctor's life and as he himself pointed out, it would cost him all his remaining regenerations and would effectively finish him as a Time Lord. This is because to aid each of Mawdryn's crew as well as Mawdryn himself would require one of each of the Doctor's regenerations.

In Colin Baker's first story, the universally disparaged, Twin Dillema, the Sixth Doctor meets an old friend and fellow Time Lord, Azmael. Azmael forces himself to regenerate in order to stop a plot by the Gastropods. Peri asks the Doctor if Azmael will regenerate to which the Doctor says no, there are only twelve regenerations and Azmael had used them all.

Then we come to the first appearance of the Derek Jacobi/John Simm Master. At some stage the Anthony Ainley version of the Master may have "died" (he was no longer technically a Time Lord anymore since he now used the power of the Keeper Of Traaken to steal other people's bodies.)
The John Simm tells the Doctor that the Time Lords ressurected him to use as a weapon, presumably in the Time Wars with the Daleks.

DNA Or Consciousness Via The Matrix.

The ideas I'm about to put forward are hypothetical but I believe plausible given what we know about Time Lord technology and medical research.
We know that the Matrix contains the sum total of all Time Lord knowledge. We also know that the Master has been inside the Matrix (as has the Doctor.). It isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that the Master 'deposited' his mind and personality into the Matrix to retrieve later on to place into a new body. This sort of operation wouldn't be beyond limits of Time Lord technology. We also know that a mind/body transference is possible because we have witnessed the 6th Doctor's companion Peri, undergo it in the Trial Of A Time Lord Story, Mindwarp.
In the 10th Doctor Story Human Nature and part two of the same story, Family of Blood, we actually see the Doctor change his physiognomy to that of a human with all of his Time Lord genetic information contained inside a pocket watch. Professor Yana (The Master) also underwent a similar transformation in another story that heralded the arrival of actor John Simm as the Master.
From what has been just revealed we can see that Time Lords can manipulate the physiognomy so changing their gender doesn't seem like a total impossibility at all.

The Romana Regeneration Contraversy.

When the late Mary Tamm (1950-2012) left the show after playing the role of Romana for a year, a new actress was required to take over the role.
Douglas Adams (creator of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) was the shows script editor at the time and his sense of humour can clearly be seen in the regeneration scene from Destiny Of The Daleks. It should be pointed out that Mary Tamm had never refused to do a regeneration scene, she simply wasn't asked to do one as she told fans.
In the TARDIS, Romana casually informs the Doctor that she's regenerating. This one scene has caused a great deal of anger amongst fans. The anger was aimed at the way Romana paraded into the control room wearing a variety of regenerated forms including a distinctly alien looking body. Fans decried the casual way threw away bodies like she was trying on dresses. It appeared that Romana had used up (or most of ) her entire regeneration cycle in a few minutes.
It wasn't until many years later when the show had been relaunched that the controversy was finally put to rest.

Lend Us A Hand Guv.

In the Christmas Invasion, a newly regenerated Doctor was undergoing post regeneration trauma and had been asleep/comatose for a prolonged period of time before he was strong enough to deal with the invasion by the Sycorax.
In a scene that would've shocked many fans (myself included), the Sycorax leader chops off the Doctor's hand.

Now we can understand Romana's parade of bodies, because she was still within the first fifteen hours of her regeneration and because she had regeneration energy left she was able to "try" out new bodies until she decided on the one she liked and letting the fifteen hours pass. When she 'chooses' the Princess Astra look body she even tells the Doctor, "The arms are a bit long, still,I can take those in a bit."

Now, while I'm all for answering questions if I possibly can but before I'm bombarded by Whovians asking "Why hasn't the Doctor done this?" let me explain.

Death In Heaven..Cybermen And A Psychotic Missy

Rebirth Of The Cybermen.

The Story Continues....

In part one of the series finale, Dark Water, we learnt that Missy (aka The Master), had been collecting the minds of the deceased to use as a new army of Cybermen.

In Death In Heaven, her reason for going to all this effort is revealed. No sooner have the Cybermen marched down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, than the U.N.I.T. team arrive, led by Kate Stewart, daughter of the late, beloved Alistair Lethbridge Stewart for those who aren't familiar with that particular relationship. The Cybermen blast off into the air and explode to create an ominous looking dark cloud. To me, this make the Cybermen way too overpowered. I know we have seen flying Cybermen before but this simply makes them more like the Sentinels (Marvel comics robotic mutant killers).
I've always felt that the Cybermen were far more frightening when they showed an "organic" aspect of themselves. Despite advances in make up and costume, I still find the 10th planet Cybermen and to a lesser extent, the Earthshock models far more chilling.

Both the Doctor and Missy are tranquilised and taken aboard an Air force One style aircraft where the Doctor discovers that the enactment of emergency protocols have made him President Of Earth. The minds that have been harvested by Missy are then used to seed the cloud and it begins to rain on cemeteries around the world. This "rain" is actually something that is similar to nanobots that have the complete blueprint information to turn the dead into cybermen. The Doctor informs the U.N.I.T team that there is simply no defence against an army that can weaponise the dead.

The Death Of Danny Pink (for good no kidding).

Danny Pink started off as a fairly likable character but when writer Stephen Moffat continually used the character to berate the Doctor over morality and whether the Doctor was in fact a good man, he quickly became annoying

The dynamics between Danny and the Doctor became nothing more than two Alpha males beating their chests to try and impress Clara the female, Jane Goodall would've been impressed.
In 3W, Clara has been trying to convince a group of Cybermen that she is actually the Doctor in order to avoid being deleted. She gives the Cybermen the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey and a lot of other information relating to the Doctor. This scene was not thought out at all, in his attempt to write a clever scene, Moffat has ignored the fact that the Cybermen can simply scan her to see if she has two hearts. A cyberman materialises besides her and destroys the Cybermen and then teleports itself  and Clara to a graveyard. Upon removing it's faceplate we see it's Danny.

I did find Danny's  slightly zombie look horrifying and I give high praise to the costume and make up department for giving us this chilling vision of what it means to become "upgrated". Danny's emotional inhibitor hasn't been activated so he can still feel, especially his love for Clara. By this time the Doctor has arrived after Cybermen destroyed the plane and Missy escaped. In a really badly written scene the Doctor is falling to earth when he gets collected by the TARDIS.

The Doctor warns Clara that if she activates the inhibitor Danny will be fully Cybernised and will destroy her. Danny tells the Doctor to do it but he refuses (leading to another angry exchange between the two which nullifies any tension or sadnees from the situation).

Happy Birthday Doctor!

Missy arrives and the whole reason for her scheme is revealed. Yes it was Missy that brought the two of them together, she simply wanted to see how a control freak like the Doctor would be able to work alongside someone who couldn't be controlled. This does go towards some way to explain why I was never comfortable with the Clara character and why she was difficult to warm to but it does seem like a ridiculous reason when Moffat himself has built up the character so much.The Doctor tells Danny he needs to have the inhibitor switched off so Danny can gain access the hive mind and discover the Cyber plan. Finally, Clara switches off the inhibitor but Danny doesn't kill her because Moffat whacks us over the head with the Hallmark Card notion that loves is stronger than anything. That may have been a nice touch thirty years ago but it's been overused since then.

Missy explains the Cyber army is actually a birthday present for the Doctor to prove that they really aren't so different after all and now the Doctor can go and save all the people he wants to with his own army. The fact that the Doctor actually thinks about it is disturbing, OK, we have a darker Doctor but there is no way the Doctor would use the dead in any of his incarnations. He gives the Cyber control bracelet to Danny who goes into soldier mode to order the cybermen to fly into the cloud and destroy it and themselves as well.
Clara wants to kill Missy naturally, (seen that before with Martha Jone's mum). The Doctor tells her not to or she'll be no better than Missy, ho hum, been there done that etc. Missy is then conveniently  killed by a lone Cybermen who turns out saved Kate Stewart from falling to her death from the U.N.I.T plane. Why did this Cyberman save her? Because it was created from the skeleton that was her father Brigadier Alistair-Lethbridge Stewart in a piece of writing that has both angered and outraged fans.

Doctor Who: Death in Heaven recap by Paul Verhoeven

Dark Waters..The Revelations Begin.

*WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

"Oh you know who I am."

The first big revelation in Dark Water is that Danny Pink is dead, killed whilst crossing the road and talking to Clara on his mobile phone. The way characters can constantly return from limbo, death, alternative universes may make this comment obsolete by next week. I am not going to be surprised in the least if he is back sucking face with Clara next week.

In her grief, Clara attempts to blackmail the Doctor by collecting every key in the TARDIS and then throwing each one into a lava pool until he agrees to take her back and change events, preventing Danny's death.It turns out that this scene was just a "dream" (always viewed as a writing cop out when you've written yourself into a corner.) in order for the Doctor to discover what Clara's motivations were.

If writer Steven Moffat was hoping this desperate, angst riddled Clara would have the audience howling buckets of tears then he missed the mark by a long shot with this writer. That scene made me absolutely loathe Clara Oswald. Why does she believe her loss is any greater than anyone else on the planet? To see how a similar situation is portrayed take a quick look at Rose Tyler's scenes when she watches her dad's death in the 9th Doctor story Father's Day. I'm prepared to accept that grief can and does make people do strange things but it seems everything Clara does is always way over the top.

Doctor Orpheus.

In a direct reference to Greek Mythology, the Doctor offers to take Clara into the underworld to find Danny, just like Orpheus ventured into the underworld to beg Hades to release his love Eurydice. The underworld turns out to be the Netherworld, a place where the consciousness of the dead go to. In actual fact it is actually the Matrix, a Time Lord device that houses minds like a hard drive.

In a nutshell, the minds of the deceased are being kept in the Matrix whilst their bodies are saved to be used as new cybermen all with the help of the mysterious Missy.

A Critical Look At Forest Of The Night

A Very Literary Episode.

If this story title vaguely reminds you of your high school English literature classes then you're not mistaken. The title is actually a line from the poem Tyger, by William Blake.(1757-1827)

Tyger, Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,

Could carve thy fearful symmetry?

This isn't the episode's only literary reference, as Maeve, the main child protagonist, runs through the forest, she leaves behind items from her school bags as clues for others to find, a direct reference to Hansel and Gretel which even the Doctor acknowledges. As the reviewer from web site Stranger Views noted, it's a little hard to be terrified of a brightly lit forest and I'd also add that it looks like a place you'd walk your cocker spaniel.

Been There..Done That.

This story isn't a chiller, it's a standard mystery, where did the forest come from? How did it grow overnight? Is it actually an alien? Whilst it's interesting for the viewer to ponder these and other questions there is no tension or even fear of the forest itself. Two wolves and an escaped tiger from the zoo only momentarily lifted the tension (but it barely got my heart rate up). What really lets this episode down is the cliche of the misunderstood child who may or may not be responsible for the predicament they all face themselves in.
Does that seem a little familiar to you? It should do, the concept was explored in the David Tennant Doctor Who episode, Fear Her where a child could bring her drawings to life. In the case of this story, it is young Maeve, who is on medication because she hears voices ever since her elder sister disappeared, and is now on medication.
Maeve's ability to communicate with the 'spirits of nature' which have protected the Earth for millenia hardly comes as either a shock or major revelation, we simply knew she would lead us (and by us read that as the Doctor.) to the truth.

Looking Back On Flatline

The Doctor had never been a shrinking violet...until Flatline.

First Impressions.

The very first thing I thought of when I saw the cubby house (U.K readers that is Australian name for a Wendy House, U.S readers, you know this as a tree house or play house.)sized TARDIS, was the Fourth Doctor's final story, Logopolis. In that story, the TARDIS begins to shrink due to the Master's interference in the block computation transfer, but in that story it is also the internal dimensions of the time vessel shrinking which threaten to squash the Doctor, in Flatline, it is only the outer dimensions of the TARDIS which are shrinking. My question is, were the Boneless shrinking the TARDIS to convert it into a two dimensional article or where they draining the ship's energy to gain entry into this dimension?
 I know this may seem like a picky point but consider this, if the Boneless were using the energy from the TARDIS to enter our dimension then what energy source were they using before the TARDIS arrived? This may be one of those questions that only pedantic Whovians like myself would ask but I believe if a writer is going to introduce a brand new (relatively) alien then these sort of details need to be made clear, especially if these aliens are ever to make a return appearance.

Doctor Clara Oswald.

With the Doctor literally having to sit this one out, having Clara taking on the investigation was very much a make or break situation for the character. I personally didn't like the way Clara parodied how the Doctor solves mysteries, by insulting everyone and telling everyone to trust him because he is the Doctor and he is terribly clever.There are many out there (and I've spoken to a few on Twitter) who dislike Clara and having her sent up the Doctor and his mannerisms may actually alienate them even further. To be fair though, this was a brave attempt to show Clara that it wasn't easy being the Doctor. When she tried to use the psychic paper on someone and it didn't work she was left to momentarily fluster her way through the situation. It is something the Doctor has had hundreds of years to get used to and bounce back from but not so easy for a school teacher.

By and large, having Clara step up to plate for this story did work, thankfully the writer didn't include too much in the way of relationship dynamics with her and Danny Pink or the whole thing may have gotten bogged down focusing on dysfunctional relationships between Clara the Doctor and Danny. The only thing I found mildly annoying was Clara's need for a 'pat on the head' from the Doctor. Her constant, "did good didn't I?" began to sound like a child looking for compliments because she cleaned her room. Other companions never seem to question the part they've played in helping the Doctor, perhaps another one of Clara's characteristics is a lack of self assurance on some level.

Flatline...Trouble In 2D

Community Service worker Rigsey wonders about the mural.

Another Unseen Enemy.

This is the second story in as many weeks by writer Jamie Mathieson and his story, Mummy On The Orient Express seemed to show the type of story he likes to write. The Doctor, Clara and the bystanders facing an unseen, unknown, something. Flatline has us witnessing a similar threat albeit something light years away from a Mummy.

Some Rather Peculiar Readings.

The Doctor is about to drop Clara off at her usual spot when the Doctor notices some very unusual readings on the TARDIS console. Clara notices something even more disturbing, the TARDIS doors have gotten smaller. When they both squeeze themselves outside they discover the TARDIS has begun to shrink (think of the diminishing TARDIS with a trapped Tom Baker in Logopolis and you'll understand.). The Doctor gets back into the TARDIS before it becomes too much smaller and tells Clara to look around for anything unusual. Clara begins walking towards a railway underpass which also names the city they have landed in as Bristol. Clara notices a lot of flowers and condolence cards leaning against an embankment. A group of men performing community service are cleaning up the graffiti around the railway underpass. One of the workers, Rigsey notices Clara and assumes she is one of those people who have who have lost someone in the recent disappearances and that she has come to view the recent wall mural of what appears to be pictures of the missing people. After learning this, Clara returns to report her findings to the Doctor.

Smaller Still.

An ever diminishing TARDIS.

On returning to the TARDIS, Clara discovers it has shrunk even further, down to the size of a model. The Doctor is now effectively trapped inside the TARDIS and must now rely on Clara to do the investigating, making her "Doctor for A Day". The Doctor squeezes his fingers out to hand Clara the sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and a two way earpiece so she can keep in communication with the Doctor. Clara now carries the TARDIS in her handbag whilst the Doctor directs her to the most recent energy source.
Clara tells Rigsey she is "Doctor Oswald" investigating the disappearances. Rigsey says he can get her into the flat of one of the victims. The flat had been locked from the inside and they can't find anything but there is an usual desert looking wallpaper on one of the walls.

The Appearance of the 2D.

Rigsey tells Clara he can get them help from the local constabulary to go inside the flat of the first disappearance.PC Forrest comes into the flat of the first victim where Clara uses the psychic paper to tell her that's she's from MI5. The constable investigates one of the rooms and then screams as the 2D emerge from the walls and begin to dissipate her through the floor. When they enter the room Rigsey and Clara don't see any sign of PC Forrest except for her torch laying on the rug. Clara notices that there is another of those abstract murals on the walls which the Doctor views with the TARDIS scanner. It is then the Doctor realises that the mural is actually PC Forrest's nervous system and the other mural was in fact a close up of human skin.
The 2D creatures have been dissecting humans in an effort to understand three dimensional life forms.
At that moment the 2D creatures begin to emerge from the walls and floors. Rigsey and Clara jump onto retro style chair hanging from the ceiling but their weight begins to pull the fixture out. Using the chair as a pendulum they manage to smash it through the window and escape to safety.

More Than A Mural.

Returning to the group of Community Service workers, Clara and Rigsey see that they are just about to paint over the underpass murals. The Doctor concludes that the 2D have been using the mural images to hide behind, at that instant the creatures shimmer into existence and take one of the work crew. Clara leads the rest into an engine repair room.
the Doctor still isn't convinced that the 2D are hostile and that perhaps they have been dissecting humans in order to discover how to communicate with humans. The Doctor tells Clara how to try and communicate with them using mathematics. When they hear the number 22 through the speakers the worker with that badge number is taken by them.
The survivors then escape through an unused maintenance tunnel.

Mummy On The Orient Express, The Good, The Bad and The Funny.

The Doctor and Clara enjoy the ambience.

One of the kindest things I can say about this series is that the quality of stories have been uneven at best. When a story tends to hit all the right buttons it becomes a joy to watch, Mummy on the Orient Express was one such story.

Finally Peter Capaldi's Doctor was given an opportunity to shine. He did what he did best, solve a mystery. The Doctor has been prone to ranting, insulting those around him and generally blustering his way to a successful conclusion (shut up, shut up, shut up.) but in Mummy we get a glimpse of what the new Doctor is truly capable of and should be like all the time

Nice one centurion...like it.

There is a lovely scene where the Doctor is talking to Professor Emile Moorhouse, expert on the Fortold, better known as the Mummy. In one fluid motion the Doctor whips out an elegant silver cigarette case. Anyone even remotely familiar with Agatha Christie's television and movie adaptations will know that many of her characters smoke. We just know that the Doctor won't offer Moorhouse a ciggie (apart from not being PC, it wouldn't do to show the Doctor even owning a cigarette.).

In one beautiful moment, the Doctor opens the cigarette case to reveal two lines of perfectly arranged jelly babies. This was a nice reference to the Fourth Doctor's favourite snack and a gently humourous moment.

The Doctor points out to Clara that this Orient Express (there have been a few with that name.) is a perfect facsimile of its era (Earth 1930s), that is, until he hears the lounge singer performing her version of a Queen song. I'm sure Freddy Mercury would've approved.

I Don't Do Nice.

I have to admit I'm not a fan of the Clara Oswald character, don't get me wrong, Jenna Coleman is a fine actress, but her character simply does not work well with the new Doctor. Matt Smith's Doctor was demonstrative but Peter Capaldi's Doctor barely shakes hands. This Doctor doesn't do social niceties. When the Mummy is about to kill its victims he doesn't console them over their imminent passing, he asks them to describe exactly what they see. Clara is very much a woman of social etiquette and moral outrages and as such she is almost the polar opposite of the Doctor.

Five minutes more please Mum.

My only real complaint about Mummy was the way it seemed to be compacted to fit the running time. This is one story I felt could've easily been made as a two parter. The first episode could have concentrated on the murders with the second part revolving around the Doctor solving the mystery.
Mummy was certainly not a perfect story (in my opinion there is no such thing everything has flaws no matter how minor if you look hard enough.) but it was a brave attempt to create a tongue in cheek homage to murder mysteries and the queen of crime fiction, Agatha Christie.
Mummy has rightly earned its spot as my second favourite story after the series opener, Deep Breath.

Mummy On The Orient Express OR How Ze Doctuer Used 'Is Leetle Grey Cells.

At the end of Kill The Moon the Doctor said that the year 2049A.D would signify the start of humanity's great leap into space exploration and when you see a space ship designed to look like the classic train the Orient Express, you'd have to say he was right.

Inside one of the compartments, the passengers and staff are all dressed in the styles of the 1930's to add to the illusion. An old woman and her granddaughter, Maisie Pitts, are enjoying a meal. When the lights momentarily flicker the old woman looks up to see the hideous form of a mummy, arms outstretched, coming towards her. In the corner of the screen a timer begins to count down and despite the old woman protesting for the ship's captain to do something, none of the crew or other passengers can see the monstrosity. The mummy places its hands on either side of the old lady's head and she dies. From the time she sees the mummy to the time it actually kills her has only been 66 seconds....

Enter The Doctor.

The TARDIS materialises in the ship's baggage compartment and the Doctor and Clara emerge just after the death of the old woman. For her part, Clara apologises to the Doctor for her outburst at the end of Kill the Moon, explaining that she was angry. The Doctor understands and say he has brought Clara along to experience something luxurious and unique since she has decided to end her travels in the TARDIS. Clara thinks the old woman's death should be investigated but the Doctor counters that people die all the time for all sorts of reasons. They both retire to their respective compartments, the Doctor to talk to himself and formulate an investigation whilst Clara phones Danny. The Doctor decides to investigate the old woman's wheel chair (in reality an Excelsior Life Extender.) and decides against waking Clara.
The Doctor meets Chief engineer Perkins who is also suspicious  of the old lady's death and it becomes apparent that they are now both suspicious of each other. Meanwhile, Maisie Pitt, the victim's granddaughter has smashed a lock with the heel of her shoe to gain access to her gran's body she is joined by Clara and both women find themselves locked in the room with what appears to be something to contain the mummy.

Review: Doctor Who Monster Files: Cybermen.

To be strictly accurate, this isn't a book, it's an app that contains a story but because it features an original Doctor Who story I've included it in this section.
I've always been a huge Cybermen fan, to me, they've always been far more terrifying than the Daleks because they chose to sacrifice their humanity whereas the Kaleds had theirs taken away by the psychopathic Davros.

The 'Monster File' part of the app consists of many Cybermen clips, including their first story, The Tenth Planet. The Matt Smith story, Nightmare In Silver looked awesome on my Kindle Fire.
The information provided is disappointing, a collection of facts that we've already learnt over the course of the show's history. To be fair, kids discovering the show today may not be aware that Mondas is the original home planet of the Cybermen.

It does contain a brief biog of Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, the creators of the Cybermen as well as pages showing the evolution of the Cybermen, their technology and in which stories they appeared.

The real entertainment comes from the app's original story, Cybermen:Status Update, written by Joseph Lidster and illustrated by Neil Roberts. This app is produced by BBC Worldwide and *SPOILER ALERT!* the story does not feature the Doctor or any of his companions.

The story is set in Capital City, on the Earth Colony planet Tiestus, home of the story's hero, thirteen year old Jacob Sowersby.

Jacob is the proud owner of the latest version of BOB,an electronic diary that can update entries directly to the brain just from the user speaking, it's like Facebook and other social media apps taken to the Nth degree.

Kill The Moon-A Review.

This isn't the first time the Time Lord has visited our nearest celestial neighbour. One of the Doctor's earliest lunar adventures was in the 1967 Troughton story The Moonbase. In that incarnation the Doctor squared off for his second encounter with the Cybermen.

In the 1969 Troughton adventure The Seeds Of Death  the Doctor had to once again  visit a scientific lunar base to thwart the plans of the Ice Warriors, who were sabotaging the T-Mat, a matter transfer device that  the world relied on.

During the Pertwee Era, the third Doctor was sent to a lunar penal colony in the story Frontier In Space but strictly speaking, the Moon was the main focus of this story. Now the point of mentioning these stories was to show how Kill The Moon was molded into that same style of adventure.

The Moon-2049 A.D.

Clara informs the Doctor that Courtney (Ellis George), the disruptive influence school girl previously seen throwing up inside the TARDIS at the end of the last story, The Caretaker, is feeling worthless and insecure and asks the Doctor to tell her she isn't.

After much petty bickering which simply translates as the the Doctor doesn't really do apologies, he asks how she'd like to be the first woman on the moon and then the three travellers are whisked off to the lunar surface. The TARDIS has materialised on board a space shuttle packed with nuclear explosives and are about to land on the moon.
They are discovered on board by astronauts Lundvik (Hermione Norris), Duke (Tony Osaba) and Henry (Phillip Nice).The astronauts are investigating why the  land mass of the moon is breaking up. A simple physics experiment with a yo yo by the Doctor shows the gravity on the moon has dramatically increased.

At a now deserted Mexican mining base the TARDIS crew and astronauts Lundvik and Duke go inside to restore the power while Hery investigates around the outside of the base. Inside the Doctor restores lights and power but Duke is killed by a giant spider. Courtney unwittingly kills it by squirting it with a spray detergent.
Because the detergent kills 99.9% of germs the Doctor realises they aren't spiders but bacteria which live on something enormous.
Outside the base Henry has found a spot where the intruders are entering but he is killed too when he tries to investigate further.

It's at this point in the story the show takes on a sinister tone, very reminiscent of the movie Alien, with close ups of Clara's face and the sounds of the spider scuttling around somewhere in the shadows. It's quite an effective part of the story and builds up the tension nicely.

The Moon Is An Egg.

Piecing things together, from seeing the dead Mexican crew preserved in webs and the screen shots of the deformed lunar land mass, the Doctor decrees that the moon is actually breaking apart. Courtney asks to go back to the TARDIS. Clara argues that the moon can't break apart in 2049 because she's been to the future and it's still there, the Doctor counters that the one she saw could have been a hologram. Meanwhile on Earth, the moon's disintergration is causing severe weather problems so a solution must be found soon.

 Investigating a crevice where  more of the moon has shaken loose they discover Henry's body. The Doctor is attacked by another of the spiders but the sunlight drives it off. The Doctor quickly drops into the crevice to take a sample and informs everyone that what he has in a specimen jar is actually amniotic fluid. The moon is actually an egg and the egg is now hatching.

Humanity's Decision. 

 The Doctor now tells Lundvik and Clara that they must choose what to do, destroy the hatching creature or let it live. Courtney, communicating by phone from the TARDIS insists she should be part of the choice too so the Doctor tells her how to bring the TARDIS to them. Once the TARDIS has arrived he leaves, saying that it's not his moon so he won't decide.

The Doctor has also pointed out to Clara that this point in history is in flux, one of those periods in time where things could go either way...the moon may or may not be destroyed. Clara and Courtney argue that the creature should live, that the destruction of the moon will only result in the Earth's hemispheres having a permanent high tide and low tide. Lundvig points out that the left over "egg" will rain down on Earth and will be worse than the collision that wiped out the Dinosaurs.

Lundvig is setting the bombs detonation countdown timer and contacts Earth control, in order to make the right choice she asks all the lights on Earth to remain on if they want to let the creature live or turn all the lights off if they want them to blow the creature up.
The lights on Earth slowly go out...
Lundvig is about to prime the bomb when both Clara and Courtney stop her, at that moment the Doctor returns and takes them all back to Earth to watch the creature hatch.

The Doctor's Regenerations from 1-13

I thought fans old and new alike would enjoy this great You Tube video by Brian Rimmer which is a montage of all the Doctor's regenerations and is sure to bring back memories and maybe a few tears.
Enjoy!

A Rash Of Robots.

Have there been too many robot villains in Season Eight?

When the Doctor regenerated at the end of last year's Christmas special we all knew we'd be in for a roller coaster ride as viewers when the show returned.

Not only do we have to get used to a new Doctor but a new Doctor who is suffering post regenerative shock, one who is adjusting to a new mindset and also having a brain that's creating new synapses, neural pathways and defining his new personality.

Added to the pressure of having a Doctor not firing on all cylinders we have a threat, the great, unknown thing, a villain or malcontent that could destroy Earth/humanity/Planet X etc and a Time Lord that it is only cognitive sometimes.

In my opinion, Deep Breath was the best story to emerge so far this season. We had Peter Capaldi literally throwing himself into the role (sorting through rubbish yuck!) and a very frightening robotic villain.

 The clockwork man was a lovely homage to the 10th Doctor story, 'The Girl In The Fireplace', featuring a robot, repairing itself with spare parts taken from human beings. I challenge anyone to tell me they weren't even slightly chilled when the clockwork man thanked a bystander for donating his eye, we didn't see him take the eye but we can imagine it.
Similarly, Clara trying to avoid being detected on board the clockwork's spaceship to avoid becoming a collection of spare parts was nerve wracking. I was extremely pleased with the season opener.

Robots Of Sherwood.

Surprisingly, I didn't find the story title a spoiler. Sherwood may have been another planet which is not as strange as it first sounds since the 10th Doctor offered to take Rose to Barcelona, the planet not the city in Spain.

I was trying to work out who the robots may have been, Robin Hood and his merry men seemed a logical choice since they had always be known as fictional characters. It was also possible the the Sheriff of Nottigham was the robot (or one of them.) but when they finally emerged I was very disappointed.

The robots were silent killing machines with no identity as in their planet of origin, what they were designed for etc.

The whole episode reminded me of the Pertwee story, Time Warrior without that story's wonderful characters and contrivances. Perhaps this story would've impressed fans more if it had been shown later in the series (or written for later inclusion in the series.).

Into The Dalek.

Whovians and purists will now be screaming at me "the Daleks aren't robots!" Yes I totally agree and despite the fact that the Dalek machine houses a really cheesed off Kaled mutant, the Daleks are very 

robotic. I've merely included them in this blog to illustrate how the vast proportion of this season's villains have been mechanical.

A Dalek that has the potential to turn away from evil, gee we haven't seen that since the 9th Doctor's first Dalek story. The concept has also been examined in the 1967 Troughton story, The Evil Of The Daleks.
Aside from that it was a blatant rip off from the show's own history. Miniaturised people being sent on a vital mission inside someone/something was the main focus of the Tom Baker story, The Invisible Enemy, not only that but Enemy itself was a shameless rip off of the 1966 movie Fantastic Journey.
This story actually became a clone of a clone and not very engaging or interesting (the inside of the Dalek looked pretty cheap and tacky). So far I haven't spoken to anyone who was on the edge of their seat watching this one.
 

The Caretaker.  

 Ah the Skovok Blitzer, a well designed robot whose on screen time wasn't long enough due to the turgid soap opera element better known as Danny and Clara's relationship.

The opening montage of scenes depicting Clara's struggle to enjoy a normal life without giving up her time with the Doctor was quite funny, but it should have been left there and the focus shifted towards the threat of the Blitzer.
The Blitzer was a well executed design and reminded me of the Terminator. There is also something frightening about a robot who calmly goes through its protocol before killing you, almost like the robot equivalent of "sorry I have to kill you, nothing personal".
That is where the fright level ended, having the Doctor tell us that it's coming isn't quite as frightening as seeing it make it's way to Coal Hill.
Another annoying aspect was the lack of detail, it's a Skovox Blitzer, which planet did it come from? Which race invented it? Why is it on Earth? How did it find it's way back from the future? All these issues conveniently ignored so that we can spend more time seeing how the Doctor and Danny react to each other etc.
This was definitely a missed opportunity.

What's Next?

At the time of writing there are still two stories and the Christmas special to be seen. One story features spiders the other features a mummy whilst it's rumoured the Cybermen will be appearing in the Christmas special. It not unfeasible that the Spiders or the mummy could be mechanical but it does seem doubtful ( although this could be wishful thinking). I love robot villians but their appearance should be tempered with breaks to showcase other threats and menaces. Fans may have enjoyed this series more if the stories had been broken up a little more but I also believe that all the villians were shortchanged due to long scenes and dialogue between Danny and Clara. Shorter scenes and tighter editing wouldn't have given these monsters more time to shine.

What are your thoughts?

Who Is The New Doctor?

From the outset this question isn't as straightforward as it first appears.

  At the time of writing we're halfway through Peter Capaldi's first season and we are still learning about his new personality and seeking an answer to the question, 'Do we like this new Doctor?'

  Physically, the new Doctor is older looking, this was a deliberate move by show runner Steven Moffat to end the Doctor/Companion  love interest/attraction angle. We know that on some level Clara was attracted to the Matt Smith Doctor and even had him pretend to be her boyfriend for the Christmas Special. The change in appearance also allowed for the development of the Clara/Danny relationship. (The amount of emphasis this relationship is being given is upsetting a lot of fans.).

Peter Capaldi has stated that his Doctor isn't going to be so "user friendly". Fans have already seen the new Doctor's lack of social skills. He is constantly insulting Clara and has shown himself to be brusque and irritable with those around him but whether this makes Capaldi's Doctor unlikeable or just quirky remains to be seen.

The Doctor's core qualities, his desire to help and get involved, his sense of justice and his unswerving curiosity, are still there but as we've seen, the strength of these personality traits ebb and flow according to the regeneration.

With the rest of Season Eight to go and the Christmas special to end the year, the jury is still out on Doctor number twelve. Will He mellow? Will he become even more irritable or could he undergo yet another regeneration? When it comes to questions regarding the Doctor, only time will tell.