Actually the 3D in this new ‘Dredd’ wasn’t all that bad. In a few shots it may actually have added a tiny amount and didn’t really detract elsewhere. I think it helped massively that it was actually shot with 3D cameras, so you don’t get the impression of flat elements in a 3D space as with the post-conversion jobs. I still haven’t seen it in 2D so I can’t say for sure what difference it really makes, I suspect not really enough to justify but at least it isn’t actively bad!

The ‘Slow-Mo’ shots are the ones that work best in 3D and it helps that they are very stylised, suddenly colours become a lot more saturated. The whole thing becomes a lot more vivid. It isn’t just gratuitous either, it’s all tied into the plot and Mega-City One’s latest designer drug.

The other shot that really stood out to me in 3D was a very simple look down a long empty corridor. I don’t know if it’s just the 3D or if they’ve skewed the perspective in camera (probably a combination of both) but it gives a wonderful sense of depth and just how exposed the Judges are in this killing zone. 3D helping to tell the story! Who’d have thought?

So, yes, I think this is probably the first film I’ve had anything really positive to say about the 3D. Oh, and they don’t use it as a gimmick, either. None of that throwing things at the viewer or poking a pointy stick in their face.

Nonetheless, I don’t think I’ll be rushing out for a 3D TV and buying the 3D Blu-ray version but I’m glad I did see it in 3D, if only for future comparison. It still made Karen feel sick and the already dark film is obviously affected further by the glasses. On top of that we all know there is no solving the fundamental convergence/focus issue, either. This cinema 3D is still a botched and totally flawed system but Dredd makes the best of a bad job, I’d say.

Just a point of clarity – I believe that Android (operating system) is released as an Apache 2.0 license – which means that changes to the original code don’t have to be submitted back.

http://www.apache.org/foundation/license-faq.html#Distribute-changes

I also think that there are (or were) components (GSM code springs to mind) that are proprietary and not open source.

Sorry Nea, the Tea Duelling URL is hidden away in those links but there are rather more than usual this time! Jean’s video can be found on the fledgling Staggering Stories YouTube channel at: http://youtu.be/EbbYRjesSjw

Hello to all members, real, fictional and otherwise undermined components of The Staggering Stories Team! Let us take a minute to realize that once again no one has said hello to the non-living components of the show. It’s ok we’ll wait…..

Done? Good. I am sending you a hello from what is quite possibly the best Doctor Who convention in this or any other world. OK I am home already but if I had a phone number I would have called and screamed LOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBYYYYYYCOOOOOOON!!!! Of course with the time difference you would have been at work, It would be left on your answering machine and it would have been a non issue this year.

OK well I arrived on Wednesday and proceeded to stock my personal bar in my room. I went light this year only vodka, more vodka, rum, Jack Daniels, bourbon, gin, beer, hard cider (in deference to Jean’s previous complaints on the lack of cider) and proper mixers. I also bought Twinkies yes those sweet delicious cream filled bastions of goodness. Also with various other snacks I was ready for Gallifrey. Oh and cigarettes Cheap California cigarettes which I don’t understand because they always claim to be so healthy out there. But they were a mere 2 dollars after my big NY coupons cut the price in half.

Anyway where was I? Amongst the first people I saw there were Chris from Radio Free Skaro and his lovely girlfriend Katrina. I promptly picked Chris up as well as I could. He is slightly taller then I so this was difficult. I later saw Paul and Little Pete from The Pharos Project. These were people that I could easily pick up and swing around and thus did so.

Later Paul and I were the last two people at Wednesday’s Lobbycon which ended early at 3 am. I did however spend a portion of Wednesday loading the truck that brings all the goodies to the Marriott. While not exactly what I had planned on doing on vacation I am a firm believer that helping out at a fan run convention is an excellent thing to do especially if it has rewards later in the weekend.

Thursday I shuffled out of the hotel to Denny’s with a few close friends then on to the liquor store to stock up again and then out across California with Michelle H of The Happiness Patrol to her old haunts and a stop by the local meet up pub for the LA branch of the MCFC supporters club to watch a bit of the Porto game.

After that and buying some more fabric for my costume we headed back to the hotel stopping along the way for Chocodiles the wonderful chocolate covered Twinkies. Then I helped with the offload of the Gally Truck and helped build the TARDIS that is located on the stage in the main hall. After a trip to world famous Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles I attended LobbyCon and had an interesting morning with breakfast at the hotel and a trip for the last of my alcohol for my room bar. I also shipped 8 cases of chocodiles back to NY for distribution to various coworkers. In fact I am eating one now. The best description as to how they taste was given to me my a friend that had one for the first time yesterday. “These things taste like dreams”.

OK We are now at Friday! Opening ceremonies. I missed this. I have no memory what I was doing but I missed it. The Radio Free Skaro panel was great and had Camille Corduri in what was the shortest dress of the weekend. It made me realise that I would choose her over Billie Piper everyday and twice on Sunday! Yum (ok down boy) I did attend various panels during the day such as “Miracle or Mistake: A Torchwood Miracle Day review. I did this one primarlly due to the fact that I have a similar panel at ICON 31 in March (along with 6 other panels I am completely mental you know). The IDW panel was lovely along with some art from the upcoming IDW Doctor Who Star Trek The Next Generation crossover. I went to other panels, recorded bumpers, and prepped my costume for Saturday. I did stop by and got Caitlin Blackwood’s autograph. I mentioned that I had a friend costume as her last year and her mother asked about it and if she (my friend ) had fun. I said well it was actually a man in his mid 40′s that costumed as her but it was done very tastfully. She then took down all of El Presidente’s information so congratulations as I believe that you will shortly have BOTH Amy Pond’s restraining order against you! (Just kidding about the restraining order)
Oh and I drank copiously and picked people up. (Please see attached photos)

Saturday was another full day filled with autographs, panels, and various other things including the Masquerade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qbBw2ZZ3gs&list=FLvTr39-DtNXdfP65NAUDMOA&index=1&feature=plpp_video alright can you pass the email to whoever did not watch that video? We also recorded a Gallifrey version of the TARDIS Tavern Podcast. I also won a presentation award for my costume! Later I interview Simon Fisher-Becker and had twinkies with him at LobbyCon which I stayed up until Starbucks opened at 5am.

The next morning I was rudely woken up by liver wanting to have a talk about the past few days. I told him that we would talk shortly but I was hallucinating right now could he please come back after a few drinks as it was 8:30 and I needed breakfast as well. Sunday was a day like all the others but with some differences. More autographs, more panels, more interview and bumper recording, and I got interviewed for a change. This time it was due to my costume which as you know by now was a set of ribbons. The interview was done by the good people at Nerdist who have a youtube channel coming out soon. went to more panels and eventually Closing Ceremonies it was stellar as usual with a huge fabulous treat in it Simon Fisher-Becker doing his Monologue from the Wedding of River Song. You know the one. It ‘s the one that ends with Doctor WHO? Doctor WHO?. I felt immense pity for Toby Hayes as he was then handed the microphone. I would have felt sorry for anyone that had to follow that.

The evening ended with Shaun Lyons stating that they will tell us eventually who next years headliner will be. All he said though was that it will be huge as they are pulling out all the stops for the anniversary year. With that in mind I have already Pre-Registered for next year. I have also started squirring money away for hotel airfare and of course the big expense… my bar tab. With closing ceremonies over this let to two things the big lobbycon party as well as the Volunteer Party. I attended both. The volunteer party was notable as one of the main convention runners proposed to his girlfriend at the party. I loved this but I am a huge girl when it comes to things like this. The other thing that I loved was arguing football with Paul McGann. As a Manchester City supporter who can date his support from before the Sheik bought the club and him being a Liverpool fan we had much to talk about.
Later it was up stairs to party and drink, and drink some more and continue until Starbucks opened at 5 am.

Monday. The saddest of days. I awoke at 9am and went to breakfast. Bumped into Simon Fisher-Becker that prince among men and had breakfast with him and Michelle H of the Happiness Patrol. Breakfast was grand and we said our eventual goodbyes. I packed my bags realized I was 20 pounds over the limit and had to unpack various things and finish what food and booze I could to get me under 50 pounds. This would not be too hard as I had an 11:30 pm flight. Do you have any idea how mindnumbing boring it is to spend a day in a hotel lobby? I ended up watching via twitter all of them leaving and going home and arriving before I had even left the lobby. The flight was as usual a royal pain as not only am I fat but tall as well. There was no sleep until I got home and took a 4 hour nap. Then went to bed early and slept for 11 hours straight.

Well that is the condensed version.
All the best
Andre Tessier
TARDIS Tavern Podcast
(Available on iTunes also http://tardistavern.libsyn.com/)

Don’t forget, if you’re a Podcaster, then you cant yote for your Podcast or your fellow podcasters. So, Here we Go.

SECTION 1 ; Podcasts

The First Category is Best Female Podcaster ;
a) Fake Keith, Staggering Stories
b) Alicia Pearson, 20MB Doctor Who Podcast
c) Vicki, The Flashing Blade
d) Jean Riddler, Staggering Stories

Best male Podcaster ;
a) Adam J Purcell, Staggering Stories
b) Real Keith, Staggering Stories
c) Ben Shoveller, 20MB Doctor Who Podcast
d) Dave Keep, DWO Whocast

Best Overall Podcaster ;
a) Tony Gallichan, DWO Whocast
b) Adam Pearson, 20MB Doctor Who Podcast
c) Rhys Parton, Two many to name

Best Edition of A Podcast ;
Any Individual episode of a podcast, of your choiuce

Best Podcast;
a) Staggering Stories
b) The Flashing Blade
c) The 20MB Doctor Who Podcast
d) DWO Torchcast

So, as well as those 5 categories, there will be the awards for ‘Best
New Podcast’ and the ‘Special Award’, both of which willl be picked by
MISTER M and his associates

SECTION 2 ; The SHOW

Best Episode of 2011 ;
Your favourite episode from The Impossible Astronaut – The Doctor, The
Widow, and The Wardrobe, Not including the extra scenes. Two Votes are
allowed

Best Companion;
a) Amy pomd
b) River Song
c) Rory Williams

Best Guest Actress ; Any Actress from the past year. you can vote for
Three people here

Best Guest Actor ; Same as above

Most Wanted Return ; Which charcter/villian you want to see returrn in
Series 7

Best Writer ; From Series 6

Best Villian ;

Best Monster ;

SECTION 3 ; THE SPIN OFFS

Best SJA Series 5 Episode ;

BNest Torchwood Miracle Day Episode ;

Best Ever Series of Sarah Jane Adventures ; Including The Invasion of
The Bane ad Series 1

And, Finally
Best Ever Doctor ;

And
Best Ever Companion ;

The vast Toffee has said that the comic relief episodes were set post epsidoe 2, pre episode 5.

Men in Black 3 is in the can, due May 25, 2012 (US, I presume).

Ghostbuster 3 is still in preproduction. It’s very ‘he’s in, he’s out’ with Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver has said she’ll only do it if Murray’s in.

Spider-man 4 has been superceeded by The Amazing Spider-man, due July 3, 2012 (again, presumably in the US but may be the International date, too)

Star Trek 2 is stuck in preproduction, I believe that internal dates have been bumped as they apparently struggle to finish the script.

So, yeah. Two will be out in 2012 and the other two probably sometime after (if at all – especially in Ghostbusters 3′s case!)

Cheers!

Time for a Bit of Feedback, where i dont have to do much writing.
Only Now! Its Time, for A Story!

Many years ago, (Well, about 3 or 4, but i think ill
still say Many Years Ago!)

Not Many years ago, i went to a rather nice school. And at the ratehr
nice school, was a rather nice teacher. And Thsi ratehr nice teacher
(Mrs, Cooper, to be exact) was a bit keen on a certain TV show – Doctor
Who! Well, You See, She was ratehr interested in a little publication
that was going aroudn teh school and it was called Whosround. She
learnt that The Publication was written by a ceratian MISTER M!
(Obviously, not called that at bThe Time.) And so, she started sending
me reviews of the episodes to Put in THe Whosround Newsletter! So,
Heres one fo em!

Well, ive had to send it as an attachment, because my laptop wont let
me copy it into this feedback!

If you Like itm, ive got tons of bntis like this i coudl send to you. I
began whosround in June 2007, and contineud it all the way through to
July 2010, so theres tons of Articles! But she was a good teacher.
Latin teacher in fact, Thsi ment we got to watch the Fires of Pompeii
in Class, and The cOnfidentail, and i Borught The DWM (Breath, Adam,
Breath.) Artcile about filming the ep! Plus, if i ever decide to truly
reveal who i am, the n i might show you some of my Own Doctro WHo
Scritps – 20 in Total, an a spin off! And Dont worry, vie spell checked
them!

Now, I was goign to talk (write) about spiolers, but on the facebook i
seem to have gone on about it with Adam for quite a bit, so, here is
oru facebook conversation!

Adam J Purcell

So, Let’s Kill Hitler! Really very good indeed. A spoiler free review
is probably impossible. Lots of explanation & exposition but very fun.

15 hours ago via Twitter

Alan T Butcher likes this..

MISTER M ; a DWM Tweet has spioled me already. damn them.

3 hours ago · Like.

Adam J Purcell

So I hear. At the risk of further spoilers (which it won’t be, merely
speculation based on a massively short clip) I wouldn’t necessarily
take what they said on face value. The returnee in question features as
a tiny, tiny shot during the ‘half season’ trailer at the end of the
episode. You’ll see it yourself in under two weeks, assuming you don’t
avoid it by turning over! I’m not convinced it is quite what it appears
to be. Hard to say from the clip, though.

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M

I dont follow DWM, i just read it on site that collects all Doctro Who
Tweets. I wouldnt say its the sites fault, as there were alot of tweets
about the screenign last night, and they normally filter out the
spiolers.

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M

But, no. I Dont like knowing returnign monsters are coming back. I Like
the shocks! Only once or tewice has this worked. Once with The Master
in Series 3 (How did i avoid That one? Good i must have been lucky!)
and secondly with all the returning monsters in The Pnadorica Opens
(Again, how did i survive that one?) I Do seem to find out the less
talked about ones, and miss the ones that have forums not only
exploding but also imploding.

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M

I Think that not knowing what the monster/villan is helps the story to
be more shocking. i still have meemorie sof jumping up and down of the
sofa when derek jacobi said ‘i am the master’ and then being so
excitable for the enxt few hours i had to resort to running around the
house for the rest of the night! It gave the following story a much
wider sense of anticipation and suspense. i just couldnt wait for it!
And the Same with The Cult fo Skaro in Army fo Ghosts. I remebr Running
aroudn the Garden actign out A Massive Dlaek/Cyber war, which seemed to
feture The 10th Doctor regenerating, i think.

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M

But back to the actual spioler. Even if its just a cameo from a futrue
episode like *** ******* ****** ***** might be ** ******* ***, ** ***
********* *****. At leats i think *** ******* *** anuway. That might
even annoy me further. Just a few seconds of them would be even more
suprising, like the Judoon in AGMGTW! But that me be better that a big
bad or somehting

3 hours ago · Like.

Adam J Purcell

Yeah, I too missed the return of the Master. I think they kept that
pretty well under wraps. As for Pandorica Opens, all I’d seen was a
picture of the stone Dalek but didn’t really understand what it was.
Dodged that bullet too, for the most part!

I too would prefer not to know the returning monsters but I’ve come to
the conclusion that in many cases that is impossible to avoid – they
are often splashed all over the media to entice people in (especially
on the front cover of the Radio times). Then they also go and name
stories like ‘Daleks in Manhattan’.

The reveal of Professor Yana’s true character is definitely a plot
point and a major one at that. A clear case of knowing the returning
villain being a spoiler. Knowing that Alpha Centuari is showing up in
the Christmas Special (don’t worry – it isn’t as far as I know!)
wouldn’t concern me overly!

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M Alpha Centuari could marry River. Alpha Song!

3 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M hmm. i was goign to talk about spiolers in feedbakc for the
next podcast (are you recording tonight?) but i think ive already said
what iw anted to say!

2 hours ago · Like.

Adam J Purcell Who knows! Those season trailers just show disconnected
images. There were what appeared to be some Weeping Angels in there but
not knowing anything about upcoming stories, it is impossible for me to
speculate about the all-important context. Same goes for the DWM
spoiler.

But yes, we are indeed recording tonight and would certainly appreciate
the feedback!

2 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M and a quick question. If you dont want to awnser it, then i
wont mind, Does the psidoe feature the Line Lets kill Hitler?

2 hours ago · Like.

Adam J Purcell I don’t think that’s too much of a spoiler! If you want
to know, then yes, it features that line very early in the episode!

2 hours ago · Like.

MISTER M thanks! youre to good to me!

2 hours ago · Like.

Right Then. That was Easy. A.K.A MSITER M

P.S Try searching for Me on Facebook. You Wont Fidn me

P.P.S Well. You Might if you go to here ; http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/profile.php?id=100001186636146

P.P.P.S Please. Be my Friend

P.P.P.P.S I Have no Friends
P.P.P.P.P.S Except for my favoruite
Knobknacher
P.P.P.P.P.P.
S Spekaing of which, How was Amys skrit in lets Kill Hitler?

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S Oh Thats not right!

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S How was Amys Skirt in Lets Kill Hitler?

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S And How where The Legs

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S Karen Gillan = Sex on Legs

No doubt by now you have seen and talked about the new trailer for series 6b, well all of you except the member of the team who has a hissy fit at potential spoilers. When I saw River Song in her eye patch I straight away thought she reminded me of Travis from Blakes 7. So if River Song is going to be the new Travis what about the rest of the crew. Amy could be Servalan. I can just picture her in some of those outfits. Matt could be Villa, and Ar’fer could be Blake as an man who is constantly having his ideals smashed by the utter pointlessness of the world around him. Oh and could die every time he uses the teleporter.

On the subject of spoilers, surely the DWM cover was not a spoiler as the Death happened within the first third of the episode. As a rule of thumb for the people who write blurbs, anything that happens within the first third is up for grabs, as an inducement to watch the show/film etc. So all DWM did was follow the usual rules to get people watching by telling them what might happen to get people to watch to find out. In my perfect world that was not a spoiler. Still you can go and have a hissy fit if you want.

Regards

O Captain, My Captain.
Ah, hello all.

I did go to college I swear! (Or university as you all call it?)

I meant to say, “And try to avoid spoilers like WE did.”

Whoops! Be seeing you!

And Torchwood is getting horribly sad again! Dammit! I know burning the doctor alive served the story but c’mon she was the best character! Oh well, that’s what you get for sending a non-field agent who can’t keep emotions in check. (She would have been fine if she hadn’t attacked the camp director personally like that. He didn’t flip out and shoot until she started to call him “little man”).

Guess I better get used to Esther. I know she is the “regular person” analogue but she’s a little tiresome. And Rex is worse than Owen! But since it is RTD I guess everyone will die so that’s fine. (Maybe?)

Adrian

On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 11:48 PM, A P wrote:
> Dear Team…

> Oh, and HAH again! Now you all got to experience what we did with the
> stupid American Holiday delaying Dr Who. You had to wait for
> Torchwood! And had to try to avoid spoliers like did! Who’s crying,
> “As long as it has aired it is fair game” now, eh?

No doubt by now you have seen and talked about the new trailer for series 6b, well all of you except the member of the team who has a hissy fit at potential spoilers. When I saw River Song in her eye patch I straight away thought she reminded me of Travis from Blakes 7. So if River Song is going to be the new Travis what about the rest of the crew. Amy could be Servalan. I can just picture her in some of those outfits. Matt could be Villa, and Ar’fer could be Blake as an man who is constantly having his ideals smashed by the utter pointlessness of the world around him. Oh and could die every time he uses the teleporter.

On the subject of spoilers, surely the DWM cover was not a spoiler as the Death happened within the first third of the episode. As a rule of thumb for the people who write blurbs, anything that happens within the first third is up for grabs, as an inducement to watch the show/film etc. So all DWM did was follow the usual rules to get people watching by telling them what might happen to get people to watch to find out. In my perfect world that was not a spoiler. Still you can go and have a hissy fit if you want.

Regards

O Captain, My Captain.

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

Quick fire reviews!

Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Good, not myf avorutie film though (thats still half blood prince) The music in the openign is brilliant, liked the end bits, cried during snapes memories

Torchwood COE ; DAY ONE – love the setup.
DAY TWO – Love Jacks rebirth
DAY THREE – Love that ending
DAY FOUR – Hate that iantos dead
DAY FIVE – hate jack.

Torchwood Miracle Day – Ep 1 – my least favourite ep, but still rather good

Ep 2 – Fvaourite ep – its just agood old romp

Ep 3 – Some btis are a bit ood, and some charcters have agood old romp.

Hope this is in on time A.K.A MISTER M

P.S Whats that brain?
P.P.S i forgot to mention Her?
P.P.P.S For the whole feedback
P.P.P.P.S Even those legs
P.P.P.P.P.S Betetr mention them then (and her of course)
P.P.P.P.P.P.S fruble
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S Karen Gillan (and those long lovely, unbelivably sexy legs)

Been a while since I last wrote, and I hope you are all well. First I thought I’d wait writing in because I knew you’d get a lot of feedback after Good Man Goes To War, and then that pesky real life kept getting in the way again.
I was quite lucky with the finale in that I got to watch it live in a cinema at my old university. I’ve never watched Doctor Who with such a large group of people before and it was brilliant. The atmosphere was fun and tense. When Amy was giving her big speech at the beginning and said “and this man is your father” almost the whole theatre gasped thinking it was the Doctor. But no, it was the ever awesome Roman Rory. Then the next day I watched it again with friends and one actually punched the air at the Doctor’s reveal. I’m really looking forward to the new series, especially since the alleged August 27th start date means that an episode of Doctor Who will be airing on my birthday! I know I’m probably too old to find that exciting, but I can’t help it.

Was sorry that I didn’t run into you guys at LFCC, but the place was so crowded I’m not really surprised. Maybe next time. I did have a good time though on both days and got some nice convention swag and Mark Shepherd’s autograph. I was even in costume on sunday as San from Princess Mononoke.

I’ll keep this short and sweet and will leave you with this link to a very adorable fan song about the episode The Doctor’s Wife, sung by a young fan with an ukulele: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z5hlC5HQ2o&NR=1 She also has a cute song about Rory.

Keep on staggering

Sarah

So time has passed since I last wrote back then I was 10.
Lots has changed since 2009

I have seen children of earth, am in the process of watching Miracle day, tried fish custard and it is actually tasty:-P mmm yum, Lots of stuff has happened but the most important thing is that I became 12. Damn I hate high school. Why does everyone hate torchwood? It is a work of GENIUS!! but I digest

Yesterday I can’t remember what happened I think a silent was with me but I have no idea. And if you think you are a doctor who fan answer me this. What time did doctor who start. I’ll tell you in the next email.I loved torchwood miracle day. I think that the BBC working with Starz America was a great idea and made a great series so far. Keep up the good work BBC. Anyways I need to go and steal some tardis

From Daniel

PS. POTATO( in Keith lemon voice please )
PPS. Have you ever heard of chameleon circuit they do doctor who fan music
PPPS. I got my tardis:-D

I’m a long-time listener of your podcast, but I think this is my first ever feedback. Why did I wait so long?

I just wanted to drop you a line to say I love love love your show, and you always make me laugh out loud, even when I’m listening in public, at the bus stop or on the bus itself! The number of times I’ve had to cover my mouth to hide my grin and prevent folk from wondering who the loony is…well, anyway.

Great news that Who will be back on August 27th, according to the current news from Comic Con, anyway. I thought they’d make us wait longer, but then again, they’ve got to fit Merlin in before Christmas too. And the trailer for the rest of the season is great – although, was that River I spotted wearing an eye patch!?!?!? Can’t wait to see what that’s about!

At the time of writing I’ve only seen 2 episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day, and I’m still not sure about it. It’s just too……American, and I know that’s a bit of a stupid thing to say, but it is! I’ll continue to watch, and I have heard that episode 3 is amazing, so, we’ll see.

And now I have a 30 second recommendation – the novels Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. I read Rivers of London earlier this year and have just finished Moon over Soho and I absolutely love them. They tell the story of a young PC serving in the Met, who gets himself involved in an unusual case one night while on patrol. He then finds out about a hidden department within the Met, which consists of one senior officer who deals with cases involving supernatural/magical elements. He also finds out that he has a talent for magic himself and is transferred to this department, to become the first apprentice wizard for many many years. The stories themselves are involving and unusual, and they are told from the point of view of the PC, Peter Grant, and melds the magical with the modern world in a delightful and funny way. I’d definitely recommend you reading them and I can’t wait for the further adventures of PC Grant.
Well, that’s all for now – thanks for the show it’s always a highlight when a new one is released.

Thanks,
Dawn

Oh, I forgot to say that the guy from Bedlam was on the panel too. And GRIM looks scary and great. It is being done by some Buffy/Angel alums and is a cop show…about policing the paranormal. One character is a descendant of the Grimm family and finds out that all his family’s fairy tales were actually criminal profiles and also dire warnings. Very cool.

Ah, along with will the many Matt Smiths and one David Tennant at SDCC I finally saw a cute chica as a Matt Smith Doctor walking around. (Not sure how to react to that though).

The Smiths were okay but the Tennant guy was eerily spot on. Hair, coat, vest, face, and teeth all kind of implied to me that a ganger got to Tennant!

(I tried to get his attention by calling out “David” but when he didn’t turn around I then called out, “David Tennant” to which he responded. Hah! As DT’s Doctor would have said).

And….changing tack….I really like Miracle Day! Horrible title, weak ad campaign, ugly posters around town but…..excellent show!

I just hope it doesn’t end up as fantastically depressing as Children of Earth. Of course if Jack’s daughter is working with some big bad for revenge over her son then I guess it will.

(John B did say at Comicon that the new / current series is going to be even darker than CoE. Noooooo!)

By the way what’s up with the “Anti-Christ / Anti-Torchwood” triangle logo of the secret bad guys? (An upside-down Christian cross or the letter T both make a triangle if you trace around it). Or maybe it is just those gosh darned Free Masons or the over-used Illuminati.
Oh, and HAH again! Now you all got to experience what we did with the stupid American Holiday delaying Dr Who. You had to wait for Torchwood! And had to try to avoid spoliers like did! Who’s crying, “As long as it has aired it is fair game” now, eh?

Just imagine if someone from the USA and tweeted or emailed you that “Jack can die now!” a week before you could have even pirated it? Kind of puts the River Revelation on the other foot now doesn’t it?

Moving on….you all are still made of awesome. If I am ever in the UK I will buy you all a pint! Just one for all of you to share, though, ha-haaaa! (Just kidding, I’ll spring for a pint each).

Be seeing you!
Adrian from America

Just wanted to share some stuff from San Diego! Couldn’t get into the Torchwood or Dr Who panels (So no Eve M, Matt S or Karen G).

But….I did see a TV Guide panel on new supernatural shows with John Barrowman and Mark Shepard.

(Among many others from other shows like Secret Circle, The River, True Blood, Teen Wolf and GRIM).

John was of course very John. He sang happy birthday (first as Marilyn Monroe) to a male fan cos-playing as Capt Jack. And then walked into the audience and made out with the fan!

(He then said into the mike to the fan: “Please don’t have herpes!”)…

John did make some interesting comments about Who crossing over with Torchwood. About how Jack could go back to Who but the Doctor shouldn’t come come over to Torchwood. (As one is a darker adult show versus a more family friendly show).

Okay…be seeing you!

Adrian

Neverwhere starts as all of the best novels start, with a Scottish man, Richard Mayhew is a pretty typical character and rather suffers, I feel from “Main Character Syndrome” a condition in which the principle character possesses only a few character traits, loyalty, nobility etc. just enough to get you on their side but no more, as a result Richard plays the part of observer for the most part of the book, finding things happen To him rather than Because of him and therefore we find that the supporting characters are far more compelling, de Carabas is wise and wonderful and Hunter mysterious and Awesome and that’s not to mention the terrifying double act of Croup and Vandemar. For those interested, other characters who suffer from Main Character Syndrome are Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Twilight Bitch and Will Turner so this is not really a problem with the book. It’s just that one would far rather be Aragorn, Han Solo or De Carabas than their respective principle-part-playing-pals.

So, the book starts off strongly. With Richard’s selfless act getting us on side with the man very effectively. What follows is, I feel one of the most terrifying pieces of fiction I have ever read. The idea of being closed out of one’s own life as happens to Richard is, as I say terrifying and the book carries it off well. The sheer hopelessness of Richard’s situation provides the strongest chapter in the novel. His journey to the rat king, then to the market bridge also is a creative chapter which is thoroughly enjoyable to read. The dangerous land of London Below comes through in Gaiman’s writing skills and draws the reader in effectively.

Another of the book’s stand out features is the threatening double act of Mr Croup and Mr Vademar. Two characters who’s introduction is Laugh Out Loud funny, yet their initial introduction could not be further from the true nature of the villains. They are grotesque, foul and seem to be to all intents and purposes unstoppable. Once they have their eyes on you, you’re going down. This makes them, I feel probably the best thing about the book, their success in the murder of De Carabas clinching their fear factor.
Unfortunately, though I feel this is where the book goes downhill. In the British Museum it becomes clear that Croup and Vandemar’s employer doesn’t want Door and Richard dead so the threat of the characters is lost, what’s more the “twist” where Hunter is the traitor can be seen from a mile off and the mystery of the key shaped object in Mayhew’s pocket was kind of predictably, a key. However, it’s not just the twists that spoil the excellent set up a little, but the fact that everything just seems so easy. The battle with the great beast, I cite in particular. It takes Richard literally a paragraph to defeat this terrible monster that had been built up for a the best part of the book.

All this said, however I would still say that Neverwhere is worth borrowing from the Library. The characters are strong and it’s all worth it for the chapter where Mayhew is removed from his own life. However, I would also say that if you wanted to read a Neil Gaiman book for the first time, you should go for “American Gods” , a work of genius and a modern classic.

Well, that’s all folks. I had fun writing this review so I might do one for American Gods and Anansi Boys when I get the chance if that’s all right?

>From Stephen

P.S. It was very exciting to see you all at Comic-Con. Who knows, I might pluck up the courage to make eye contact with someone other than Adam next time…

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

I’ll try and keep this brief, but I apologise in advance for the long names.

Crashing on.

I got lucky enough to be bought a ticket to go and see Doctor Faustus (the f-ow-st-us pronunciation is the correct one) at the globe.
Informed before hand by a friend who’d seen it where to stand for “optimal Darvill” we positioned ourselves by the ramp to watch the play.

For those not familiar with either the globe theatre, or the story i’ll briefly try to summarise both. The Globe is an edwardian re-construction
theatre, complete with thatched roof. Something they had to get special permission for as it’s been outlawed since the great fire. Being as
close to the original as possible, they use edwardian style costumes and techniques, no microphones or comfy seats here, theres also the
standing area in the pit for peasants like myself, this is not covered over. We saw the play in a storm.

Doctor Faustus, as described to me by the friend I went with is a play in which a man sells his soul to the devil, and shit goes down. The family
friendly description would be, man sells soul to devil, he and lesser devil get up to tricks, he dies.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, it variously threw it down with rain, thundered, hailed, there was even some lightning as well as sun throughout
the duration of the play. Darvill was the only one to remain completely in character throughout, although he does spend large chunks of the play watching
solemnly from a corner. This did however add to the play at various points, one as a character is discussing sorcery, and a heavy rainstorm starting
just as the 7 deadly sins writhe around on stage in what can really only be described as an orgy. However, I didn’t dry out until about 10 that evening, so
if you do go to see it in bad weather, be prepared for it.

The various pyrotechnics and other effects are lovely and very clever, including one where Mephistopheles conjures fire in his hands, that was particularly impressive.
Costuming too was excellent, I am full of praise for Arthur Darvill in flowery leggings and a cape with a little tiny evil curl of hair on his forehead. Faustus’ various
costumes were lovely too, lots of heavily embroidered materials and fur.

The acting too was excellent, only on rare occasions did I see Mephistopheles as Rory rather than a devil, mostly when he was sitting out in the rain looking
mournful. Mostly, I struggled not to giggle with joy from Mephistopheles and Faustus’ messing around, although in my defence at one point they link arms and skip up
the stage.

If nothing else, it’s worth seeing for the end song alone with tiny dancing devils and Mephistopheles and Faustus singing and playing lute in a fairly rock
and roll fashion.

Anyway, to conclude. Go, see it, and wear a coat.

(Oh, and Arthur”s character doesn’t die)

Lots of love

Misha

This is gonna be a long one. I know!

I Dont expect you to read the whole thing out, so here is a quick oveview of ehats comign up ; Misfits Series 1 / The Harry Potter Books / The Harry Potter Films / Plus a few other Things

Harry Potter and The Philosephers Stone
Book ; The Shortest book of The Series, and a very good read. Introduign characetrs and concepts from Across all Seven Books neatly Slipped In. Harry is an incredibly likable character (exception fo some bits of book 5, but that was sllightly intended), and Ron is very strategic (Chess being my main link for htis, but he does wokr out a fair chunk of whats goign on, and is a good friend to harry by what he says, always trying ot bring out the posotive in things), and Hermione is a bit annoying at the start, but as she starets to forget about books, disregard the rules, and fall in lvoe with ron, she does become ratehr lovely. Quirrell is a bit one sided. not to sure why he sided with voldermrot. Snape is brilliant

Film ; The Honey/Goldon colour of the first two films gies it a nice warm, magical feel. Hogwarts looks magnificent, The Charcaters are protrayed brilliantly – especially Alan Rickman

Favourie Line – Ollivander ; I Think it is clear, that we can expect great things from you

Harry Potter and The Chambr of Secrets
Book ; This is an absolutley AMAZING BOOK! I Just love it The Story is great Love it,

Film ; The film jis even better. Scary, Brilliant LONG – Which is a good thing. I like watching All 3 lord fo the rings films in one go evrey now and then. Dont give me an hour and a half give 6!. But back to th eplot. Its clever how the diray is a horcrux. Might be a bit important later….
New Characetrs ; Lucius Malfoy – If onyl this was Audio. My Luciuc impression is great (Althoguh, i am biased.) But Jason isscas is fantastci (Running out of words to describe the great cast here HELP. Wonder why.) Gidleory Lockheart – Anoyingly Good. Dobby – Harry Potter! I Like Dobby. My DObby impression si good, bu it hurts me to do it. Ginny – Cute.

Favourite Line ; Malfoy ; Let us hope that Mr Potter will always Be around to save the Day

Least Favourite Line(s) ; Harry ; Dont worry, I Will Be / Dont worry. Its Just a Memory. (Cringe)

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
Book ; Clever, but not me favourite. Good thought. I Like the twist of who sirius is.

Film ; Like The time turner stuff. Alfonso Cuaron does do sinem good shots, but, i just seems to different from films 1 and 2, so im a bit iffy on some of this film. But teh time turner sequence is brilliant, search youtube for a video which matchs up the H/R/H And Future verisons toghetehr, its hilarious.

New Charcters ; Lupin i love great charcter davdi thewlis is great. cvant belive he died. Siirus is great to. cant belive he died. Wormtail is a bit nasty. Glad he died. Trawleny didnt die, but shes funny.

Favourite Line ; Ron ; The spiders. They want me to tap dance. i dont want to tap dance, Harry ; You Tell those spiders ron.

Favourite Line 2 ; Sirius ; The People who love us never truely lkeave us. you can always find them in here (Look out for a reprise of this in he new film)

Favorutie Line 3 ; Snape ; Well Well Well Lupin. Out for a little walk in the moonlight (God, Give Alan Rickamn Five lines and you’ll be there for half an hour. Its like wathcign primeval)
Favorutie Line 4 ; Sirius (To Snape) ; Why dont you run along and play with your chemisty set.

Least Favorutie Line ; Hermione ; Is That really what my hair looks like from the back.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
Book ; LOVE IT. Big – Good. Amaizng, Brilliant. word to descirbe good book. uh.

Film ; Great, But strange. But love it.

New Charcters ;
Mad Eye Moody (Real) ; Love im.
Braty Crouch ; Creepy
Braty Crocub Jr. ; Im Im The Doctor.
Ludo Bagman ; Why did they cut him from the film
Lord Voldermort ; Scary. I was properly scared of him when i first saw this film.

Favourite Line ; Vodlemrort ; Im going to kill you. / Looka t me Harry Potter. I Wnat to the see the light go out in your eyes when i kill you!

Least Favorutie Linbe ; Harry ; I Love Magic

Harry Potetr and The Order of The Phionex

Book; My favorutie of The Books

Film ; My least favourite film.

Maybe this is down to the lack fo steve kloves. Its not David Yates, cause he made my favoutire film. hm.

New Charcters ;
Umbridge ; reading her makes me want to hit someone. A lot. Great Charcetr
Tonks ; Love ehr in the books. One of my fav charcters. But shes barley in the films. She has like no lines in films 6-8.
Kingsley ; See above.
Bellatrix ; I Love Her. That Tight leather… No. Stop. you cant betaray Karen Gillan and Her legs. No. WAait i can. Love HBC.
Favourite Lines ; Siirus ; It feels like it did last time
Umbridhe ; Depe down, Ypou knwo, You deserve to eb punsiehd.

Harry Potetr and The Half Blood Prince
Book ; I Love this book, But i just have thsi strange feeling when i read it. I Dont knwo whatr this feeling is, but it just intruges me. Its not the feeling of somehting being worng, not the feeling of somehting being right, its just a feeling.

Film ; My favorutie film Soudnbtrack si amaxing. I Want to find the Lighting guy and Kiss him. I do hope its a woman though. (HBC Maybe?)

New Charcters ; Slughorn is good. No other new ones i dont think?

Harry Potetr and The Deathly Hallows
Book ; Prtty good job.

Film 1 ; Love it.

Favoruite Lines form Film 1 ; Lupin (Syaing the Last words dumbeldore spoke to him) ; Harry si the best hope we have, trust him.

And Harry OPotter and The Deathly Hallwos part 2 looks A-MA-ZING!

And Now, As coswen by You Misfits!
Epsidoe 1. So Superpowers and Azbos. Good Mix of stuf there. I Liked this episode, I was a bit freakd out about the probation worker. 8/10

Epsidoe 2. So. Granny banging. This epsidoe wasnt as good as the first but it had boobs, so 7/10

Episode 3. So. Hair falling out. This one wasnt as good as the last two 6/10

Episode 4. So. Turing back time – \Thsi is my fvaourite epsidoe of series 1. and when curtis goes to the future where they others got killed. Natahn is alive WHY? Becasue hes immortall. 9/10

Episode 5. So. SImon goe suncharcetristaclly scary. But in a good way. Althgoug he does kill someone. Thats not good. 8/10

Epsiode 6. So. Nathans dead. 9/10

SEIRES 2
Episode 1. So. Nathans Alive. And some freaky girl is changign into peiple and giving simon a blowjob. 9/10

Epsidoe 2. So. Nathan sees dead people. 7/10

Episode 3. So. SImon is the masked man. and He can touch alisha without want to fuck her. wonder why. 9/10. But the reveal of who amsked man is is a briliant sequence (Note, i did guess it becuase after series 1 aired, th emsifts website put a photo of the wall with the clcoks, and i first thoguht it was somehting simon had done, caus eof the photos, but then i realsied he must be masked man!)

Episode 4. So. Simon is dead. 9/10

Epsiode 5. So. Kellys shagged a gorilla. 6/10

Episode 6. So. The world has found out about the groups powers. 10./10

Epsiode 7. So. NSImosn going to killm Jesus. And theyve all lost their pwoer,s but their goign to get new ones. 9/10

And Now, The Cast of msifits
Nathan – Immortality. Funny, Annoying, Dead but nto rwally dead.
Simon – Invsiibility. Pervy. Masky, Dead-y
Curtis – Time Travel (ish). Running. Boring. Nothing
kelly – Teleoathy. Slutty. Weepy. Loudy.
ALisha – overwhelming sexual arousal. Hotty. Cty-y. Soemhting elsey.

Favorutie Quotes ; *Throws rock at car* What is your problem? are you mentally deranged?”Nathan ” if i was mentally derangd i would have missed. Look at that! bullseye!

Kelly ; call me a bitch one more time i will kick you so hard in the cunt your mum will feel it

Nathan: “Did you suddenly grow a set of balls?” Simon: “I’ve always had a set of balls; you’ve just never seen them!” Nathan “That is about the gayest thing I’ve ever heard!”

Nathan ; SAVE ME BARRY!!!

Nathan ; ‘Be good to my mum or i’ll take you to the vet to be put down’

“in the end no matter what i do, its my friends and family that will get hurt” “wait what…is that from spiderman???”

Nathan ; She’s got you thinking this is how your supposed to be, WELL ITS NOT! We’re young, we’re supposed to drink too much, were supposed to have bad attitudes and shag each others brains out!We are designed to party, this is it! Yea so a few of us will overdose or go mental but Charles Darwin said you cant make a omelet with out braking a few eggs and thats what its all about, breaking eggs and by eggs i do mean gettin’ twated on a cocktail of class A’s. If you could just see yourselves! it breaks my heart! YOUR WEARING CARDIGANS! We had it all. We fucked up bigger and better than any generation that came before us. WE WERE SO BEAUTIFUL! We’re screw ups, I’m a screw up and I plan to be a screw up until my late 20′s or maybe even early 30′s and I will shag my own mother before I let her or anyone else take that away from me!”

Nathan ; A man can’t have a shuffle in his own coffin ?

Nathan ; taking a couple of specials for a walk in the sunshine

Nathan ; Can we please stop killing our probation workers?!?!”

Nathan ; ‘we’re like the Mitchell brothers, only we’re not bald, ugly and shit’

where is conti?”Nathan: “oh that’d be him, hes a right conti!”

Nathan: I mean we did sod all with our powers but at least we never abused them. We never raped or murdered anyone. Curtis: She raped me and we killed loads of people.

Nathan: Come on man, it all adds up. Do the maths.
Simon: There is no maths.
Nathan: Right, she was here + no one else was around x she caught me leering at her semi-naked divided by the weird shit that happens to us = GUILTY.

Nathan; The siren call of a blow job renders all men powerless. That’s how girls trick you into marrying them.”
New probation worker: “But seriously… we’ve all got things we’d rather be doing. Going to see your mates. A little recreational drug use. Making love to your beautiful Italian girlfriend, yeah?… I’m talking about me.”

Nathan ; theres only one thing young ladies should be inserting into themselves….and thats knowledge

Nathan ; Okay, alright, alright. I’ll give you a clue. I’m an annoying cunt.
Alisha: Yeah, we know that.

Ben: If you’ve got any questions, just ask Nathan: If a bear and a shark had a fight, who would win?

Nathan ; ‘Ooh Cornettos”.

So. I Think thats enoughm, don you?Overall. Misfits is good 9/10.

so, Thats one thing done. ut what to revie wnext – Is it Being Human Series 3, or Amy Ponds Skirt?

Now. I Have noticed that the hp books are all rather similar, like so.

1/7 – Sirius’ Bike / Gringotts / Dragons / Ollivander / Griphook / Kings Cross, and some other stuff…

2/6 – A Lack of Voldemrort, but still aprescene of him via meorys / Horcruxes / Ginny / Dobby

3/5 – The Prescense of Sirius and Lupin / Questions abotu Snape / Misbelfs abiut peopel (Harry/Sirius) The Feeling of anger iside Harry
Book 4 isw the tipping piont, the only one that ahs a completly different feel and tone to the others.

Phew. Tnis is long. im going now. I Gues si will revie torchwood COE, The therre new radio plays, And mircale day ep 1, anlogn with Deathyl Hallwos part 2 next week. If tis anyhting near as long as this, then

god help you.

Tired after writing for a whole whpur stragiht MISTER M

P.S Here is a link for a yotube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfeyUGZt8nk.Its
not sci-fi, but its great.

P.P.S Is it stuck in your head yet.

Before I start I must apologize for missing the deadline for your previous, Fake Keith edited episode, I was on holiday in New Zealand, and I’m to even sure if I managed to get this to you, if not then you will have a BIG amount of feedback from me in an episode coming up as I catch up!. Also, I must congratulate Fake Keith for editing that episode, I noticed there weren’t as many rude Adam jokes (I do dread what’s is going to be in this episode, after his little picture…).

But now to podcast topics, Story Arcs, this is a very good topic for discussion and as with everything it is all down to personal opinion, some people (Adam and Real Keith by the sounds of it) prefer tightly intertwined, well written story arcs, such as season 5 of New Who (not so much with season 6, as has been discussed), or, from what I’ve heard, Babylon 5. Others may prefer not so tightly written arcs such as the Bad Wilf- no Wolf (plug for that brilliant podcast) season arc. Whereas other people, such as myself, don’t really care. I like theorizing and trying to figure things out, but it doesn’t bother me if there is one or not. But I do like the fact many fans live off that sort of thing!

Back to season 6 of Doctor Who, I’m finding it hard to come up with an opinion of this season, it seems a bit too…shambolic. We have the brilliance of The Doctor’s Wife and A Good Man Goes To War, but then we have the first and second two-parters (the second was much more enjoyable for me though). I really don’t like the first two-pater, or maybe just the first episode. The Impossible Astronaut just seemed to be The BBC trying to get more American viewers and Steven Moffat doing it in an apparently controversial way, or rather it would’ve been controversial if it hadn’t been such a cope-out to archive what The BBC wanted. A lot of it was Moffat using Paradoxes (AGAIN!!!!) just to tell a rather poor story with convenient scenes in it, I.e Rory just noticing, out of the blue, the boat they needed, just as they needed it, where they needed it! Sorry for that cynical rant, I just really don’t like if after re-watching it. I will agree with Jean that the season has effected that story (not so much with the others) but that one just seemed to be Moffat saying “Look at when we’ve got, this is BIG this is COOL, and you’ll love trying to figure it out!”
Now to story arcs in general Sci-Fi. I haven’t seen many convincing story arcs in shows (but I have heard about Babylon 5′s story arcs, as we all know), but I think one of the best shows for a mix of well written yet loosely done story arc is Stargate SG-1.

The show started off with three seasons really well thought out and planned, with a cliffhanger leading from season one into two, I think (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it though) it’s that same with season 3. They started introducing newer, not so planned out elements in season 4, which then carried on into several other seasons after. I think one of the best things (interestingly) is that Stargate has, for most of it’s life, been in danger of being cancelled, so every season they’d tie up as many plot threads as they could by the end of the season, they started doing this after season 5 (which, I do believe is when they went form Showtime, to the as of then, Sci-Fi channel) and they got re-newed yearly, not getting two years every time they were re-newed.

Now, when I say tying the plot threads I didn’t just mean AT the end of a season, I mean by. This was easily done for them because it’s an American- no, sorry Canadian, show and it has 22 episodes a season, unlike Who. I do prefer that, it flows better for a show. So Adam, that’s another reason why it may be worth, if you find the time, watching a bit more of that complete Stargate SG-1 boxset you have. I understand if you can’t find the time, what with having edit the podcast, work, and other great shows such as Torhwood being on TV.

Speaking of Torchwood, I thought that the first episode of Miracle Day was finically superb! I do have to say to those of you in Britain complaining that the BBC is broadcasting it after the US, Canada and Australia, the massage that we Doctor Who fans have been receiving from you for a long time now; Deal with it. I understand that you have the License Fee, but it’s only a week after us, so I’m sure you can cope. Or download it- I mean, move to America and watch it.

Anyway my thoughts. The first episode was definitely a set up episode, and an introduction to new viewers, but I think that it’s living up the to high standards Children Of Earth put in place. By high standards I mean high standards in Writing, Acting, production, and music (Murray is a hero!).

I do have admit when I saw ‘by Russell T Davies’ I had a happy smile on my face, I’ve missed him. I think that some people are being a bit too defensive about it being too American, I don’t think so. As Kai Owen said in an interview, it is fairly American, there the American accents, places, and actors, but there’s also Eve and him (both being Welsh), there’s always been BAARRROOOMEEENNNN!!! *Shakes fists* with his American accent, and I do trust Russell that they will have the quirky moments most British shows have, it’s only one episode, people are being too picky, I think.

Now after that longer than normal e-mail, I will leave you for now.

Good bye,
Rhys.

Well I do feel a little miffed. I think I must be the only person at the picnic not mentioned by name. Am I that forgettable??? I know I am only small and very quiet but surely I am noticeable! Perhaps because I was talking football and drinking alcohol with little Pete?

Anyway feedback. “Arc Story” seasons only work with a certain length of season. Although the “Key to |Time” was only six stories you are correct in that having the first and last episodes only being “arc” episodes allowed for a free rein for the others. Within a 50 (or 2 * 50) minute story there is not this freedom or scope to develop. The arc needs to bring the plot in and then close it off. “Bad Wilf” worked because it did this by only being mentioned occasionally early on in the season then coming more to the fore at the end when the characters had settled down.

Anyway to close a near accident. I listened this morning in the gym and was heading back for a shower and change when I was distracted by the comparison between tablets and bezels. I looked up as I was about to open the door to the changing room; the LADIES changing room! Quick shift into reverse……

Anyway looking forward to “Nelson” next time around,

Andy Ninny

———-

F**K**G SPELCHECKER!!

Who is Andy NINNY?

Andy Nunney (well you knew that….)

In your discussion about story arcs I was thinking that what if Doctor Who is not viewed as a series by the production team but as a serial with one episode flowing into the next. Then we would not be viewing a story arc, which would have to be fitted/slotted into various episodes as such, but one story broken down into episodes. That could be why this year if you miss an episode than you have missed a chapter of the story.

Also about this not knowing when the next series will be broadcast, perhaps this is nothing more than a budget reason. Say the budget for the next 14 episodes is taken from 2011/2012 tax year, and Moffet knows what he wants to do for the 2013 series 50th bash and has already budgeted/costed it, and that special series would require extensive sfx which would mean that the budget would be eaten up so that they could only afford 10 episodes instead of 13/14, then surely the BBC knowing that it is the 50yh year and it wants a big bash would not want only 10 episodes. So then it makes sense to MAKE but hold over say 6 episodes from the 2011/2012 tax year and have them shown in 2013, thus making the 2013 series 16 episodes long, thus making it seem that they have spent big money for the 50th year.

Hope that makes sense,

Regards

Oh Captain, My Captain

Just a quick thought, how does River Song travel? How did she get to Demons Run, and how will she get Amy & Rory home?

Is River Song still meeting the Doctor backwards in time, because it seems that in A Good Man… she meets him out of order?

Is Rory the good man whom River kills?

Why does Rory keep on dying? does the universe know that he is a anomaly and that he should not really exist?

Why did the Silence want to destroy the Tardis?

And surely when Rory died in Black spot and Amy saved him in the Tardis, The Doctor knew that Amy was a copy, so perhaps the Doctor telepathically told the Tardis to hold off saving Rory to see what copy Amy would do, knowing that the Tardis would save him no matter what happened?

Hope this finds you all well,

Oh Captain, My Captain

I was in the UK over New Year and of course we had to go to Cardiff while we were over there. Loved Cardiff by the way, reminded me very much of Adelaide because it is so laid back and non-pretentious. (any listeners from Australia who do not live in Adelaide will be groaning right now, because it has a reputation of being a bit backward and “simple” – which from what I gather from being in the UK and also some UK TV programs, so does Cardiff).

But anyway, we arrived on the 5th of January. We were staying in a hotel across the road from Cardiff Castle, a very nice hotel. We thought we would hold off visiting Cardiff Castle until the next day because we thought, Hey we’ll have more time to really see it. So the next day we went to visit. Stay with me here, I know if this was Graham Norton he would have pulled the lever by now, but this is going somewhere.

We were at the castle on the 6th of January. There was a tent in the grounds which we thought was a bit weird. And as we were walking down one of the long hallways, there were some wooden supports that we assumed were part of some refurbishment. We didn’t think anything more of it, enjoyed the rest of our holiday, went home.

Several months later, when watching the Confidentials for The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People we saw that some of it was filmed in Cardiff Castle and of course we had a frame of reference. But then in the Confidential we saw Matt Smith, Miss Knobknacker or whatever you call her and Arthur Darvill sitting in the tent we had seen. Also, the wooden structures down the hallway we had seen were the remnants of the set. Then we went online to some website that catalogues the filming days… to discover that they filmed at Cardiff Castle on the 5th.

The very day that we had decided not to go because we wanted more time to really see it. When we were staying just across the road.

As you can imagine, there were a fair amount of expletives uttered.

Here are some more random thoughts:

A TARDIS would be really handy when you are moving house. Just park it in the old house, load it up and materialise in the new house and unload it.

The K9 series gives Australia a bad name. We can do better dramas than that.

I saw a toy TARDIS in the background of a recent episode of Neighbours.

The Eiffel Tower has an exhibition about how it has appeared in various films and TV shows… but City of Death is not mentioned. Surely BBC Worldwide is missing a trick there.

Keep up the great podcast, have a nice day,
Martin

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

Nonetheless, no, that’s pretty much all we recorded barring the usual tripe we usually cut out.

First off well done on your last episode. A brilliant listen as always.

I really liked your section on Primeval series one. I have to say that I like Primeval . I was one of the few people who actually liked the first season it seems. I think that its main Problem was that it was billed by ITV as as a rival to doctor who when it really wasn’t. It never was intended to be, it was even aired specifically during Dr Who’s off season. Granted it doesn’t have the same level of detail to its stories as other programs, but it was basically a good bit of Saturday teatime family fun. I can say that I even used to eat my tea while watching.

I also managed to get to the doctor Who experience This weekend so I now know what everybody down south has been raving about. And I can say that none of you are wrong either. Remaining as spoiler free as possible, it was absolutely fascinating. It was wonderful to see all the props from the shows past and present. My favourite being the kettlewell robot. The actual experience was fantastic as well. It was amazing how some of the effects were achieved and there is a fairly obvious part (which for the sake of spoilers I will not mention) that as a who fan I shall treasure forever.

It was wonderful to see most of you at the Flashing in the park Picnic (Jean and Crumbly were sorely missed). Getting hugged by the real Keith was once more a novel experience, meeting Fake Keith for the first time was wonderful (unless you are a squirrel), and as always it was brilliant to hail El presedente in person. The Adipose stress toy that I bought from the experience was a surprise hit. Will the game of pass the Adipose catch on I wonder? (by the way I have decided to call him Tim. If yours is called Graham, and mine is called Tim, we only need someone to call theirs Bill and we have the Goodies). Never Has a Game of Doctor Who top trumps been so competitive or such a spectator sport. Fake Keith put up a valiant fight but ultimately Lost to Alistair Loke who was actually trying to Lose. Once more the Staggering Stories team proving they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (Just kidding guys). The phrase “always let the wookie win” will now have a totally different meaning. And finally team your dastardly plot for pod cast dominance using diabetes causing staggeringly chocolate brownies and caramel shortcakes has failed. Though I must say they were delicious. My compliments to the chef.

any way I have to go now as I don’t want to make this email to long.

Bod be with you

Sacred Bob

P.S. Whatever happened to the barber shop quartet version of the doctor who theme we were promised?

It is time. I Am now goign to re-review series 6a of doctro who, and put them in a lsit of favoruties.

7. The Rebel Flash. 4/10
The start was good. Then i got bored. Then i got confused. Then it finished

6. The Almost Interesting 6/10
The start was good. Then i got a bti excited. But then i got cofnused. And Then amy melted.

5. The Curse of The Pink Tights 7/10
There were some good bits. there were some bad bits. ANd I Loved Amys tights. I Just keep staring at them.

4. The Doctors Life 8/10
There were lots of good moments. There were no bad momnets. I Liked Idris. And Rory died. Again

3. A Good Man Goes on a search for Pond 9/10
There were some CYbermen, There were some Lesbians. There were some ponds.

2. The Impossible Spiuoler 9/10
What happened?

1. Day of The – What? 10/10
Brilliant, Cant fault it.

Looking at those Loegs. Yes, Those pink tights and that short skirt………..
MISTER M
P.S Im still looking.

Been very busy, so I don’t have time to write a proper long piece of feedback. Maybe next time.

BTW, I’ve got an idea for a new Mr. Cyberman story. I’ll see if I can fit it in this month.

Cheers,

Benjamin Elliott

PS – is that a dimension rift flying around the internet?

I AM AAAAAAALLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes im back, real life has gotten in the way in shape of a girlfriend, but now im here. Well, primeval hmm, so are we gonna get an explination of how helen and bashier met ? Also when are future predators coming back.

I saw the fanboy film super 8 and all I have to say is this : do not see this unless its at a drive in double feature and you have something ( or someone ) to do. this movie is not worth your money and I implore you t go see green lantern instead.

Also ha ha ha we get torchwood miricale day before you neener neener neener.

El presidente have you seen the article of karen gillian being seen half naked in new york ( see link below ) ?

Also just for jean hoping she is reading this : I love matt smith .

did she say it correctly ?

have fun all and remember silence will fall but stay tuned for lets kill hitler.

Friend of the show,

JD

Its MISTER M

I Seem to have resseructed the 30 second recomendations! Heh heh.

Pottermore. Then. Sound Good. IM SO EXCITED. I am a HUGE Harry Potter
fan! I Even won a comeption to get A Copy of Order of The Phionex when
i was about 6! ah,

Now. There are so many things i want to review, but, as i tend to
natter on, I Had an idea when i woke up int he middle of the night. My
frist thoguht was Karen Gillan, but then, It Hit Me! Why dont you chose
for me.

So. Would you Like me to review Misfist Series 1 OR Primeval Series 4?

Staggering Stories # 109 – Yes i do natter on so. In Fact, Why dont you
not bother reading the rest of this letter out?

I have been a long-time listener and once attempted to send you feedback but foolishly sent the email to the wrong address. You would think after hearing “show at staggering stories dot net” for over one hundred episodes that I would be able to remember the address, but alas there is only so much information I can retain from week to week and the “dot net” just didn’t make the cut. I have now committed it to memory and hope to never fail you again.

This past week I finally listened to your Gallifrey show and felt inspired to try writing again. I have wondered in the past if many podcasters find community at Gallifrey because they are a voice in the Doctor Who community. And while this description certainly fits The Staggering Stories team, you always feel so much more down-to-earth. Hearing about your experiences made me feel as if I truly could make a few friends in the Doctor Who community, even if they are long distance. Most of the Doctor Who fans I know are ones that I have indoctrinated to the show, but many of them are New Who fans only.

Anyway, in an attempt to keep this short, I will just say thanks for all the hard work that goes in to your podcast. You keep me entertained on those late nights at work. Thanks.

-Steven K.

PS – Okay, shameless plug. I have been maintaining a blog called The Edwardian Adventurer. My goal is to watch every episode of Doctor Who in broadcast order simply because I’ve never done it before. It has also given me an excuse for spending massive amounts of money on Doctor Who DVDs. Okay, not that I needed much of an excuse to begin with, but it helps me justify it to my wife. My hope is to cover more than just Doctor Who (as I wait for The Gunfighters to be released in North America, I am turning my attention to LOST). Anyway, I would appreciate the free plug, and if the plug isn’t free, then I hope my soul is in good hands. The address is http://pekinghomunculus.wordpress.com

Thanks again.

The good man that River kills – could it be someone from history like Churchill or someone like that? Maybe to tie in with the upcoming 50th anniversary it could even be JFK? Although arguably in his personal life he may not have been that much of a good man.

Anyway, the reason I was writing was to see if any of you spotted the obvious mistake in the closing scene of “A Good Man Goes to War.” Just after the Doctor works out who River is, he goes straight into the TARDIS. And then, just a mere split second after he closes the door… the TARDIS dematerialises! Are we to believe that in that split second, the Doctor has run all the way up to the console and operated it? How is this possible? Does he have Inspector Gadget arms?

Now, it is obvious that this is for dramatic purposes. You couldn’t have River, Amy, Rory etc standing around just waiting for him to leave, making inane chatter like, “How’s the weather been?” or “Heard the latest Ryan Giggs joke?” before the TARDIS dematerialises. But it struck me that this happens in heaps of stories, and it also happens during materialisation – the TARDIS lands and the door opens straight away. Now that I have noticed this it is going to annoy the hell out of me.

Also, I am from Australia but I was in London over New Year. I have a gripe with an advert I saw many times on the tube for some poxy phone company. I know it is six months later but I still need to get this off my chest. The advert promoted some sort of phone deal and it had the slogan “struth” which they asserted was Australian for “rather good.” Quite apart from the fact that no actual Australian (short of Alf Stewart from Home and Away) actually uses the word “struth” except in an ironic fashion, it actually means “I don’t believe it.” This phone company needs to do some research before they deface the upper walls of London trains.

Anyway, keep up the good work, can you believe you have reached 108+ episodes? Struth!

Have a nice day

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

Harry Potetr thign snow! New DHP2 Trailer – OMG! Its brilliant! I
love it – Dmentors over Hogwwrts / Fire in the Room of Rquirment /
Siirus talking to harry (Resseuction stone) / Explosions / Snape! /
Vodlemrot goign yahhhhh!. sigh. Anyway

Pottermore Coming soon. What is it?

MISTER M

How do the monks like their coffee? Decapitated

OK first point, Fake Keith, had they kept the Ganger Amy in tact, how would they wake up the real Amy? As soon as real Amy wakes up, Ganger Amy plops.
Anyway the Doctor didn’t kill Amy, what happened was the Doctor superimposed a hologram of himself in his Tenth incarnation and Amy did what any Tennant fan girl would do when confronted with her idol, flop into a pile of jelly, ready to have his baby.

Doctor Who Who news,
Ahead of Tom Baker’s debut with Big Finish his series for BBC Audio (now known as Audio Go) enters it’s third series this September, we’ve had Hornet’s Nest then Demon Quest, this year the series is called Serpent Crest. Episode 1 is titled ‘Tsar Wars’. Episode 2 will see the 4th Doctor trying to protect a magazine editor for certain death from Pitchforks in ‘The Fandom Menace’. Episode 3 will see Colin Baker step into the role as he humiliates the designer of his coat in ‘Revenge of The Sixth’ Any more Star Wars play on words send them in to show@staggeringstories.net where the best one will get a special prize from Fake Keith. (he he he)

So we have had part 1 of Series 6 and what happened, they reunited in America and erm, they, did erm, what was it again? erm, I can’t remember, now isn’t that a kill joy?, wait did I do that pun before? No I don’t think so. What’s that in the corner, OH MY GOD KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT. (one whack of the lamp later,) right he’s slumped out cold in the corner, I’ll finish him off in a minute and while he’s there I can remember the events of the openin 2 parter. Great story, loved the Canton character, he’d make a great Brig style recurring character if they ever wanted to go down that route. I unfortunately had the worse spoiler from the website where they showed the pictures of the Doctor regenerating, (my fault really, they did warn us) but I got over it and moved on. The child at the end was the biggest triple What bulb moment I’ve seen so far in my time watching Doctor Who, even bigger then Rose in Partners in Crime.
Curse of The Bad Plot was a bit, meh, for me. I knew from back when Sherlock was airing that when the writer of the middle episode of Sherlock hadn’t written for Who it’d only be a matter of time and here we are. Perhaps the rush swapping affected the editing badly but there we go, moving on.

Since picking up on Doctor Who in 2007 there have been 4 times I’ve finished an episode of Doctor Who with a huge smile on my face, Partners in Crime was one, (but that may have been down to the fact it aired 3 days after the Torchwood series 2 finalé), The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang and now The Doctor’s Wife. That goes far beyond the satisfaction we used to get whenever we had a Moffat story in the RTD era, it was just fantastic. To be honest I was a little wary going into this one, having heard great things about Michael Moorcock I thought Coming of The Terraphiles might be something really special. Having got in on audio I was disappointed to find that most of the first half was concerning some old biddy’s hat. Neil Gaiman was being talked up in the very same way.

And then there was the casting of Suranne Jones, some chick from Corrie who really hammed up the Mona Lisa in Sarah Jane Adventures a couple of years back. Add the fact we were going to get a Blue Peter prop and look what happened last time they let that happen and I was a bit anxious about this one.

How very wrong I was about it. Honestly one of the best Saturday nights I’ve had for a long time.

Stunning, spectacular and really well written. The end scene with the Doctor trying to tinker with the Tardis to give her back a voice while Murray Gold’s Mad Man with a Box playing was pure bliss, rather like the start of Amy’s adventures at the end of the Eleventh Hour. And wasn’t the Confidential that accompanied this superb as well, those classic scenes projected into the current Tardis gave me chills, especially the one where they show the scene of Ian touching the Tardis and proclaiming it alive on the exact relevant spot on the Tardis door, and the script excerpts read by Neil Gaiman, perfection. Gaiman has said he is looking to see if a novelisation is viable. Let’s hope it is. I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Moving onto the ganger 2 parter, it was OK, a bit like last year’s Silurlian 2 parter, take it or leave it 2 parter with a huge arc development at the end. Good but not spectacular.

The finalé was very good I thought, I like the ‘Doctor’s Army’ characters, like the Mitchell Brother nurse and the fat man character, although before the chop, how could you tell if he was choking. Amy’s wheezing and groaning on their wedding night shenaigans, it wasn’t her it was Idris. (2 women on one night Rory, you lucky man.)I’m on the same wave length that we haven’t had distinct conformation that regen girl is River, it’s definitely implied heavily but not confirmed, but if it is her, then as a human (god what does this mean for the TV movie) does she get the whole 13 cycles or just one or two.

All in all an enjoyable series and I look forward to the second half.

All the best Scardis.

(and Hello to his Immensely Fantastic befezzed and eye patched Royal Head of Pertwee, whose existence I thought was simply in Cyberspace, [i.e. imaginary], until I saw the pictures from Gallifrey One!!! I am unable to watch any 3rd Doctor episodes without thinking about him while the credits roll)

(and incidentally Hello to all the other various cardboard cutouts, hats, eye patches, scarves, plastic figurines, adiposes, etc. that watch over y’all as you record the podcast)

(“y’all” – that’s the plural second-person pronoun that the English language so desperately needs that nobody seems to remember unless they are from the American South)

I’m Kirby (of the Planet America) – foreign correspondent for the 20MB Doctor Who Podcast.

But I am not writing to discuss Doctor Who.
But first, some background.
I’m a longtime listener to your podcast.

I don’t remember how long I have been listening to you (2 years at least), but I have discovered many other podcasts because of your podcast – including the aforementioned 20MB Doctor Who Podcast indirectly because of Rhys Parton’s enthusiastic feedback to you leading to his own podcast and leading to his enthusiastic promotion of Adam and Alicia Pearson’s 20MB Doctor Who podcast reminding me how my own teenage daughters can be immensely unenthusiastic about stuff after being very enthusiastic about Doctor Who leading to my sending feedback to the 20MB Doctor Who Podcast for a chance to win a packet of Bassetts’ Jelly Babies (all the way from the Isle of Wight!) leading to my winning of same packet of Jelly Babies (would you like some?) leading to my sending in audio feedback to Adam and Alicia leading to my now weekly foreign correspondence to the 20MB Doctor Who podcast (at amazing and, dare I say, “staggering” times of the day due to the time difference between the foreign city of Nashville, Tennessee [Planet America] and Britain).
But enough of that.

I wish to thank you for your segment on podcast 107 about Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.

I was vaguely aware of the existence of Neverwhere, but had not given it any thought until you brought it up in the podcast.
My 13 year old daughter loves Gaiman’s “Coraline” (book and movie) and I have several of his books – fiction and nonfiction (including his original 1988 “Don’t Panic – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion”). My girls and I loved the recent Doctor Who “The Doctor’s Wife” episode. Perfection for a longtime Doctor Who fan like myself.

“Intriguing”, I thought as you waxed enthusiastic about Neverwhere.
I put the DVDs on my Netflix queue and waited for them to arrive.
I just finished a 2 night viewing of Neverwhere (neglecting my assignment from Adam Pearson to watch “Terror of the Vervoids” – [6th Doctor], which I will resume watching tomorrow as it will be discussed on the next 20MB Doctor Who Podcast)(which given your podcasting schedule may or may not have gone out by the time you read this)

Thank you so much for nudging me to watch Neverwhere. What a story and production. I will definitely be purchasing the DVDs. I will also be looking for the comic book (oh, sorry – “graphic novel”) and the regular novel.

Words fail me about Neverwhere. The story was just fantastic. The cast was just fantastic. The locations were fantastic (I want to visit London!) Paterson Joseph needs to be the 12th Doctor! (and it was so strange to see Peter Capaldi as a fallen angel instead of being a Roman in Pompeii or a civil servant caught up in events he could not control because of the 456).

Thank you again.
Kirby Bartlett-Sloan
(one of the 17.6 Americans who understands and appreciates your occasional references to the Goon Show with your various voices and quotes – Ying Tong Iddle I Po!)

Firstly, I apologize. This will not be an “Email…Of…Doom” but it will be longer then the last few. An “Email of Near Apocalypse” perhaps…

So “A Good Man Will (dress kinky for his wife) and Then Tell His Friends He Went To War” was….. made of awesome. (And yes we do say that in America). It totally wrapped up the season in a more than worthwhile way.

Though I wish SJM would do shorter mini-seasons like a lot of other British TV. Then we could have a consistently great season instead of a stretched out mediocre season with some really, really high notes and some very, very low ones.

I’d rather have three to four SJM TV “novellas” instead of the varied anthology we got. More like Sherlock is produced with longer cinema style stories that while independent do have connecting elements.

Actually that would be perfect! We could have three new 90 minute Doctor Who “movies” every quarter! There could be guest “chapter arcs” such as one with multiple Dr Who movies by Neil Gaiman! Or Drew Goddard or Jane Espensen or Paul S. Kemp or J. Michael Straczynski or Ray Bradbury or Gail Simone or Josh Whedon! No Matthew Graham or Judd Winick though! Ok maybe Judd but no Matthew! Or….whomever is your favorite writer at the moment? Who would each of YOU want?

But I digress! On to “A Good Man Goes to War”:

Favorite Highlights!!! (Paraphrased as I try not to be pedantic or Ineed to take some Gingko Biloba as I’ve forgotten the exact lines):

* “Would you like me to repeat the question?”

* “You really don’t want to find out why I have so many rules!”

* “We’re the Short Fat Tall Gay Soldier Cleric couple. Why would we need names?”

* “Why DO you put up with me?” (With a 5 foot tongue lashing afterwards). We need a “Victorian Lesbian Silurian Detective Agency” two-part story! (Canton and Captain Jack could guest-star!) Question though: was she a ret-conned new character? Or an older, pre-RTD character? And her lover’s name was Jenny? A regenerated Jenny from the Doctor’s Daughter? That Jenny didn’t change form the first time she regenerated but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t change the next time.

* Everything, I mean everything Lorna (?) did. For a second I thought she was going to be a younger River. Too bad. That actress would have made a great companion. I wish the Doctor remembered her. But he pretended to and let her die happy saying he “remembers everyone”. Because as we know, “The Doctor Lies”. (Kind of like Santa, not Satan, although I hear he or she lies too).

* Every single charming, hilarious, unconsciously bittersweet word the Sontaran said! (Such as “I will destroy you later. Go rest now!” and “I’m a Nurse I can produce copious amounts of lactic fluid!” and “I’ve had a good life. I’m almost 12.”)

Also, Rory, Rory and RORY! I dub him “Roranicus Maximus Awesomus”! Guess the Roman garb helps channel his 2000 years of memories of kicking @$$ for Amy. The episode should have been called: “Freaking Rory is Made of Awesome (…and you are not)”.

(But it is too bad Amy didn’t have her police outfit. “Hospital Hostage” Amy didn’t do it for me! Sorry for that, Fake Keith).

@@@@@

That said, it was sad to see The Doctor come to the realization of how he is seen by others. Even sadder that he KNOWS this but likes to forget it. “The Doctor Lies” even to himself I guess. Chris W was the Dalek’s “Oncoming Storm” and David T was Davros’ “Destroyer of Worlds” “Who Got Clever” by making soldiers out of his companions. Maybe The Doctor needs some self-reflection or long term intensive counseling. (He could meet with “The Therapist” if we had more Time Lord’s, hah! Does “The Shadow Proclamation” have insurance that covers pan-galactic therapy? Double Hah!)

Now really, “The Doctor” is more a parent than a physician. (At least in the RTD / SJM eras). Kind of the “Universe’s Greatest Dad” if you will. He needs a mug for Father’s Day (the upcoming holiday not the episode). Dads ask too much of us and let us down when we grow up to see them as merely a man like any other. They are our greatest champion too even if they can’t always express their emotions. God help you if you threaten their progeny as they will burn down the cosmos if you are in danger.

@@@@@

Wow. This is getting a bit too long (and sappy) so I will wrap this up.

By the way…thank YOU all for all the podcasting, commentary, review, et al. I actually really missed being able to listen to you all as I forced myself to wait each week due to the Memorial Day delays.

And “remember … the force will always be with you”. No, wait, wrong podcast!

I mean…you are all …”made of awesome”. Really!

Sincerely Lost in Time,
Adrian the American (Allegedly not Ryan Giggs…that apparent dirty ‘ho!)

Its my brithday. Well, no. Im lying. T’was my brithday yesterday,…

So. I Know you’re all asking – what did i get. Well. I Got Presents.

So. In this bumper length edition of The MISTER M Feedback ; Nicholas Courtney and Elizabeth Sladen – my thoughts on them, A List of what i r eally got for my birthday, some odds ad bobs from old unsent feedback, and the april fools feddback which got lost at the bottom of a bin.

Present # 1 – The Matt Smith TARDIS Playset. Big, Orange, and multi levels. (From my mum)

17TH DECEMBER 2010
Adam? Did yous ee Karen Gillan in Shortlist Magazine?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Nicholas Courtney – The Brigadier. He was a good old chap. The first i saw of him was a old VHS Of The three Doctors. I Liked him in that. And Then he was in SJA. I Liked him in that. And know ive seen him in more who epsisodes – Spearhead from space, The Five Doctors, Infreno, etc. I Like him in all fo those. I Liked him. Wonderful chap…..

24th DECMEBER 2010
Hello all
In a very christmassy mood today so i thought id send you my own christmas joke
Why does santa have such a big sack?
Because he only comes once a year
Merry Christmas To all and to All A Good Night!
MISTER MERRY CHIRSTMAS
Present # 2 – A Ton of marvel comic books (New Avenegrs V2, V6, V9, New AVneegrs Illuminati, House of M, Avenegrs Dissasembled) From various people.

DECEMBER 2010
So, From inbetween Karen Gillans legs, Farewell!

Present # 3 – Misifits Series 1 and 2. Heroes, only different. (From my aunt)

Elizabeth Sladen – My first ever series of who was series 2. And by the time we got roudn to epsidoe 3 i was gettign rapidly interested, and wanted to the see the previous years episodes. And Then the doctor became a teacher, Cars drove throguh schools, and i was a bit wary about eating chips. But then tehre was Sarah Jane Smith (introduced by the head of ahntony). And I Thought, Oh. She must have been in the last series and theyve brought her back. And I asked my nan ‘Was she in this last year?’ ‘No.’ She replied. ‘oh.’ said i. Then my nan said ‘She was in it 40 years ago (Yes, slightly misjudged)!’ And then. i realised that doctor who had a HISTORY. And Sraah Jan eintorduced me to that. A Tear Sarah Jane?

12TH FEBUARY 2011
By Now you should be close to finsihing rcording on Podcast 100 – So CONGRATULATIONS

Present # 4 – Primeval Series 4 – Aby Maitland. (From my great-nan – and on blur ray)

And now! A Piece of feedbakc inside a feddback. Its The letter that never made it – the april fools feddback

HELLO TEAM (Cositing of Dunn Construct 1, Dunn Construct 2, Dunn Construct 1.2, Crumbly Construct, Mister M, Karen Gillan, El presidente, Fake Construct, and I LIKE MATT SMITH Riddler.)

I Rather Injyed Doctro who And The Spume of Destiny. It was brilliant to see Al; 17 doctors in one story, even teh ones that we only saw briefly during the amss regeneration in series 8 epsidoe 56! And The Mauve Dalek V Bubblegum cyebrmen war was just isnpired. And it was Great To See Karen Gillan in Who Again (Well, wahts left of her. Those 16ft legs and that 1mm Skirt combo did pleas me. I Was Suprised El Presidente let her out of the cage for a whole episode shoot. I Hope shes back in tough. Keep those videos coming adam). And Rory reached his 1,000,000,000 death! And The Revelation that River is also Donna AND Amy AND The Doctros Mum AND The Doctors Wife AND The Doctor AND Rose AND The TARDIS AND Rory AND Captain Jack (And The Face of Boe) AND Cassandra AND The Doctors Daughter AND Rassilon AND OImega AND The Silence AND The Sonci Screwdriver AND The Master AND The Rani AND Adric was Just such a shock. Keep epsidoes like this coming Vast Toffee (MN) (And im glad he decided to legally change his name to that. Makes for less confusion)

So Staggering STories Series 56 Nuimber 4. You guys were on fire! Literally. It Karen Gillans Legs again. Is Fake Construct still alive? And What about I LIKE MATT SMITH Riddler? And Guys The fatc that your feedback now alst 67803258676678 Hours doesnt matter. Youre still great to listen to. Although, The dtinking Game (V.59) did cause me to die. Im a ghost now. See you for the netx Podcast.

MISTER M

Present # 5 – Being Human Series 3. They Killed mItchell!

3rd MAY 2011
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S I Like Karen Gillan
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S And Her Legs
Present # 6 – Choclate Green and blacks. Yum Yum 4 bars. ive already had 2.

Fellign Sick from cake, choclate, msifits, Karen Gillan (No. Cant ever get sick of her) and about to go to bed MISTER M
P.S P.P.S
P.P.S P.P.P.P.S
P.P.P.S Love you Fake Keith
P.P.P.P.S Diddledum
P.P.P.P.P.S Karen Gillan + Adam J Purcell = A Locked up woman in a basemnt + A Phone call tot he police – Karen Gillan = Prison. I COnclude – DOnt Let adam near karen Gillan!!!!!!!
P.P.P.P.P.P.S Cause i dont want her to be damaged. Shes mine!

I loved A Good Man Goes to War. Not as much as I loved The Doctor’s Wife, but still – it wasn’t a lame horror ripoff like the Flesh two-parter, it didn’t leave me with a million objections like the American Astronaut/Silence two-parter, it wasn’t a mess of contradictory nonsense like The Black Spot, and finally, FINALLY Matt Smith convinced me with his ability to pull off an angry, threatening Doctor. (And it only took him a season and a half to get there.)

This episode ought to be taught in writing classes as a study of “How to create vibrant characters from a standing start.” All of the supporting cast – the fat/thin gay married Anglican soldiers, the Sontaran nurse (now second only to Idris as my favorite one-shot character), and the Silurian hunter and her maid were absolutely amazing. I went from knowing nothing about them to loving them all in 5 lines or less, and yes – I’m one of the many, many people who would happily sign up to watch the continuing adventures of the Victorian Interspecies Crime-Fighting, Cross-Dressing Lesbians. Seriously, that’s like checking off half the entries on fandom’s wet fantasies list, isn’t it?

However, I’m a major skeptic when it comes to the theory that River will eventually kill Rory. To me, that’s a holdover from RTD training fandom to expect the most twisted, hurtful, unexpectedly sadistic kick in the teeth as a “dramatic conclusion.” Look at what that theory requires: a daughter to kill her father stone cold permanently dead — right in front of the kiddies at teatime. That’s not Doctor Who, that’s Torchwood! (Not that I’m STILL furious about the underaged snuff film that RTD announced that I “needed” to see at the conclusion of Children of Earth. Forget Ianto; killing a kid slowly onscreen is Just Not On. Shakespeare and Euripides made dramatic plot points out of the death of children in Richard III and Medea for 2400 years without slaughtering them in front of the audience. Take the hint.)

We’ve previously seen River compliment the Doctor as a good man. We’ve just seen River urge the Doctor to be a good man. We’ve seen presumably-River kill the Doctor at the beginning of the series. So I just can’t see Moffat — who is on record saying he wants to make Who more optimistic than it was under RTD — leading us down the garden path to surprise patricide.

Off to listen to the feedback portion of the podcast,

Nea

I forgot to ask: Did you know?

That pipes labeled “danger – corrosive” might actually contain something corrosive? Hah!

But seriously, is The Flesh maybe the origin of the Sontarans? (The brown acid armor and creation vat looked kinda Sontaran didn’t they?)

Or maybe the early days of the Autons / Nesting Intelligence?

Later, Adrian

P.S.
By the way it was my dupe that typed that horribly long first email that broke you. He sent it before I could edit it. (You can call him Gang-Drian).

Hah! Again!

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

Its Mister M. For Podcast 107!

The Doctors Wife – A Brilliant Brilliant Brillinat episode. Lov3ed it.

The Rebel Flesh – Nope. DIdnt lik this one. Sorry. I Havent rewatched this one yet, and wont until after part 2 has been braodcast, The Gnagers Werent scay at all (Oskay, i am 13, but i do still get scared quite a lot – the silence freake dthe hell out of me), and I was just looking at the clock thinking – oh, Confidentials on in a minute. That might be interesting…’ So, No, Not pleased with This one. My least favourite ep of the moffat era.

Now. Neil Gaiman. Ive read some fo his stuff before. (The Graveyard book, Eternals, Etc) And Just by coincidence. I Thought id look over some fo his stuff again! NO! Im not reviewing it. JUts telling you about my preperation for the doctros wife! And on a side note i would like to say that i had predicted that The TARDIS Woudl be Idirs (Didnt rpedict to you) And I Was Right! So, i would like to follow up with another prediction – Amya nd Eye Patch aldy will have a proper conversation in The Almost People, Or Eye Patch Lady will Say somethign about Rory to Amy,

Now – Feedback. YoU Seem to eb getting a lot of it. Ive tried to condense mine down a bit, and only give one evrye forthinght, instead of one a week. Putting the unread feedback ont he site was a bloody good idea adam! BUT Think back to alst year, When you went weekly for who, for feedback segments were about the same length as a normal podcast, and its aonly mbecause you ahvent that you get so much! (Is that theory incorrect? Please correct me!) AFter series 6a is over, people wont want to rush in thoguhts and drivell on so (I Sill will though. You cant get rid of me! BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!)

Staggering Stories Commentary # 30/31 – YAY! FAKE KEITH! YEAH YEAH CLAPPING AND CHEERING! YEAH!

Loving Karen Gillan A,K,A MISTER M

P.S And her Legs,. Never forget those long sexy brilliant legs!

Random happiness: my iphone converts tardis to TARDIS! Isn’t it nice when inanimate objects are your friend? (And not in a dirty Cardboard Amy way).

Moving on, was that Chris E’s voice as one of the emergency boxes? (The one that said, “I’m still alive!”)

Also, maybe it is time for Rory & Amy (or “Armory”) to go home and make “Time Head” babies…

Then we could have Canton! Or River! Or the Doctor’s Daughter from Tennant’s tenure!

(Hmm, the celebrity couple name of “Armory” also works literally too. The Doctor turns humans into soldiers for him and Amy & Rory may well be replenishing the Time Lord race).

Later…

Adrian the Short Winded American

im in the usa

i love hearing the reason why people watch doctor who for me i was on a walk and saw a doctor who tape on the ground i picked it up and took it home and the tape worked and ive been addicted to the show ever since

well i would go on with my letter but a strange man in a blue police box just showed up on my lawn and is asking for fish fingers and custard.

later joey

Another choppy email; I’ll try to keep the word count down.

Feedback on feedback: Virginia v Loving was the Supreme Court decision that made interracial marriage legal in America.

The Doctor’s Wife – That was an absolute delight! After all these years of the show it’s rare for something to be completely new, but giving the TARDIS a voice (and making a fair amount of fanon into canon) was unprecedented and brilliant. Idris/TARDIS was absolutely perfect.

Rebel Flesh – I don’t like commenting on half a plot, but so far it’s nothing more than a paint-by-numbers B-grade horror movie, complete with mistaken identities, people running off on their own when they shouldn’t, and characters who are nothing more than stock tropes. And next week doesn’t look any better. It comes off worse when compared to the originality of Gaiman’s episode.

Neverwhere – I liked the book a great deal, but I loathed the video version (sorry, y’all.) The visuals are so cheap and low budget that none of the grandeur of the book can be seen – and little of the plot as well. I tried showing it to a friend to coax her to read the book, but half an hour in she couldn’t even figure out what was going on. If Neverwhere is ever filmed again, it should be done right – possibly as one of the Halmi projects; they’ve done brilliantly at making Discworld and other fantasy projects like Tenth Kingdom look lush, lavish, and real.

Here’s hoping I’m wrong about the next episode of Who,

Nea

Hope you are all well. I’m going to try and keep this short and sweet even though I have a few things to talk about.

As you know I’m a fan of Gaiman, but I don’t like everything he’s done and I’m not the kind to just instantly say the episode was good just because of that reason. However I thought The Doctor’s Wife was great. It was sad, funny, beautiful and a little creepy all at once, all essential Doctor Who componants. I wouldn’t have thought that I’d like the execution of a human avatar for the TARDIS, but it was great and the actors really sold it here. Smith and Jones had wonderful chemistry and that last scene was really heartbreaking.

House was creepy and the patchwork people were nicely put together (haha). Liked the set up more Time Lords and the Doctor’s offhand description of one called the Corsair who changed genders. Also loved the lines “Did you wish really hard?” and “I had a gym teacher just like you” and the bit about bunk beds, but all the dialogue was great.

The only thing I thought was weak was Rory and Amy trapped in the TARDIS. The scene where Amy found Rory’s body (take a shot for the Dead Rory drinking game) with the wall full of crazy just reminded me of the videogame Dead Space and just struck me as really disturbing. Also we’ve waited so long to see more of the TARDIS and all we got was some corridors and the Tennant control room, although I did smile when I saw it. I do know however that this was more of a budget issue as Gaiman originally wrote scenes in the Zero Room with Rory floating and one in the swimming pool so it’s more a case of lost potential than actually being bad. I also thought the Ood was dealt with in a very offhand “oh by the way he’s gone” way.

However those criticisms are overshadowed by the great stuff with Idris/TARDIS/Sexy and the Doctor. It just goes to show that no matter how many companions come and go, there is someone who will always be there for the Doctor, even if they can never interact like this again.
Now I’ve finally finished watching through Neverwhere for the first time. As I’ve read the book it was interesting to see how the story started out in its development. I liked the performances, Patterson Joseph was a brilliant Marquis De Carabas and Croup and Vandemar were very well acted. I even liked Gary Bakewell as Richard and Laura Fraser as Door. And I think I mentioned to Adam on Facebook my surprise of Peter Capaldi as Islington. However the rest of the execution was a bit bad.

I was watching it and enjoying it and then something would jar me out of it and I’d go “well that’s not quite right”. The monologue bits at the beginning would have been better if they hadn’t kept cutting them and having speech over still images. It was distracting and a bit annoying. Also I don’t know what was up with Croup and Vandemar wandering around in a few scenes wearing white raincoats.

I felt a couple of times like the story I loved was in there somewhere but I had to really look to find it. But after finishing it and watching it again I’m pretty happy with it. I don’t think it’s as bad as some people say as I don’t mind the low budgetness that much, and the comic book adaptation is a lot worse, but I can understand the flaws people find with it.
However in all I liked it and I’d watch it again should the mood strike me.

Glad you’re going to LFCC this year in order to keep an eye on El Presedente. Hopefully I’ll see you there but more likely I’ll walk right past you and not realise until much later.

Catch y’all next time.

The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.

Sarah and Fez wearing Doctor.

So hmm, “The only water in the forest is the river.”
Doctor River Song can be saved from the “Silence in the Library” matrix!

(I write her name that way because that is her married name. Either that or River Doctor-Song).
Maybe Jenny the “Doctor’s Daughter” could save Matrix-River as part of her galactic wanderings.

Or the One-Hearted Tennant and Rose could go save her for Matt Smith’s Doctor. That would dovetail nicely with how Two-Hearted Tennant & Doctor Donna played matchmaker with Rose & One-Hearted Tennant.

Okay that’s it for now. No, really, I promise.
Adrian the Medium Winded American

Wow. My apologies for the email of doom. And you are posting it online? Holy crap!

That said, I will keep my thoughts short:

1) “Darn that Black Spot!” – Well, pirates are fun, a ship is a ship and holograms are hot.

2) “The Doctor’s Common Law Wife” – Loved the Tardis Incarnate. Great creepy living planet. But Rory dead again? I guess he is going to die every episode. And why is the Doctor excited about more TimeLords? Tennant went all Rambo in End of Time as soon as the he found out they were back.

Okay, bye bye….
Adrian the Long Winded American

The Doctor’s Wife
First thing I thought when this started was what brilliant costumes for Aunty, Uncle and especially Idris. Well done Barbara Kidd, I’m also really pleased she’s back after all these years. Ooh the Doctor’s got mail and we’re leaving the universe, nice to see them deleting rooms again for extra thrust.

Okay, Okay I know you want me to, let’s talk about NEIL GAIMAN WRITING DOCTOR WHO!!!! I’m sure you lot will have a better idea than me about where this ranks in terms of his other work, but I’ll just say this for now. Can you imagine a whole series with this guy as head writer? Okay now your minds are well and truly blown I’ll move on.

Suranne Jones, absolutely perfect beyond belief, especially with her infectious madness. ‘Biting’s excellent, it’s like kissing only there’s a winner’, a startling but brilliant line. And House, add to the wish list Confidential being narrated by House next year. Oh dear, some undelivered mail, those little boxes really did make him angry and he seemed so close.

IDRIS IS THE TARDIS!!!!! Again Suranne Jones just exceeded all my expectations with this character, it’s a mark of a great performance that you can’t imagine anyone else playing it and I certainly wouldn’t wish any other person to play her. Really liked hearing the story of how they ran away together from her perspective. ‘all of my sisters are dead…and that we are looking at their corpses’ nice to hear all Tardis’ are female if more than a little sad.

Corridors, lots of corridors, lots of scary corridors, with scary old Rory, very frightening and Amy breaks down over Rory again, bad, nasty House. So we come to the argument the best bits being ‘I always took you where you needed to go’ very touching. Also having her able to speak even in the box was a wonderful idea oh well, wish list again I suppose.

A new bodged together Tardis designed by a Blue Peter viewer, very nice. Good use of the shaving mirror from Richard Clarke, probably his best directed Who yet. The scene where, for Amy the lights are off but for Rory they’re on, that’s a very scary concept. I didn’t expect to miss it but I kind of liked seeing the old console room again with first Amy, Rory and then the Doctor and the Tardis in there. That’s the second time this year the Tardis has been inside herself, remember Space and Time. ‘Did you wish really hard?’ so funny and so true.

Now for me, when the Tardis essence re-enters the ship and drives out House, that’s up there with the last scene of The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang as the most enjoyable bit of Doctor Who ever. I never expected Matt Smith to get so sad at the end of this; there can truly be no other to match her. Well, hello Tardis it’s very, very nice to have finally met you. I’ve just burst into tears writing this line, I guess it worked. If Neil Gaiman never writes for Doctor Who again I will always be eternally grateful that he gave us this.

Bunk beds are now cool, I had one of those so I can’t argue. What was that about River and the forest? The Doctor looks so happy as he rushes of to times and places anew, like a kid with a new toy. I felt very much the same at the end of this because, and it’s not often we can say this, on that day Who history was made.

The Mad Man has his Box Back.

Deleting rooms as I go,

Chris.

Charlestown has a lock gate and above the village is a reservoir that is used to top up the harbour water level. Attached is a photo – not very good, a grab shot taken from the bus – showing the sign near the reservoir. Adam take note!

– Martinus Scriblerus

(Photo at URL below)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150259222096823&set=o.26860495434&type=1

Greetings from America! Home of Doctor Who (ok just the first two episodes)

I wanted if I may to address some comments on the most recent podcast (105). The reason why the BBC America has had the premiere in the Grand City of New York. The most likely reason why they are done there are most likely because the offices for the BBCA are in New York. I would like to point out you are very much correct with the population density. The top 5 areas of Population Density are within 10 miles (give or take) around NYC.

Can I take you to that pub in New York? Absolutely. Next time you go to Gally or to Chicago Tardis you could always stop in a real city on the way back. That real city of course is NY. In NY we call Chicago “The Second City” and we usually don’t think LA is worth much at all to think about. Doctor Who bears this out. Where has the show been and spent most of it’s time while in the US? New York City that is where. You have Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks also The Chase and The Stolen Earth all stories nominally in the United States and they take place in the city so nice they named it twice. New York New York. Yes Utah, Florida and Washington D.C have been in the show along with Los Angeles (as we are lead to believe in Last Years Christmas Special) but New York is King! Especially when it comes to US based Doctor Who.

Not for nothing you have heard of New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York but not New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New Los Angeles or New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New Chicago. Also it is the home of that wretched hive of scum and villainy that is also known as the United Nations from which UNIT originally came from.

Also the fact that it is only 7 or 8 hours from London as opposed to say 13 to 14 hours to Los Angeles may have something to do with the fact that the cast and crew comes here as opposed to LA. Or have you forgotten the jetlag from Gally already?

As to the DWM debacle (I think we all agree on that term for it) We over here were surprised on NBC (National Broadcasting Company) Today Show when they did a 7 minute segment of Doctor Who where they gave away at least 2 major plotlines from later in the series. Including clips!!! GRRRRR!!!! Damned bastards. This is why I do not watch morning television. Damned hosts with their smarmy chit chat. Damn you Meredith Vieira! On the lighter side did you know that there are such things as Diet Mountain Dew? No Diet Twinkees (yet but who wants diet twinkees? ick)

Love or a reasonable facsimile of it to all,
Andre

Day of the Moon

Cons
If you forget the Silence as soon as you look away, how come Signora Calvierri can remember them in Vampires in Venice and that her race are fleeing them.
How do Rory, River, Amy & the Dr remember that they should not was the ‘count to five’ marks that they are drawing all over themselves or have any fleeting Memory once outside the TARDIS as I can only assume the Dr created a number of Silence holograms form Amy’s photo,o which they accidentally foundand permanently projects them so they remember who & what & don’t just leave.

Pros
The Silence. Love the Silence, they look good and I love the idea of a monster that you forget when you stop looking (see Con’s). I liked the projecting of the instructing people to kill them embedded in the moon landing. I liked the link back to The Lodger space ship.

I like the ‘prison’ to keep the Silence out and can Canton Delaware (III) be a companion, please…….

What..what.. WHAT…

This was all over the place and had so many ‘apparent’ loop holes I just gave up.
The Time Lady girl at the end is either going to be brilliant, a plot cop out or really screw up Who continuity. I did think she was going to eat or absorb the tramp in some way.
I know it is a fictional programme but there needs to be a degree of continuity within it’s own created universe. This was ‘played’ with last season, with the re-set, but there is a fine line where the universe that the program has created for itself becomes so unstable as to start to destroy it believability.

This episode will transpire, over the remainder of the season as questions get answered, to be inspired or balderdash (that is not the word I wanted to use, but children may be listening).

The Curse of the Black Spot

Cons
At points really good and then really hurried, I got the feeling as if this was was too ideas dove tailed together.
Why break a mirror that then creates tens or hundreds of small reflective shards when you throw, less reflective, treasure overboard. I know this was only for the whole ’7 years bad luck’ line, I am sorry but just lazy writing for a line.

Was this a homage to Enlightenment or Enlightenment light.

Pros
Some good and funny acting by Arthur Darvill. The most original way of getting an assistant out of the way, without getting them captured, etc.
Great set.
A bit of a romp

Well that is it, I am sure you will cover the whole, is Amy pregnant, is that her child, what has the woman with an eye patch got to do with it……

Hopefully I will be with you, in person for 107, until then
TTFN, Jean

If I listed all the plot points that bothered me in The Black Spot this letter would be as long as my last, so I’ll stick with the bit that ruined everything for me: the idea that the TARDIS has so little in the way of medical technology that Amy would have to do CPR on the main deck. What happened to the sickbay? To the Moffat-created nanogenes? To a 20th century portable medikit with an oxygen bag and cardio shock machine?

Perhaps I shouldn’t be that surprised, considering that the TARDIS is so confused about human biology that it seems to think that you check for pregnancy by x-raying the lower spine. But still!

I also have a cynical prediction. I hope it won’t come true, because I’ll be furious if it does. But now that the woman with the cyborg eyepatch has peered at Amy twice, I can’t help but wonder how much of this season will turn out to be some kind of hallucination and that the whole plotline about the Doctor’s death will be “fixed” by Amy simply waking up.

In hopes that future shows and podcasts will prove me wrong,

Nea

These will be presented in rough order of when we received them. This won’t match the order in which we read them out!

As ever, please feel free to comment on them here on the blog, though please note we won’t read any such replies on the podcast, for that please continue to email us at show@staggeringstories.net.

Thank you all!

The Curse of the Black Spot

So Pirates in Doctor Who, great idea, in nearly fifty years we should have had more than two of these. Anyway, we’re introduced to Hugh Bonneville as Captain Avery and thrown right into the action. The stowaways are discovered and in next to no time are walking the plank.

However they’re saved by possibly the best part of the story, ‘Amy Pond Pirate Queen’. The sword fight was AMAZING!!!!, not the best sword fight ever I’ll agree, but she really went for it, I’d certainly be scared if Amy Pond came at me with a large sword, wouldn’t you, Adam need not answer this. Then we get the black spots themselves and the very nice haunting music, Rory’s reaction to this was just bizarre and a little un-nerving. And the Siren arrives, Lily Cole was very graceful and serene and very scary when she had to be.

This story had a lot of great lines in it, ‘a green, singing shark in an evening gown’ and ‘he has his good days and his bad days’. Avery’s son stowing away was interesting although since this story is throwing all things pirate at us it shouldn’t be too surprising. I think Avery and the Doctor seemed to work well together, I thought Avery equating all the Tardis’ controls with those of his ship and his silent gloating was very good.

The scene where the other pirate tries to break Toby’s faith in his father was quite a dark way for this story to turn. It really must be one of the Doctor’s bad days if he can’t figure out that any reflective surface can make the Siren appear. Hang on, that woman’s there again!

I think the scene with Avery and the Doctor out on deck is more important than you first think and I’ll tell you why. You can tell by the way Hugh Bonneville plays it that Avery is mostly a good person but, as this scene hints, he’s possibly had some bad experiences and chosen a life as a pirate. He’s also run away from the responsibility of being a father.

When that crown dropped and rolled away, during the storm, that’s what must have really shaken Toby’ faith in his father. Having him built up and then discovering he’s basically a criminal, that has to be devastating to a kid his age. This made worse by him then being captured by the Siren and Rory being thrown overboard.

I liked the reveal of the two ships in the same place and the human virus that wiped out the crew, even if we’ve seen it before. It was funny seeing the Doctor getting snot on his hand but don’t wipe it on Amy. Again not the Doctor’s best day if he only now realises the Siren’s a nurse, probably the first time he’s been saved by a snotty handkerchief, though.

The scene where Avery decides to stay with his son and travel the stars was quite touching, hopefully now he can change his ways and prove to his son he’s a better man than Toby was led to believe. As for the Tardis team, wow Amy’s tough exterior was certainly put under stress when she’s reviving Rory, so utterly heartbreaking to watch and it could have been even worse. But a happy ending and why’s the Doctor scanning Amy again? Didn’t it work last time?

Casting off,

Chris.