Staggering Stories Podcast

Staggering Stories Podcast #158: Journey to the Crimson Centre of Tony Stark

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:41:33 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler, the Real Keith Dunn and Scott Fuller discuss the new Doctor Who stories ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’ and ‘The Crimson Horror’, review ‘Iron Man 3′ and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:17 — Welcome!
02:35 – News:
02:43 — Doctor Who: New Executive Producer.
05:12 — Game of Thrones: Ratings keep climbing.
07:49 — Birthday: Adam is even older!
08:22 — Doctor Who (now generic Sci-Fi): Themed adult show.
10:21 — Doctor Who: Free Target books for schools.
11:59 — ASDA-Man: Stalking more Doctor Who fans!
14:37 – Doctor Who: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.
29:49 – Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror.
47:24 – Iron Man 3.
58:19 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
106:08 – Farewell for this podcast!
106:30 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #87: Doctor Who – The Rings of Akhaten

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 05 May 2013 09:59:42 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell and Keith Dunn sit down, bored, in front of the 2013 Doctor Who story, The Rings of Akhaten, and spout our usual nonsense!

Their god is feeling peckish, the Star Wars cantina denizens miss their band and, as it’s her second proper story, Clara’s contractually obliged to somehow save the day. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Rings of Akhaten…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #157: The Chilly Hide

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:38:07 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss the new Doctor Who stories ‘Cold War’ and ‘Hide’, review Jeff Wayne’s ‘Musical Version of War of the Worlds’, play a game and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:17 — Welcome!
01:42 – News:
01:52 — Star Wars: Annual box office grab.
05:02 — Heroes: Microsoft to dig up the dead series?
07:39 — Futurama: DEAD (again)!
08:35 — Storm Thorgerson: DEAD!
09:36 – Doctor Who: Cold War.
21:21 – Game: The Unbelievable Truth.
28:29 – Doctor Who: Hide.
43:31 – Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds, The New Generation.
55:42 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
78:09 – Farewell for this podcast!
79:28 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #86: Doctor Who – The Bells of Saint John

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:00:47 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell and Keith Dunn sit down, downloaded, in front of the 2013 Doctor Who episode, ‘The Bells of Saint John’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Clara’s lost the Internet, Amy’s ripped off Enid Blyton and the monks fear the Doctor’s ring. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John…
Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #156: The Two Somethings of Something

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:32:00 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler, the Real Keith Dunn and Scott Fuller discuss the new Doctor Who stories ‘The Bells of Saint John’ and ‘The Rings of Akhaten’, report on some recent convention activity, feel the ire of the Agony Nanny and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:05 — Welcome!
02:37 – News:
01:52 — Star Wars: LucasArts – DEAD!
03:57 — Misfits: DEAD! (soon).
05:34 — Iain (M) Banks: Dying.
07:17 — JMS: Sense8 coming to NetFlix.
08:59 — Blake’s 7: Syphy contracts the reimagining.
11:53 — David Tennant: Awkward scenes in The Politician’s Husband.
14:29 – Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John.
24:54 – Nanny Ireland: The Agony Nanny.
26:40 – Doctor Who: The Rings of Akhaten.
40:09 – Convention reports: Dalek Invasion of Portsmouth 2013AD and Big Blue Box 2.
63:40 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
106:13 – Farewell for this podcast!
106:43 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #85: Firefly – Jaynestown

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:00:45 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, Cobbed, in front of the Firefly episode ‘Jaynestown’ and spout our usual nonsense!

Jayne’s a hero to some, Simon’s a fool to himself and Mal’s just trying to avoid trouble with everyone. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Firefly: Jaynestown…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #155: The Ranking of Doom

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:52:36 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler, the Real Keith Dunn and Scott Fuller continue cataloguing their favourite Doctor Who stories and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:22 — Welcome!
02:37 – News:
02:46 — Doctor Who: Peter Jackson names his price.
04:08 — Firefly: Joss Whedon too busy to Kickstart.
06:59 — Doctor Who: Caroline Skinner: GONE!
10:22 — James Herbert: DEAD!
12:35 — Karen Gillan: Joins Adult Swim’s NTSF:SD:SUV.
14:22 — Doctor Who: Offical web site is a cesspit of spoilers.
15:52 — Justin Bieber: YouTube videos of death.
16:38 – Things in Five Words.
22:47 – Doctor Who: Favourite stories for each Doctor.
82:16 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
117:27 – Farewell for this podcast!
117:58 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories.
Staggering Stories: Podcast Drinking Game, Fifth edition.
BBC: Doctor Who.
Wikipedia: Firefly (TV series).
TARDIS Data Core: Caroline Skinner.
Wikipedia: James Herbert.
Wikipedia: NTSF:SD:SUV (National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle).
Adrian’s Link: Twinkies are coming back.
Voyagers in the TARDIS.
An Improbable Podcast.
The Liberating Podcast.
The Pratchett Podcast.
Who The Man Podcast.
Doctor Who Podcast Alliance.
Facebook: Staggering Stories Group.
Google+: Staggering Stories Page.

Staggering Stories Commentary #84: Doctor Who – Doomsday

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:02:44 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, maltesered, in front of the Doctor Who episode, ‘Doomsday’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Pete’s feeling lively, Yvonne’s feeling chilly and Rose is feeling deceased (or is she?) But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: Doomsday…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #83: Doctor Who – Army of Ghosts

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:02:32 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, spooked, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, Army of Ghosts, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor cosplays as a Ghostbuster, Jackie wants a bit of how’s her father, Torchwood likes its big thrusting tower and Derek is a fraud. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Army of Ghosts…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #154: Eleven of the Best

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:57:18 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn discuss the new BBC Radio 4 version of Neverwhere, catalogue our favourite Doctor Who stories and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:04 — Welcome!
02:26 – News:
02:39 — Doctor Who: Official three-day event in London.
05:54 — Star Wars: Luke, Leia and Han in Episode VII.
07:08 — Doctor Who RPG: First Doctor source book released.
13:36 — Star Wars – Clone Wars: DEAD!
14:58 — Amelia: Favourite name for baby girls in the UK.
17:34 – Doctor Who: Favourite stories for each Doctor.
51:18 – Neverwhere: Radio 4, episode one.
61:45 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
86:06 – Farewell for this podcast!
86:38 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #82: Firefly – Our Mrs Reynolds

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 09:59:55 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, articulate, in front of the Firefly episode, ‘Our Mrs Reynolds’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Saffron has readied herself, Mal is afraid of blubber, Book warns of the Special Hell and Jayne loves Vera. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Firefly: Our Mrs Reynolds…
Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #153: Every Dalek Loves Raymond

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:49:52 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss Inspector Spacetime (specifically the Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time), play a game of Top Trumps, remember Dalek designer Raymond Cusick and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:16 — Welcome!
02:21 – News:
02:31 — Doctor Who: 3D Anniversary Special plus a Christmas Special but nothing more.
05:09 — Being Human & Primeval New World: DEAD!
10:07 — Atlantis: Merlin’s replacement named.
11:37 — Dead: Bernard Horsfall, Richard Briers, Elspet Gray and Raymond Cusick.
16:03 – Inspector Spacetime.
28:36 – Game: Top Trumps.
40:29 – Raymond Cusick.
54:46 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
90:32 – Farewell for this podcast!
91:55 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #152: The Gally Gallimaufry

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:58:35 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins (back in the studio) and Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn in Los Angeles, at the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention, discuss the event, play a game, have a 30 second recommendation, talk with a Radiophonic genius and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:50 — Welcome!
01:30 – Game: Tea Duelling.
11:53 – 30 Second Recommendation: ‘Eon’ by Greg Bear.
12:38 – Gallifrey convention discussion.
31:02 – Post-Gallifrey convention discussion.
56:33 – Dr. Dick Mills.
74:48 – Farewell for this podcast!
75:22 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #81: Doctor Who – Fear Her

Staggering Stories Podcast — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:59:33 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, rubbed out, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, Fear Her, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor is carrying a torch, Rose is assaulted by a scribble and Chloe’s swallowed something nasty. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Fear Her…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #80: Firefly – The Train Job

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:08:17 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, heisted, in front of the Firefly episode, ‘The Train Job’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Jayne is dangling from a wire, Mal has a carriage of purple bellies and Niska wants to be solid. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Firefly: The Train Job…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #151: Anniversary Dreaming

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:53:56 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn have hopes for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary, discuss the Science Fiction books of their youths, play a game, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:10 — Welcome!
03:08 – News:
03:20 — Doctor Who: 7B starts at Easter and Anniversary Special length.
05:09 — Star Wars: J J Abrams directing Episode 7.
09:10 — Alphas: Syfy cancels it, DEAD!
10:37 — Zombieland: Soon to be an Amazon original ‘TV’ programme.
13:31 — Corin Nemec: Has a little nautical accident.
15:26 — Doctor Who: ‘A Big Hand for the Doctor’ eBook released.
16:48 — Ted: Sequel for the fuzzy bear.
17:29 – Game: The Unbelievable Truth.
27:08 – Doctor Who: What we hope for in the 50th Anniversary.
43:27 – Science Fiction novels of our youth.
61:02 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
92:44 – Farewell for this podcast!
93:19 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #79: Doctor Who – Love and Monsters

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 10:39:05 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, absorbed, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, Love and Monsters, and spout our usual nonsense!

Mr Skinner is feeling absorbed, Bliss is feeling absorbed, Bridget is feeling absorbed, Ursula is feeling absorbed and Elton is wanting some paving slab action. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Love and Monsters…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #150: Streams of Indulgence

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 10:38:21 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about their worst TV Doctor Who stories, Science Fiction TV from the past 50 years, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:23 — Welcome!
02:33 – News:
02:45 — Doctor Who: Big Finish’s The Five Doctors.
05:46 — Star Wars: TV series back from the dead?
07:45 — Star Wars: US White House refuses to build a Death Star.
09:09 — William Shatner: Tweeting a real astronaut, in space.
10:42 — William Shatner: Rock guitarist Michael Schenker uses the Shat.
12:32 — Doctor Who: Troughton Yeti production stills discovered.
13:56 — Staggering Stories: Keith spotted by a listener!
17:34 – Doctor Who: Our least favourite stories.
50:00 – Fifty years of TV Science Fiction.
99:04 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
117:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
117:51 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #78: Doctor Who – The Snowmen

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:13:32 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, snowmanned, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, The Snowmen, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s put aside his bow tie, Strax is desperate for a grenade and Clara’s about to fall to Earth. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Snowmen…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #149: Straddling the Bongs

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:10:09 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Crumbly, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: ‘The Snowmen’, our Predictions, Hopes and Dreams, and Fears for 2013, see how wrong we were about our Predictions for 2012, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:10 — Welcome!
01:58 – News:
02:08 — Doctor Who: Anniversary stamps.
06:46 — The Twilight Zone: CBS looking to make a new series.
05:43 — Radio Times Poll: Sci-Fi & fantasy down in the poll.
08:00 — Gerry Anderson: DEAD!
09:52 — Drinking Game!
10:36 — Doctor Who RPG: More expansions, finally!
14:30 — Boxing Day Sales: Zombie customers.
16:00 – The News Quiz 2012.
21:48 – Predictions, Fears and Hopes & Dreams for the future:
21:54 — How wrong we were: Predictions for 2012.
28:56 — Predictions for 2013.
38:36 — How wrong we were: Hopes and Dreams for 2012.
44:12 — Hopes and Dreams for 2013.
53:55 — How wrong we were: Fears for 2012.
59:49 — Fears for 2013.
64:58 – Doctor Who: The Snowmen.
84:04 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
99:16 — New Year’s Bongs!
106:00 – Farewell for this podcast!
106:43 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #77: Babylon 5 – The Fall of Night

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:02:13 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, exposed, in front of the Babylon 5 second season finale, ‘The Fall of Night’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Sheridan is sending a crew straight to hell, Minipax is making moves on Ivanova and Keffer is feeling the heat. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Babylon 5: The Fall of Night…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #148: A Solstice Game

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:02:22 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn ‘write’ their own Doctor Who Christmas Special, discuss The Hobbit and Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, play some festive games of Name That Sci-Fi Tune, Swanee-Kazoo and Pass the Parcel, pull some Christmas Crackers, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
02:15 — Welcome!
04:18 – News:
04:26 — Doctor Who: Anniversary audios, books and Christmas Special tie-in eBook.
06:46 — Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: BBC TV adaptation.
08:17 — Tron 3: New writer and returning star.
12:09 — Lapcat: Design stolen from Thunderbirds?
13:04 — Daily Mail: Where’s the Pond-like outrage?
14:02 — Huffington Post: Explaining Doctor Who.
14:53 — The Big Bang Theory: Carnal activities in a Police Box.
16:00 – Name That Sci-Fi Tune.
25:04 – Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The New Generation.
33:54 – Christmas Crackers!
45:41 – Doctor Who: Our Staggering Christmas story.
51:30 – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
65:37 – Swanee-Kazoo: Christmas Carols.
67:21 – Pass the Parcel: Christmas Sci-Fi Quiz.
75:20 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
83:35 – Farewell for this podcast!
84:59 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

The Secret Log of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, episode 1

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:50:44 +0000

At long last, Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s most private thoughts, his memoirs if you will, have been committed to audio.

Staggering Stories and the Flashing Blade Podcast are proud to bring you Tim Munro and Nick Cooper’s The Secret Log of Captain Jean-Luc Picard:

Episode 1: Stardate 41799.7: For too long, the world has been deceived. Through the series Star Trek – The Next Generation, we have all been led to believe that life in the 24th Century will be one long round of adventure in a disciplined and civilized Universe. However, we at Star Begotten are now in possession of documents which shoot to pieces the cosy image of life aboard the USS Enterprise. These documents, transported from the 24th Century via the now fabled SB office time warp, cast new light on the crew’s relationships and day-to-day life…

Originally appearing the the fanzine Star Begotten, in October 1989, then migrating to Private Lives, as run by a certain Siobhan Gallichan and then finally reprinted on the Staggering Stories website. Later episodes will be committed to audio in time but if you’d wish to read the other episodes now then they can be found at: http://www.StaggeringStories.net/secretlog.html.

A big thank you to Siobhan Gallichan for performing the narration and production and, of course, Tim Munro and Nick Cooper for allowing us to bring this to you.

Staggering Stories Commentary #76: Doctor Who – The Satan Pit

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:58:43 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, bestially, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, The Satan Pit, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Ood are rampant, the Beast has entered Toby and the Doctor is feeling tiny. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Satan Pit…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #75: Doctor Who – The Impossible Planet

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:58:35 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, sanctuaried, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who episode, The Impossible Planet, and spout our usual nonsense!

Rose feels abandoned, the Doctor is feeling trapped and the Beast is coming. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Impossible Planet…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #147: Bleating Backstory

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:57:37 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss Doctor Who’s backstory, David Tennant’s new film Nativity 2, how Merlin should end and what should replace it, plus play a game of Extreme Tea Duelling, have a 30 Second Recommendation, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:15 — Welcome!
02:18 – News:
02:48 — Merlin: DEAD!
04:25 — Star Wars: Original trilogy screenwriter strikes back.
06:50 — Community: Chase is off.
09:50 — Dinah Sheridan: DEAD!
11:50 — End of the World: Have a Gally con in Limbo!
13:51 — Neverwhere: BBC Radio adaptation in Spring 2013.
16:17 — Twitter: Now Adam is being stalked by a Pond!
17:52 – Merlin: How should it end?
28:39 – What should replace Merlin?
38:09 – 30 Second Recommendation: Community.
40:08 – Extreme Tea Duelling: A Space Odyssey.
43:59 – Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger.
48:43 – Doctor Who: Should we see more of the Doctor’s backstory?
64:41 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
84:02 – Farewell for this podcast!
84:56 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Acquisition Links (Amazon UK):

Acquisition Links (Amazon US):

Staggering Stories Commentary #74: Babylon 5 – Comes the Inquisitor

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 10:45:15 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, rippered, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, ‘Comes the Inquisitor’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Sebastian’s been stuck in the freezer section, Delenn’s on the wrong end of some S&M and Sheridan doesn’t know his east from his west. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Babylon 5: Comes the Inquisitor…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #146: Prequel of Festivity

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:32:44 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn discuss the Doctor Who Christmas 2012 Prequel – The Great Detective and the new Red Dwarf X episode The Beginning, play a game of Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
02:58 – News:
03:22 — Doctor Who: Kingston reads The Angel’s Kiss.
04:08 — The Tomorrow People: US Network wants to resurrect ITV children’s TV series.
06:54 — SHIELD: Two Brits added to Avenger’s Assemble spin-off TV series.
08:12 — Battlestar Galatica: Blood and Chrome web series out now.
10:41 — Star Trek: Daily Mail denies Barrowman’s bottom.
11:25 — Podcasting: Fellow podcaster Ken Deep, of Podshock, has heart attack but is now okay.
12:09 — Doctor Who: Amy and Rory in real 1950s painting?
14:05 — Doctor Who: John Lewis snowman advert – are they Weaping Angels?
15:07 – Doctor Who: Children in Need Christmas 2012 Prequel – The Great Detective.
26:56 – Things in Five Words.
36:36 – Red Dwarf X: The Beginning.
48:47 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
85:57 – Farewell for this podcast!
86:32 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Acquisition Links (Amazon UK):

Staggering Stories Commentary #73: Doctor Who – The Angels Take Manhattan

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:46:33 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, suicidal, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, The Angels Take Manhattan, and spout our usual nonsense!

Rory is feeling farmed, Amy is wanting her man and the Doctor is bouncing off parts of New York. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Angels Take Manhattan…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #145: Escape from the Throat

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:36:34 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn discuss one of their Doctor Who birth stories plus Doctor Who: The Visitation, the new Red Dwarf episodes Entangled & Dear Dave and this whole business about Disney buying Lucasfilm, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:57 — Welcome!
01:47 – News:
01:55 — Doctor Who: Christmas Prequel on Children in Need.
03:44 — Star Wars: Disney buys out George Lucas.
05:50 — Community: Season Four dated on NBC for 7th February 2013.
07:29 — US Presidential Elections: Joss Whedon ‘endorses’ Mitt Romney.
08:29 — Doctor Who: BBC newsreader dresses as a Sontaran!
09:26 — The Hobbit: Air New Zealand Hobbit safety video.
10:19 — The Colin Baker: Reality TV victim.
12:23 — Doctor Who: Whostrology book now available!
12:47 – Doctor Who: Our birth stories – The Web Planet
16:09 – Doctor Who: The Visitation
33:13 – Star Wars: What does the Disney buyout mean?
48:59 – Red Dwarf X: Entangled and Dear Dave.
59:43 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
69:32 – Farewell for this podcast!
70:10 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Acquisition Links (Amazon UK):

Acquisition Links (Amazon US):

Staggering Stories Commentary #72: Doctor Who – The Power of Three

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:27:44 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, rubixed, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, ‘The Power of Three’, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor can’t give them up, Amy and Rory are losing their lust for adventure and Brian’s cubely obsessed. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Power of Three…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #144: Birthing Doctor Who

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:07:03 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn discuss their Doctor Who birth stories, the new Red Dwarf episodes Fathers and Suns & Lemons, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:57 — Welcome!
01:44 – News:
01:47 — Doctor Who: 7B writers, including Gaiman.
03:12 — Doctor Who: Christmas Special dated, for Christmas!
04:17 — Community: On indefinite broadcast hiatus – again.
06:26 — Elysium and Robocop: New films bumped back.
07:56 — Paul Cornell: Now a father.
08:25 — Merchandise: Sci-Fi and fantasy rings.
09:08 — Barrowman: Moons all the Star Trek captains.
11:52 – Doctor Who: Our birth stories:
13:39 — Planet of the Spiders.
21:08 — The Reign of Terror.
25:10 — Planet of the Giants.
30:10 — The Space Pirates.
32:08 — Whostrology – quick Q&A with author Michael M Gilroy-Sinclair.
42:24 – Red Dwarf X: Fathers and Suns & Lemons.
53:19 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
62:47 – Farewell for this podcast!
63:17 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Acquisition Links (Amazon UK):

Acquisition Links (Amazon US):

Staggering Stories Commentary #71: Doctor Who – A Town Called Mercy

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 09:25:37 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, high nooned, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, A Town Called Mercy, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s not liking his mirror, Amy’s shooting crazy and the townsfolk feel besieged. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy A Town Called Mercy…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #143: Bye, Bye Pond

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 09:21:20 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss the new Doctor Who story The Angels Take Manhattan, the new Red Dwarf episode Trojan, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
02:00 — Welcome!
02:28 – News:
02:38 — Doctor Who: Now Australia wants some Who action!
04:08 — Babylon 5: Michael O’Hare – DEAD!
06:10 — JMS and Wachowskis: New TV series ‘Sense8′ in the works.
08:27 — Stan Lee: Now bionic!
09:16 — World of Warcraft: Death in the cities!
10:24 — Matt Smith: Top Gear, breaks Who track times.
11:29 — Death: Sci-Fi coffins for sale.
13:13 — Doctor Who: New UNIT RPG supplement.
14:28 — Quickfire Plug: Novelisation of the Rush ablum Clockwork Angels, out now!
15:03 — Dredd: USA let us down, film bombs in the US.
16:09 – Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan.
39:19 – Jean’s autograph book quest.
40:39 – Extreme Tea Duelling.
44:48 – Red Dwarf X: Trojan.
56:08 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
87:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
88:01 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #70: Doctor Who – Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:47:46 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, side-split, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Riddell and Nefi are up a tree, Rory’s Dad has regenerated after the wedding and the writer’s apparently taken an early holiday. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship…

NOTE: apologies for the audio quality, one of the two mics failed…

Vital Links:

Now available – Doctor Who: The Angel’s Kiss

Adam J Purcell — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:19:56 +0000

Today is finally the day that the tie in novel for The Angels Take Manhattan is published.

Here’s the blurb:

On some days, New York is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

This was one of the other days…

Melody Malone, owner and sole employee of the Angel Detective Agency, has an unexpected caller. It’s movie star Rock Railton, and he thinks someone is out to kill him. When he mentions the ‘kiss of the Angel’, she takes the case. Angels are Melody’s business…

At the press party for Railton’s latest movie, studio owner Max Kliener invites Melody to the film set of their next blockbuster. He’s obviously spotted her potential, and Melody is flattered when Kliener asks her to become a star. But the cost of fame, she’ll soon discover, is greater than anyone could possibly imagine.

Will Melody be able to escape Kliener’s dastardly plan – before the Angels take Manhattan?

I can’t seem to find it on the Google Play bookstore but it is available on Amazon, eBook only. I have no idea about Apple bookstore. For your convenience (and as a little experiment on my part) you can purchase from Amazon UK or US here:

Staggering Stories Podcast #142: The Power of a Game Called Mercy

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:44:16 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss the new Doctor Who stories A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three, review the new Judge Dredd film known only as Dredd, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:55 — Welcome!
02:47 – News:
02:55 — Doctor Who: Five Doctors unite to help Janet Fielding.
04:44 — Amanda Tapping: Recuring role on Supernatural.
05:29 — Alfonso Cuarón & J.J. Abrams: New genre TV series.
07:25 — Manimal: Hollywood gets even more desperate.
10:10 — Doctor Who: Peter Jackson interested in directing?
12:17 — Quickfire Plug: Novelisation of the Rush ablum Clockwork Angels, out now!
12:28 — Quickfire Plug: Red Dwarf X starts on Dave, 9pm 4th October 2012.
12:38 — Quickfire Plug: Iain M Banks’ new Culture novel The Hydrogen Sonata published 9th October 2012.
12:41 — Quickfire Plug: Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novel, out for a while but still really, really good!
12:21 – Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy.
25:15 – Doctor Who: The Power of Three.
41:43 – Dredd (the 2012 film).
56:43 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
79:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
81:18 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #69: Doctor Who – Asylum of the Daleks

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:24:47 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, nanogened, in front of the 2012 Doctor Who story, Asylum of the Daleks, and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s all about the hate, Rory is feeling rejected and the iDaleks have rightly shrunk into the background out of self loathing. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Asylum of the Daleks…

NOTE: apologies for the audio quality, one of the two mics failed…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #141: TV Movies of the Week

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 09:42:09 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss the new Doctor Who stories Asylum of the Daleks and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, fondly look back at the recent Doctor Who convention Whooverville 4, play some games, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:11 — Welcome!
02:12 – News:
03:00 — Doctor Who: Another Hugo win, this time Neil Gaiman gets it.
03:46 — Steven Moffat: Twitter quitter.
04:52 — Joss Whedon: His Marvel TV series pilot called SHIELD.
05:47 — Red Dwarf: New series starts on the 4th October 2012 on Dave.
08:00 — DEAD: Michael Clarke Duncan and the legend Neil Armstrong.
09:13 — Jean Riddler: Finished her Olympic duties.
12:21 – Whooverville 4 Doctor Who convention.
20:40 – Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
46:11 – Extreme Tea Duelling.
51:59 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
83:57 – Farewell for this podcast!
84:16 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Random thoughts on Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Adam J Purcell — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:48:33 +0000

Let’s cut straight to the chase here, I didn’t enjoy Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

The other night we recorded Staggering Stories Podcast 141, where we discussed this episode (and Asylum of the Daleks). I was given the opportunity to rant about Dinosaurs on a Spaceship but I found I just couldn’t. It’s not that I didn’t want to but, when the time came, I just couldn’t perform! The problem was that I just couldn’t quite figure out what I didn’t like about it. That’s the problem with liking or disliking things, often you don’t really know why. It’s an emotion and that all happens in the more primitive, subconscious, parts of the mind. Nonetheless, after a routine night of not being able to sleep, because of all the oh-so-dark thoughts that constantly hurtle around my brain, I think I may have figured it out…

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was trying to be a comedy. Such things are always subjective, comedy more than most. Script writing is an art and comedy is another art again, fusing them is always difficult and you’ll never please all of the people any of the time! Now, don’t worry, I won’t get into the discussion on how Hollywood are trying to turn the art of filmmaking into a science, though given how much this episode of Doctor Who relied on common Hollywood formulae, perhaps it wouldn’t be entirely out of place! Anyway, it seems that the vast majority of people enjoyed it and even found it funny. I barely laughed.

My frame of mind at the time my be considered relevant here. To get into the mood for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship I watched, back to back, A Good Man Goes to War and Let’s Kill Hitler, directly before. I had no real knowledge of the upcoming episode, other than its name. I didn’t know if the eponymous Dinosaurs were real, mechanical or even outright imaginary. Nor did I know anything about the guest stars or characters. Basically I knew nothing, I hadn’t even watched the ‘next time’ trailer at the end of Asylum of the Daleks. I was going in cold but for the fine warm up double act of A Good Man Goes to War and Let’s Kill Hitler. I greatly enjoyed rewatching those two ‘old’ episodes and laughed many times. I was in a good mood. That wasn’t the problem.

Sat there watching the new episode, with its comedy double act robots and golf ball chasing dinosaur, I just thought it was silly, rather embarrassing and generally (as I said to myself at the time) rubbish. I honestly expected a severe backlash against this episode due to how childish it was. Clearly I was very wrong!

I normally enjoy Mitchell and Webb’s work but bringing them in as the robots gave me a nasty flash back to the likes of Hale and Pace in the last ever broadcast Classic Doctor Who story, Survival. True, it’s not the first time that New Who has called upon comedians to ‘fun it up’, with perhaps the most blatant being Lee Evan’s Malcolm from Planet of the Dead. This time we had bickering robots, though. Cheesoid this is not! It wasn’t just the robots or the dog-like triceratops but the tone of the whole thing and the general lack of any real drama. Oh and the comedic robots then suddenly slaughter the aforementioned innocent triceratops. Mixed messages?

It’s time for me to accept that it isn’t you, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, it’s me. Some almost primal fear that was instilled in me as a teenager, that everybody will suddenly hate Doctor Who (again), welled up. Note that I had no such problem with the abundant humour in A Good Man Goes to War and Let’s Kill Hitler. I’d like to think that’s because it was just smarter humour in those Moffat penned episodes – no contrived testicle gags, for example! Then there’s the convenient picking up of a big game hunter – why did the Doctor do that, exactly? Yet another literal count down to destruction? The two control chairs needing familial DNA, really? Yes, all plots are engineered with the best crafted to near perfection but this one was still rather showing its workings out in the margins. Things you can probably accept if you enjoyed the experience. A few people have said of this episode that you shouldn’t complain about such trivial matters, with a title such as it has, you knew going in it wasn’t a serious one (as if that’s really an excuse for lazy writing). The point is, if you don’t enjoy something you may not really be able to say why and all you can latch onto are those untidy little bits but they aren’t generally the cause, at least not wholly.

I may never like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship or I may get lucky, as I did with Victory of the Daleks, and have an enjoyment epiphany after three or four watches. Time will tell. Even if not, it doesn’t really matter – not even for my ongoing enjoyment of Doctor Who, let alone the bigger picture. It’s just one episode and they’ll be another along next week. It’s just ironic that it is probably my deep seated fear that Doctor Who will become something of a laughing stock again, hated or dismissed (as it seemed to be in the mid to late 1980s) that actually prevented me from enjoying it myself. I so want everyone to love every episode of Doctor Who (most of all me) but I think that has at the very least contributed to me not liking one at all…

Random thoughts on Dredd

Adam J Purcell — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:53:48 +0000

After what seems like an age since the original announcement, finally the new Judge Dredd film, named simply ‘Dredd‘, has hit UK cinemas.

Was it worth the wait? For me, definitely, yes.

Now I’m not a life long Judge Dredd fan and can’t ever remember reading an issue of 2000AD but, nonetheless, I am fairly familiar with Joe Dredd and Mega-City One. Most of my knowledge comes from playing the pen and paper RPG and, subsequently, the Big Finish full cast audio plays. Oh, and there’s the Stallone film, too, but fortunately I’ve all but expunged that from my memory banks!

The first thing you’ll notice about this new film is that they’ve radically changed the look of Mega-City One and its inhabitants. Far from the dense, colourful, multi-leveled look prevalent in the comics, this big screen city is a flat, grey ocean of mostly low-rise buildings with largely spaced out mega blocks occasionally jutting forth. Apart from the odd Justice Department drone, all traffic is very much on ground level. This is city that could exist now, just with urban decay turned up one small notch. It is very deliberately not visually exciting. This is a bleak environment, the same sort of five minutes into the future that Robocop gave us.

Also gone are the ‘safe’ swear words that are so familiar in many science fiction series (such as ‘fragging’, ‘fracking’ and Dredd’s ‘drokk’ – even ‘grud’ is dead!) In the UK this film is an 18 certificate, so they were very right to drop those cod expletives – with the possible exception of Red Dwarf, I always find them cringeworthy! Instead real world swearing is in and given the amount of violence involved in this film, that can only have been the right decision.

In essence the, rightly, British director (Pete Travis), equally British writer (Alex Garland) and their team have ‘Nolaned’ up the world of Judge Dredd. This was, no doubt, influenced by the relatively small budget (half that of the Stallone film of 1995 and, if you take into account inflation, it’s really probably nearer only a third) but I suspect that even if they had a vastly bigger budget that they would still have gravitated towards a more grounded film reality. I absolutely think they made the right call. Stallone’s Judge Dredd film may have looked more authentic to the comics but this Dredd feels more authentic.

This brings us around to Karl Urban. To my mind, he is Judge Dredd. As Toby Longworth is the definitive audio Joe Dredd, Urban is the definitive film Dredd. And yes, Dredd keeps his helmet on. Okay, there is one shot where you can just about make out one of his eyes through the visor of his helmet but, that (no doubt mistake) aside, you never see his eyes and nor do you need to. This Dredd does not laugh, does not smile and if you could see his eyes all you’d see is pretty a constant scowl anyway! He is not entirely humourless, though, and has a good line in dead-pan terse comebacks, most of which are simply pitch-perfect deliveries of the word ‘yep’! Don’t worry though, the film didn’t turn him into a one-line ‘joke’ cracker, like Roger Moore or Arnie at their worst! No, Dredd is glacially cool, almost machine like. He is the uncompromising tool of the police state that he should be.

Olivia Thirlby brings us a contrasting sidekick in the shape of Judge Cassandra Anderson. She’s a rookie who’s on her last chance before being drummed out and would have been gone a long time before if it wasn’t for her psi abilities. I more ‘know of’ than really know the character of Anderson and have far fewer preconceptions about who she is and how she should be played. I have seen drawings and some of those vinyl models that ridiculously sexualise the character but, I’m happy to say, they didn’t do that with this film version. Thirlby does a great job of juxtaposing Anderson’s humanity as compared to Dredd’s granite-like nature and all the violence they both must engage in to survive.

At its heart, it is nothing more than a simple survival film. Our ‘heroes’ are trapped in enemy territory with little chance of rescue and must fight their way through whatever is thrown their way. In many ways it is simply a day in the life of Judge Dredd, albeit probably a slightly more intense day than usual. The implications for Mega-City One are slight, at best. The world isn’t needing to be saved, Dredd is barely changed by the experience (if at all), though Anderson is clearly hardened by it. This film is very consciously an introduction to the world of Judge Dredd. If we are lucky enough to get a sequel, then we can probably expect a more world endangering plot and perhaps more of the fantastical elements to come into play (hints are being made of maybe a sequel involving the Dark Judges – incidentally, I couldn’t help be reminded of those four when another group of four judges turn up near the end of this film).

Viewers are certainly left to ponder the nature of the police state that is Mega-City One. The political undertones are left as just undertones and while Dredd is nominally the hero there is no real attempt to paint him as such. Dredd is tool of a fascist state, able to meter out summary justice with his ‘lawgiver’ gun. Were the filmmakers right to leave the social commentary as subtext? I think they were, at least for this first film. If we do get to see the Dark Judges or political strife in the Justice Department next time, then I’d expect a lot more to be made of such concepts. Anderson is clearly more concerned with natural justice than simply and blindly applying the law and I’d expect any sequel that features her would also delve more deeply into that. As it is, this film does show some of the non-combatant residents of the Peach Trees block as innocents but otherwise the judges and ‘perps’ are about as bad as each another.

Nobody too squeamish should watch this new film (it’s 18 rated in the UK), it is pretty bloody and has some wonderfully shot slow motion effects that add even more to that bloody horror! A twisted sense of humour certainly helps, too. If that’s you, then I don’t hesitate to recommend Dredd.

Staggering Stories Commentary #68: Doctor Who – The Idiot’s Lantern

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:32:42 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, coronated, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, The Idiot’s Lantern, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s having a bad hair day, the Wire’s permanently on TV and Rose has lost some face. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Idiot’s Lantern…

Vital Links:

Random thoughts on Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks

Adam J Purcell — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:27:30 +0000

Given we won’t be recording our podcast review of Asylum of the Daleks for several more days yet (after the next episode of Doctor Who airs, in fact), I think I should put down a few random thoughts now, before that next episodes goes out.

The first and most obvious one – was that the new companion appearing much earlier than expected? At first I thought ‘that can’t be her, just someone that looks like her, surely?’ It quickly became clear it was at least Jenna-Louise Coleman but was it this ‘Clara’ character? The jury’s still out on that one but if it is her, then how? I can’t believe Moffat will pull another River Song, seeing her death before the Doctor properly meets her, if for no other reason than that was a rubbish way to die (assuming she did!) Modern day companions (and indeed Doctors) should die heroically, saving other characters we care about. Maybe technically Oswin did but it didn’t really feel that way. Also, why didn’t she remember the Doctor? The horrific Dalek conversion? Maybe but a little too neat, I’d have expected some trace memory at the end, if only to intrigue the Doctor and entice the majority of the viewers who won’t have known who she was.

Talking of Dalek conversions, I think we’ve only ever seen Davros do this in the past and it doesn’t seem to fit into the racial purity of the Daleks themselves, let alone the ‘new paradigm’ lot. Of course perhaps Oswin was from an earlier non-pure era (perhaps even from Necros). On the subject of that earlier era, it is interesting that so many of the Doctor’s past battles with the Daleks were referenced, did the Time War have so little effect (besides upgrading most of the survivors casings?!)

The Dalek Supreme is now calling itself Prime Minister, eh? Complete with a Parliament, no less? I can’t imagine left wing Dalek political parties do too well in the Dalek elections! I suppose Moffat is trying to suggest a new start for the Daleks, a continuation of that theme from Victory of the Daleks. Now they don’t even remember the Doctor. Isn’t is convenient that their minds are all now linked?! I could buy that all of their onboard computers are linked and, as is slowly happening to humanity, they rely on their computers to remember nearly everything for them but actively wiping their short term memory, too? They really must be cyborgs now.

Then there’s the Ponds (or Williamses, technically!) I hadn’t watched the ‘Pond Life’ prequel shorts, for fear of spoilers, so it was a total surprise when it was revealed that they were divorcing. It was rather less of a surprise that Amy was instigating it, for yes, we have long been shown that Rory cares for her more than she does him. She has her moments, when she is reminded of him in some extraordinarily positive light (such as his waiting nearly 2000 years for her or just plain dying again) but, of the two, only one has never, could never, wander (holographic siren doctors aside!)

Compressed story telling, so we were warned to expect. The cleverest man in the room fixes Amy and Rory’s relationship with a some slight of hand, both physical and psychological. Was that all of 30 seconds screen time, including the straightening of his bow tie? It may have been compressed but it was nonetheless strong stuff and was so neatly spelled out that they didn’t need an hour to build up to it or ten minutes to resolve it. It really is a testament to Gillan and Darvill’s acting and Moffat’s character building for the past two years. This isn’t your old school Doctor Who, this is proper drama and really quite brave stuff for a programme that is aimed at family viewing. Plot-wise it does raise the question of will the Doctor help them in their baby making dreams? A quick visit to some future super-advanced medical facility should be able to quickly fix whatever problems Demons Run inflicted on Amy, I would think. Is that the ‘heartbreaking’ end Moffat has in store for the Ponds, them living happily ever after with a new baby? Probably not as that’s probably more ‘heartwarming’ but this is Moffat, so don’t forget Rule Number One!

Should we expect more medical drama in the form of the Dalek nanogenes still affected Amy? I suspect not. It wasn’t explicitly stated but I get the feeling they were brought back under control and then eradicated by the bracelet. If not then the lack of threat after Amy and Rory’s reconciliation, not to mention the Doctor casually dropping them off home, would seem to be sloppy writing at best (possibly hand waved away by saying the Doctor doesn’t realise the threat but in that case it should still be raised again for the audience, in a ‘you know something the Doctor doesn’t’ sort of way). If Amy starts behaving mechanically and eating nothing but Smarties then maybe she’s in trouble!

On the subject of these new ‘robomen’, the partially converted Dalek servants, let me go all stand-up and say, what was that all about?! They have the Moffat trademark of potentially being popular in the school playground – kids could pretend an eyestalk is popping out of their head and gun out of their hand. The dead ones were particularly nightmare-fuelling. The idea of trespassers being integrated into the defence systems was good, too. Still, didn’t it seem just a little silly to anyone else? Why have a Dalek eye-stalk come out of someone’s head? True, the long dead crew’s eyes probably weren’t working so well after all that smelly rotting but their bodies could have (should have?) been converted before bits started falling off them – alive or dead, it’s all the same to the nanogenes, so why should the dead ones be any more decayed than the apparent survivor? Picky, I know, but it’s a shame that ‘every Dalek, ever’ got such short shrift when they could have taken the screen time of these illogical zombies.

I am beginning to sound a little negative but, on the whole, I don’t feel that way about the episode. True, it wasn’t an instant favourite such as the likes of The Eleventh Hour or The Big Bang were for me. It was a runaround of an adventure that, besides a bit of much needed Dalek reworking, felt a little throwaway. Clearly ‘Oswin Oswald’ is leading somewhere (‘Oswald’, really? Coming up to the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who and JFK’s bullet catching? A bit on the nose, perhaps?) Also the reiteration of ‘Doctor Who?’ (two stories in a row now, ignoring the 2011 Christmas Special) is clearly leading to something. Presumably the fields of Trenzalore and all that but I don’t believe (and certainly hope) that Moffat really intends to name the Doctor. What would be the point? He has a functional name that we know him by and short of revealing him to be god, the devil or some Doctor Who specific mythical figure, I can’t see there’s anything to be gained by giving him yet another moniker (John Smith, Theta Sigma, The Other…)

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. I’d award Asylum of the Daleks a B-, good corridor running fun with the added pleasure in seeing the hated ‘new paradigm’ Daleks melting into the background, hopefully soon to disappear completely (though the red Dalek, one time referred to as the ‘drone’, does look rather better with the darker red metallic paint job, though). With luck we’ll never have the chance to be told what an Eternal Dalek does!

All in all, a good, energetic start to the new season, clearly intended to win over those casual viewers but keep the interest for us old fans. Now only four more to go until bye, bye Pond and then Christmas…

Staggering Stories Podcast #140: What If… Eccleston Had Lived

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 19:17:22 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn discuss what might have been if Christopher Eccleston had done a second season of Doctor Who, review Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, look back on Harry Harrison’s work, play some games, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:23 — Welcome!
02:46 – News:
03:00 — Doctor Who: 50 anniversary Docu-Drama to be Gatissed.
04:43 — John Barrowman: Taking an Arrow.
06:12 — Joss Whedon: Doing Avengers 2 and a Marvel TV series.
07:19 — Harry Harrison: SF author – DEAD!
08:10 — ALF: He’s back – in CG form.
09:13 — Tony Scott: Director/Producer takes his own life.
10:42 — Doctor Who Magazine: Losing yet more readers.
11:57 — Doctor Who RPG: Info on the Time Traveller’s Companion supplement.
13:05 — Doctor Who: Changing opening credits for each new episode?
15:18 – Opening Andre’s care package.
18:02 – Ted (the 2012 film by Seth MacFarlane).
28:06 – Just a Minute.
33:25 – Harry Harrison.
43:21 – Doctor Who: What if… the Ninth Doctor did a second season?
55:16 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
73:55 – Farewell for this podcast!
74:31 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #67: Babylon 5 – The Long, Twilight Struggle

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:25:54 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, mass driving, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, ‘The Long, Twilight Struggle’, and spout our usual nonsense!

Drall’s dumped his beard, Londo’s chucking rather large stones and G’Kar’s a broken Narn. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Babylon 5: The Long, Twilight Struggle…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #139: Tomorrow’s TV

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:15:35 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn discuss hopes and fears for the upcoming S7 of Doctor Who, do much the same for the proposed US remake of Blake’s 7, play some Things in Five words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:22 — Welcome!
02:21 – News:
02:36 — Doctor Who: Mary Tamm and Geoffrey Hughes – DEAD.
04:49 — Blake’s 7: US remake on the cards.
05:41 — The Hobbit: Now there are three of them.
09:56 — Doctor Who: Richard E. Grant in Christmas Special.
12:14 — Christopher Eccleston: Cast as villain in Thor 2.
14:30 – Doctor Who: Hopes and fears for S7.
26:52 – Things in Five Words.
34:17 – Blake’s 7: Thoughts on the possible US remake.
47:20 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
63:12 – Farewell for this podcast!
71:07 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

What is Open Source software and why does it matter?

Adam J Purcell — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:23:08 +0000

I am still surprised how few people seem to understand what open source (aka ‘free as in freedom’) software means and why it is important for us all. Therefore I shall try to explain, as best I can, concentrating mainly on the, primarily Google funded, mobile device OS, Android (for that is perhaps the most familiar open source software to most people today).

In a nutshell, open source software makes the source-code freely available to all, to do with as they wish. This is true of Android, Linux and so many more projects that nobody could hope to list them all.

So that means I can download Android, for free, and put it on my own device? Yes. I can tinker with it, make it do what I want? Yes, with one proviso – if you share the compiled (binary) changes with anyone else then you must also share the source code, so everyone can take what you’ve done and tinker with that themselves. That’s the deal – if you take and change then you also give those changes back.

This sort of community spirit openness might sound almost scary, wild west territory. Instead it has given us things like the effort to run Android on the Raspberry Pi and the Ouya, a games console that anyone is free to write software for, without the crippling licence fees, potential content censorship and expensive development kits of the established players. This cannot be stressed enough – students, the curious and the paranoid can all examine and learn from the Android source code. You want to know how any of it works, then it’s right there in black and white. I should also stress that Google did not need to be involved or even asked permission (let alone paid any money) for Android to be put on the Raspberry Pi or Ouya. Open source software is a resource for all and projects like Ouya could not hope to exist otherwise.

Why does this matter to me, I’m not a programmer? It matters because Android is effectively a community resource, those that can program are free to submit their improvements back to the Android Open Source Project. That’s how open source software thrives, lots of people scratching their own itches and submitting their ideas and software changes for all. But people aren’t that generous are they, they’ll just keep the changes for themselves? No, even with those who do think that way it quickly becomes too much effort – every time there is a new version of Android released they have to reapply their changes to the code, it’s easier to submit it ‘upstream’ into the official version.

What happens if Google really goes evil on us? You mean the Google that employs so many highly skilled (and therefore highly paid) people to work full time on Android and then gives that code away, for free, to everyone and anyone? Unlikely but not impossible, I suppose – management changes, circumstances change. In that case the community just takes the Android source code and ‘forks it’, which is to say they simply build a competing version of Android based on the same, mainly Google funded, source code. Anybody is perfectly entitled to do that. In fact, in essence, Amazon have already done just that with the Kindle Fire. In that instance it was for their own commercial purposes rather than a community-led move, so it will always be something of a dead-end fork but that need not be the case if there were community consensus. Maintainers of open source software, such as Google, always need to be mindful of their user and developer community, lest they lose their project from underneath them. This is what will make Google stick to their ‘Don’t be Evil’ motto more than anything else.

Well, I’ve rambled on in a manner that was rather less convincing that I intended. Clearly I’m not quite in the rhetorical mood I need to be!

It boils down to this: when you invest in open source platforms you potentially enrich us all, instead of the few. Think about the sort of person you are – are you one of those self centred people that you might find working in the City of London or the sort that values freedom and sharing?

You might think it’s just a phone. It’s not. It’s an ethos.

Staggering Stories Commentary #66: Doctor Who – The Age of Steel

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:54:04 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, deleted, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who episode, The Age of Steel, and spout our usual nonsense!

Mickey’s seeing double, Rose’s in a waitresses outfit and the Doctor’s turned into a penguin. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Age of Steel…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #65: Doctor Who – Rise of the Cybermen

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:53:52 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, upgraded, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who episode, Rise of the Cybermen, and spout our usual nonsense!

Lumic thinks he’s Davros, Rose is a dog and the Cybermen crave more brains. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: Rise of the Cybermen…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #138: The Dank Vogon Rises

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:31:38 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn discuss who should, could and shouldn’t take over Doctor Who after Moffat, review The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live and The Dark Knight Rises, invite over dream dinner guests, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:58 — Welcome!
01:59 – News:
02:09 — Doctor Who: 50th anniversary ‘docu-drama’?
03:41 — Black Mirror: Three more episodes coming.
04:50 — Neil Gaiman: Returning to The Sandman.
06:46 — JMS: Straczynski back to TV and starts Studio JMS.
09:32 — Jeffery’s Tubes: British sailing ship has Jefferies tubes.
11:03 — Claudia Christian: Kiss and tell book.
14:34 – Doctor Who: The next show runner should be..?
31:02 – Crumbly’s Dinner Party Guests.
37:10 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show, Live!
50:02 – The Dark Knight Rises.
41:12 – Farewell for this podcast!
64:00 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
71:07 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #64: Babylon 5 – Divided Loyalties

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 09:16:31 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, tratoring, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, Divided Loyalties, and spout our usual nonsense!

Susan has a dark secret, Lyta has the stare and Talia has a headache. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Divided Loyalties…

Vital Links:

Back to blogging?

Adam J Purcell — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:11:37 +0000

It’s been a long time, literally years but perhaps it is time to get back into blogging.

Why, though? I never had anything great to say (as should be obvious from the podcast!). No, it’s less about wanting to tell the world something, having some revolutionary idea in some cafe in Rickmansworth, more about having something to look back on in years to come.

I pretty much feel the same about the podcast, really. I look back and wonder what I initially thought of such and such. Sometimes I’m lucky and we talked about it on the podcast and that’s great because not only do I get to hear what I thought at the time but also what some of my friends thought too. It is interesting how opinions can change over time and just how easily thoughts are lost in the maelstrom of everyday life.

So in many ways a blog and the podcast is a diary. Well, first and foremost the podcast is about having fun on the night but a chronicle, a snapshot, of our thoughts and opinions at the time is a valuable secondary purpose, at least to me!

Another motivation for restarting the blogging is that I now have an ‘Unlimited’ cinema card. It is my intention to see a film at the local cinema at least once a week for the next year. Getting there straight from the office will often leave me hanging around for an hour or so for the film I want to see. What better to do but a bit of blogging? Dinner, did I hear you say? Blogging is cheaper (and probably more filling) than the food around here!

So tonight it’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. A ‘romcom’, I believe. Not normally my thing but it has a certain Sci-Fi element and short of rewatching The Dark Knight Rises, the choice is currently rather limited! Perhaps a future blog entry may look at the merits or otherwise of seeing what may be described as a ‘chickflik’ (I assume they spell it in such an obnoxious manner!) on my own. It feels weird, to say the least. Maybe that will change with time..?

For now, naturally I encourage my fellow Staggering Storians to put their random thoughts on the Internet for all to read, too!

Staggering Stories Podcast #137: Scaring Little Children Since 1963

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 09:50:55 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn discuss if Doctor Who needs to be scary, review The Amazing Spider-Man, invite over dream dinner guests, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:05 — Welcome!
03:10 – News:
03:05 — Doctor Who: More guests stars announced.
04:58 — Ernest Borgnine: DEAD!
06:12 — True Blood: Sixth season confirmed.
08:00 — Doctor Who: Possible spoiler for S7.
10:59 – The Amazing Spider-Man.
24:37 – Adam’s Dinner Party Guests.
30:02 – Does Doctor Who have to be scary?
41:12 – Farewell for this podcast!
56:39 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
57:29 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #63: Doctor Who – The Girl in the Fireplace

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:46:07 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake Keith’ and the Real Keith Dunn sit down, pre-Ponded, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, The Girl in the Fireplace, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s got a new mistress, Rose is feeling dumped, Mickey’s just making up the numbers and Arthur is a horse. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #136: Staggering Stories Live 2012!

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 09:53:56 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Crumbly, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn with special guests Luke Harrison and Siobhan Gallichan play the Doctor Who Trivia Smack Down Quiz, indulge in a very personal Fight Club, find some general news and a variety of riotous live behaviour (NOTE: with some bad language!), specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:49 — Welcome!
02:39 – News:
03:05 — Doctor Who: Caroline John – Dead!
04:46 — Staggering Stories: We invaded Cardiff – Live!
06:68 – Doctor Who Trivia Smackdown.
35:55 – Fight Club: Jean vs. Fake Keith.
37:57 – 30 Second Recommendation: Kate Griffin’s The Minority Council novel.
41:12 – Farewell for this podcast!
42:03 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #62: Babylon 5 – Confessions and Lamentations

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 09:53:59 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake Keith’ and the Real Keith Dunn sit down, quarantined, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, Confessions and Lamentations, and spout our usual nonsense!

Dr Franklin is needing stimulation, Lennier’s wearing his chef’s hat and the Markab are feeling a touch unwell… But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Confessions and Lamentations…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #135: Anniversary of Wood

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:00:02 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who (and other): Anniversary Stories, play some Dead or Alive! and Dinner Party Guests, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:01 — Welcome!
01:24 – News:
01:35 — Doctor Who: The regenerated Experience.
02:30 — Blake’s 7: Audio cast reunion play.
03:58 — Robocop: Remake casts big acting names.
05:55 — Shatner: BP Olympics medal lookalike.
06:38 — Rush: Some popular beat album based on steampunk with Kevin J Anderson novel.
07:45 — Mini Cooper: Steampunked car.
08:58 — Xena: Lucy, Lawless by name…
12:31 – Doctor Who (and more): Anniversary stories.
29:56 – Dead or Alive!
36:45 – Dinner Party Guests.
41:47 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
53:36 – Farewell for this podcast!
54:30 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #61: Doctor Who – School Reunion

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 08:46:55 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, metal doggedly, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, School Reunion, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s getting it from both sides, Rose has a bad taste in her mouth and Sarah Jane feels abandoned. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: School Reunion…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #134: Billy Snuff

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:24:14 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet and Prometheus, have some more Things in Five Words and Just a Minute, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:50 — Welcome!
02:31 – News:
02:42 — Doctor Who: New companion to remain a mystery?
04:45 — Sanctuary and Dirk Gently: Dead!
07:48 — Planet of the Apes: Sequel of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes named Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
09:52 — George Lucas: The throat himself is retiring.
11:25 — Barrowman: Bell boating for the Queen.
13:47 — Matt Smith: Smith carries the Olympic Torch in Cardiff.
14:53 — Baftas: Steven Moffat, The Fades and Sherlock’s Moriarty, Andrew Scott, win awards.
16:01 – Things in Five Words.
19:06 – Prometheus.
39:17 – Just a Minute.
51:14 – Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet.
71:26 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
83:46 – Farewell for this podcast!
84:22 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #60: Babylon 5 – In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 10:40:00 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, gobsmacked, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum, and spout our usual nonsense!

Mr Morden is feeling confined, Sheridan smells a rat and Kosh is older than he looks. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #133: Dodgy Direction

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 27 May 2012 09:21:23 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: Nightmare of Eden and Red Dwarf 5, have some more Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:40 — Welcome!
02:15 – News:
02:22 — Doctor Who: Bye bye, Pond!
04:52 — Avengers Assemble: Storming the ticket sales chart.
07:50 — Community: New episodes but creator sacked.
09:45 — Blade Runner: New film will be a sequel.
10:31 — Tron: Another sequel apparently likely.
11:31 — Shatner: Guest presenter on the BBC’s Have I Got News For You.
12:59 — Christopher Eccleston: Wants more stage work.
13:38 — Ultavox: Brilliant? No.
14:28 – Doctor Who: Nightmare of Eden.
29:42 – Things in Five Words.
35:16 – Red Dwarf 5.
50:55 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
74:05 – Farewell for this podcast!
74:44 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #59: Doctor Who – Tooth and Claw

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:05:24 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, howling, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who story, Tooth and Claw, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s pretending to be Scottish, Rose is being tied-up and the Queen is not amused. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: Tooth and Claw…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #132: So Pertwee It Be

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 13 May 2012 09:54:54 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Dæmons and Marvel Avengers Assemble, have some more Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:26 — Welcome!
02:20 – News:
02:30 — Doctor Who: New stage adaptations.
03:40 — Misfits: Kelly gets real life community service!
05:12 — Fringe: Final season greenlit.
06:20 — Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book coming to the big screen.
08:24 – Things in Five Words.
12:31 – Doctor Who: The Dæmons.
38:14 – Things in Five Words.
34:19 – Marvel Avengers Assemble.
54:58 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
65:10 – Farewell for this podcast!
65:44 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #58: Babylon 5 – The Coming of Shadows

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:39:24 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, collapsing, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, The Coming of Shadows, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Centauri Emperor has a dicky heart, G’Kar wants to go a murdering and Kosh is making house calls. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Coming of Shadows…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #131: Rose’s Plastic Pals

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:32:55 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the return of Doctor Who in 2005 with the episode Rose, have some more Things in Five Words, play Just a Minute, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:02 — Welcome!
01:50 – News:
01:55 — Doctor Who: Virgin pulls Tennant’s ad.
02:56 — Doctor Who: Power of the Daleks fan remake.
03:41 — Doctor Who: Karen Gillan now on twitter.
04:38 — JK Rowling: New book named ‘The Casual Vacancy’.
06:35 — Doctor Who: More not-lego on the way.
08:03 – Things in Five Words.
11:12 – Doctor Who: Rose (the episode).
34:08 – Just a Minute.
47:04 – A Staggering Day Out, on 24th June 2012.
48:50 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
62:54 – Farewell for this podcast!
98:18 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #57: Doctor Who – New Earth

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:39:30 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, nursed, in front of the 2006 Doctor Who premiere story, New Earth, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s having a blow dry, Rose is slightly moist and Cassandra covets Rose’s body. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: New Earth…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #130: Doctors of Social Ineptitude

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:57:38 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The TV Movie and The Big Bang Theory, have some more Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
01:47 – News:
01:57 — Doctor Who: Hugo award nominations.
03:49 — Being Human: Alive, The Fades: Dead.
06:07 — Space 1999: Reimagined Space:2099 in the works.
09:50 — Mass Effect: Extended Cut of Mass Effect 3.
12:39 — David Tennant: Virgin Media advert ruffles BBC feathers.
16:55 – Things in Five Words.
19:14 – Doctor Who: The TV Movie.
45:44 – Things in Five Words.
48:37 – The Big Bang Theory.
62:13 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
97:27 – Farewell for this podcast!
98:18 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #56: Babylon 5 – Revelations

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:46:30 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, hatching, in front of the Babylon 5 second season episode, Revelations, and spout our usual nonsense!

Franklin’s giving Garibaldi special care and attention, Sheridan’s rather carelessly lost his wife and Delenn’s coming out. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Revelations…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #129: A Companion Extraordinaire

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:48:06 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who’s Ace and the new Dirk Gently TV episodes, have a round of Tea Duelling and some more Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:06 — Welcome!
01:56 – News:
02:09 — Doctor Who: New companion cast – Jenna-Louise Coleman.
09:01 — Percy Jackson 2: Nathan Fillion and Anthony Head cast.
10:35 — Doctor Who: Six more Target reprints coming.
11:26 — RTD: Aliens vs Wizards becomes Wizards vs Aliens.
12:16 — The Hobbit: Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry save a pub.
14:39 – Things in Five Words.
18:56 – Doctor Who: Ace.
38:00 – Tea Duelling.
50:41 – Podcast Anniversary: Join us in a trip to Cardiff, with Live Podcasting! (Sunday 24th June 2012)
54:36 – Dirk Gently.
62:51 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
97:49 – Farewell for this podcast!
98:14 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #55: Doctor Who – The Christmas Invasion

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:47:58 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, pyjamaed, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who festive special, The Christmas Invasion, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s feeling a new man, Rose is grieving and the Queen is teetering on the edge. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #128: Investigators of Infernal IMAXery

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:46:33 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Jago & Litefoot Series 1 and John Carter at the IMAX, have another round of Just a Minute and some more Things in Five Words, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:16 — Welcome!
02:44 – News:
02:55 — Doctor Who Roundup: New guest stars and deaths.
04:58 — Primeval: Canadian spin-off cast and director details.
06:30 — BBC America: Two new ‘genre’ series being developed.
07:55 — Doctor Who Merchandise: Amy Pond doll, Minister of Chance now free and charity book – Behind the Sofa.
11:21 — Dead: Artists Ralph McQuarrie and Moebius.
12:23 – Things in Five Words.
13:49 – John Carter [of Mars] and the Crawley IMAX.
25:41 – Things in Five Words.
29:06 – Jago and Litefoot: Series One.
39:56 – Just a Minute.
50:55 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
71:25 – Farewell for this podcast!
72:30 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #54: Babylon 5 – Points of Departure

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:55:21 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, smiling, in front of the Babylon 5 second season première episode, Points of Departure, and spout our usual nonsense!

Sheridan’s coveting a very wet shower, Ivanova’s frightening the natives and Garibaldi’s having a lie down. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Points of Departure…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #127: The Silent Stars Go Mahna Mahna

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:37:13 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who novel ‘The Silent Stars Go By’ and ‘The Muppets’ (the recent film), review a Steampunk Convivial, have another round of Just a Minute, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:58 — Welcome!
01:51 – News:
02:05 — Doctor Who: Filming starts up for 14 new episodes.
03:52 — J.K. Rowling: New ‘adult’ book coming.
04:43 — Doctor Who (ish): Sophie Aldred takes David Tennant as her companion.
05:59 — Dirk Gently: Returns for three new episodes on BBC Four.
07:10 — Dead: Peter Halliday.
08:31 — Benedict Cumberbatch: Star Trek photos.
10:07 — Dredd: Karl Urban does his Dredd voice.
10:45 — Doctor Who: Benedict Cumberbatch as the new Master?
12:16 — Eternal Law: DEAD!
13:00 — Babylon 5: Crumbly’s nightmares!
14:31 – Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By.
24:50 – Two Minute Review: The First Surrey Steampunk Convivial.
30:22 – The Muppets (2011 film).
40:24 – Just a Minute.
45:49 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
73:53 – Farewell for this podcast!
74:45 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #53: Doctor Who – The Parting of the Ways

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:21:53 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, fantasticed, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who episode, The Parting of the Ways, and spout our usual nonsense!

Rose has abandonment issues, Jack’s got a big weapon in his hand, the TARDIS is in need of a gentle tug and the Doctor’s faced with repeating history all over again. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #126: Brian’s Alive!

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:38:36 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the SFX Weekender convention, Being Human 4.1 and 4.2, play some Doctor Who related Just a Minute, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:12 — Welcome!
02:12 – News:
02:27 — Doctor Who: New Who S7 writers and a director named.
03:46 — The Hobbit: Billy Connolly added to cast.
04:37 — Doctor Who: Rory & Fourth Doctor cut-outs and Doctor Who Insider: DEAD!
06:50 — Doctor Who and Star Trek: IDW comic crossover.
07:57 — Doctor Who: Cubicle 7 finally releases Eleventh Doctor update (maybe!)
09:39 – The SFX Weekender 3 convention and other Welsh excursions.
27:18 – Just a Minute.
38:28 – Being Human: episodes 4.1 and 4.2.
51:00 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
72:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
72:49 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #52: Doctor Who – Bad Wolf

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:02:01 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, big brothered, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who episode, Bad Wolf, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s feeling housebound, Rose is voting to the death and Captain Jack’s got a dimensionally transcendental orifice. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Bad Wolf…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #125: The Five Word Shuffle

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:59:58 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Big Finish Doctor Who story ‘Destination: Nerva’, consider what sort of character we might like to replace Amy, play lots of a new word game, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:47 — Welcome!
01:13 – News:
01:26 — Doctor Who and Merlin: Awards awarded.
03:09 — RTD: SJA replacement – Aliens vs Wizards.
05:07 — Quickfire News Roundup:
05:11 —– Minister of Chance: Now free!
05:21 —– Being Human: Back on UK TV on Sunday 5th February 2012.
05:43 —– Doctor Who: New novel ‘Dark Horizons’.
06:33 —– Douglas Adams: Virtual 60th birthday party event.
06:53 —– Star Wars: Uncut fan recreation in 15 second segments.
07:38 – Things in Five Words.
12:55 – Doctor Who: After Amy.
25:22 – Doctor Who: Destination: Nerva.
35:19 – Things in Five Words.
40:13 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
70:48 – Farewell for this podcast!
71:19 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #51: Primeval – Series 1, Episode 6

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:54:23 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, superbatted, in front of ITV’s Primeval Series 1, Episode 6, and spout our usual nonsense!

Nick Cutter is feeling time orphaned, Helen’s been up to no good with Stephen, Claudia’s feeling very specifically erased and Captain Ryan’s been a skeleton all along. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Primeval: Series 1, Episode 6…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #124: Holmesian High Jump

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:02:59 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ Sherlock: Series 2, have a retrospective on the year 2011, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:59 — Welcome!
01:34 – News:
01:47 — Doctor Who: Another Script to Screen competition.
02:56 — Star Trek: Sherlock & Mickey Smith join Star Trek 2.
03:58 — Being Human: Another cast member quits the programme.
05:54 — Karen Gillan: Award nominations and she takes Manhattan.
08:09 — Benedict Cumberbatch: Held at gunpoint in South Africa.
09:35 — Doctor Who: Amateur stage production of Midnight.
10:36 — Doctor Who: Moffat tweets about Sophia Myles, rumours go mad.
13:29 – Sherlock: Series 2.
29:02 – Retrospective on the year 2011..
54:41 – Predictions Competition Winner..
57:50 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
115:38 – Farewell for this podcast!
116:11 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #50: Doctor Who – The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:54:22 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, caretakered, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, and spout our usual nonsense!

Cyril’s got oversized specs, Reg is following the light, the King and Queen and very wooden and Amy makes the Doctor moist. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #123: The Head, the Predictions and the Cardboard Box

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:02:57 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, our Predictions, Hopes and Dreams and Fears for 2012, see how wrong we were about our Predictions for 2011, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:02 — Welcome!
02:06 – News:
02:09 — Doctor Who: 2011 Christmas Special did well.
03:51 — 3D Films: Whedon’s Avengers and Abrams Star Trek 2 to be converted from 2D.
08:00 — Doctor Who: Worlds in Time MMO open preview now available.
09:31 — Star Trek: Drink your tea out of Dr McCoy’s head!
12:11 – Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.
28:13 – Bill Bailey’s Doctor Who Theme.
32:52 – Predictions, Fears and Hopes & Dreams for the future:
33:33 — How wrong we were: Predictions for 2011.
52:47 — How wrong we were: Fears for 2011.
57:43 — How wrong we were: Hopes and Dreams for 2011.
44:36 — Predictions for 2012.
52:47 — Fears for 2012.
57:43 — Hopes and Dreams for 2012.
63:46 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
106:41 – Farewell for this podcast!
107:17 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Mr Dalek and the Twenty Throod of Novemby

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:03:26 +0000

This missed Christmas, so let’s instead try to fight off those New Year blues! To this end, we proudly present a new Mr Dalek Audio Adventure on our podcast feed.

This exciting story, new to audio, is written by long time Mr Dalek fan, Benjamin F Elliott, and narrated by Siobhan Gallichan in the unique Unwinese language (kindly translated for us by John Ranson). So, prime your sucker arm for Mr Dalek and the Twenty Throod of Novemby!

Enjoy!

Staggering Stories Commentary #49: Doctor Who – Boom Town

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:48:03 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, unzipped, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who episode, Boom Town, and spout our usual nonsense!

Margaret’s battling with bad breath, Mickey’s feeling some short lived character progression and Captain Jack’s a spare wheel. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Boom Town…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #122: Six Podcasters a-Playing

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:01:27 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Crumbly, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the past Doctor Who Christmas Specials, play some festive games, are read a nativnal Doctor Who story, pull some crackers, watch Crumbly unwrap, find some general news and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:29 — Welcome!
02:32 – News:
02:40 — Doctor Who: The Ponds to vanish.
04:16 — Doctor Who: Two missing episodes not so missing now.
06:42 — Doctor Who: TV signals bouncing back to Earth?
08:18 — Doctor Who: Lego Dalek.
10:23 — Star Trek vs Star Wars: George Takei says join forces against Twilight.
11:11 – Christmas Crackers!
15:46 – Festive Game: Swanee-Kazoo.
21:25 – Doctor Who: The Christmas Specials.
40:48 – Festive Game: Myth or Truth?
52:40 – Nanny Ireland: Befuddled in Bethlehem.
64:31 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
93:35 – Competition Time!
96:13 – Crumbly Unwraps.
75:05 – Farewell for this podcast!
75:50 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

DWPA Podcast #016: ‘Time 5′ DWAS Convention Interviews, Oct 2011

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:01:20 +0000

Summary:
Welcome to the sixteenth Doctor Who Podcast Alliance episode. This podcast features interviews with guests at the Doctor Who Appreciation Society Convention ‘Time 5‘, as held at Riverside Studios in London on the 31st of October 2011.

The interviews were conducted by Jean Riddler (of the Staggering Stories podcast), with occasional interruptions by Adam J Purcell. The interviewees were: Richard Franklin, Gareth David-Lloyd, Louise Page, Andrew Beech and Paul Darrow.

A big thank you to the five interviewees, the DWAS event organisers and Seb from Doctor Who Online who arranged for these interviews to take place.

The podcast timings:

00:00 – Theme tune and intro.
01:15– Richard Franklin.
06:13 – Gareth David-Lloyd.
10:38 – Louise Page.
19:41 – Andrew Beech.
26:07 – Paul Darrow.
29:25 – Goodbye and closing theme.

Vital Links:

The Doctor Who Podcast Alliance - http://www.doctorwhopodcastalliance.org/
Doctor Who Appreciation Society - http://www.dwasonline.co.uk/
Riverside Studios - http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/
The Staggering Stories Podcast - http://www.staggeringstories.net/
Doctor Who Online - http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/

Staggering Stories Commentary #48: Primeval – Series 1, Episode 3

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:30:34 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, drowning, in front of ITV’s Primeval Series 1, Episode 3, and spout our usual nonsense!

Nick Cutter has a sinking feeling, Helen’s still twiddling her moustache and Captain Ryan’s partaking in some temporal rendition. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Primeval: Series 1, Episode 3…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #121: The Tear Jerk

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:01:40 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the ‘Doctor Who: The Gunpowder Plot’, things that make us have something in our eye, the end of ‘Star Wars Galaxies’ and the beginning of ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’, play ‘Guess the Thing’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:07 — Welcome!
02:00 – News:
02:07 — Doctor Who: The Motion Picture (2).
06:01 — Doctor Who: Christmas Special dated.
08:40 — Anne McCaffrey: Dead!
09:41 — The Dark Knight Rises: Prologue on before IMAX Mssion Impossible screenings.
10:41 — Russell T Davies: Back in the UK due to partner’s illness.
11:15 — John Barrowman: Thief Taker!
13:20 – Doctor Who: The Gunpowder Plot Adventure Game.
23:48 – Guess the Thing!
25:56 – Things that have made us… have something in our eye.
41:53 – Guess the Thing!
47:25 – Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies, hello Star Wars The Old Republic.
58:24 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
75:05 – Farewell for this podcast!
75:50 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

DWPA Podcast #015: Richard Dinnick, ‘Big Finish Companion’ Author Interview

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:46:44 +0000

Summary:
Welcome to the fifteenth Doctor Who Podcast Alliance episode. This podcast features an interview with the author of the new ‘Big Finish Companion‘ book, Richard Dinnick, by Dr. Phillip W. Serna from the Adventures in Time, Space and Music Podcast. It was conducted at Chicago TARDIS in November 2011. A big thank you to Dr. Phill for this wonderful interview.

Vital Links:

Richard Dinnick - http://www.richarddinnick.com/
Richard Dinnick on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/richarddinnick
The Big Finish Companion - http://www.bigfinish.com/The-Big-Finish-Companion-Volume-1
Big Finish Productions - http://www.bigfinish.com/
Doctor Who Podcast Alliance - http://www.doctorwhopodcastalliance.org/
The Chicago TARDIS - http://www.chicagotardis.com/
The Chicago TARDIS on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/chicagotardis
The Chicago TARDIS on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/chicagotardis
Adventures in Time, Space and Music Podcast - http://adventuresintimespaceandmusic.phillipwserna.com/

Staggering Stories Commentary #47: Doctor Who – The Doctor Dances

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:47:37 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, zombified, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who episode, The Doctor Dances, and spout our usual nonsense!

Nancy’s feeling haunted, the Doctor’s vibrating concrete and Captain Jack’s left holding the banana. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Doctor Dances…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #46: Doctor Who – The Empty Child

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:47:30 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, barrage ballooned, in front of the 2005 Doctor Who episode, The Empty Child, and spout our usual nonsense!

Rose is hanging by a thread, the Doctor’s searching for Spock and Captain Jack is dancing on air. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Empty Child…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #120: Day of the BBC Worldwide

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:20:16 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Construct Number 2, Fake Crumbly, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the ‘Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks’, play ‘Doctor Who Twenty Questions’, play ‘Guess the Alien’, rant about the news of the new Doctor Who film and ‘official’ Doctor Who convention, find some other general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:08 — Welcome!
01:41 – News:
01:55 — Doctor Who: The Motion Picture.
18:01 — Doctor Who: The ‘Official’ (rip off) Convention.
22:51 — Quickfire News Roundup:
22:53 —– Being Human: Russell Tovey has left.
23:03 —– Ender’s Game Film: Merlin’s Mordred, Asa Butterfield, offered role of Wiggin.
23:14 —– Misfits: Returns to record viewing figures.
23:25 —– The Munsters: NBC has greenlit Bryan Fuller’s reimagining.
23:45 — William Shatner: Seeking Major Tom album now out for your listening torture.
24:47 – Doctor Who Twenty Questions.
27:39 – Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks.
43:59 – Guess The Alien.
46:58 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
60:17 – Farewell for this podcast!
60:48 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #45: Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:20:10 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, eyepatched, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who episode, The Wedding of River Song, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s gone all beardy weirdy (again), River’s practicing her spacesuited swimming proficiency and Churchill likes mounting mammoths. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Wedding of River Song…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #119: Inadmissible Pondage

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:05:07 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the Karen Gillan’s play ‘Inadmissible Evidence’, The DWAS convention ‘Time 5′, BBC Three’s ‘The Fades’, play ‘Doctor Who Twenty Questions’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:53 — Welcome!
01:30 – News:
01:38 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith maybe not leaving now?
03:36 — Harry Potter: Films DVDs and Blu-rays to vanish!
05:03 — Doctor Who: Shada coming to DVD, probably in 2012.
07:22 — Elisabeth Sladen: Biography out now.
07:44 — Bernard Cribbins: OBE.
08:45 — Doctor Who: Community has ‘Inspector Spacetime’.
09:58 — Doctor Who: The Special Wrap Party videos now on YouTube.
10:59 – The Fades.
24:09 – Doctor Who Twenty Questions.
30:05 – Inadmissible Evidence.
42:19 – DWAS ‘Time 5′ Doctor Who Convention.
55:25 – Farewell for this podcast!
55:53 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #44: Doctor Who – Closing Time

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:35:06 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, Stormageddoned, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who episode, Closing Time, and spout our usual nonsense!

Craig’s been left holding the baby, the Doctor’s passed his CRB checks and Stormageddon is the Dark Lord of All. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Closing Time…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #118: The Empty Attic

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:53:10 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn talk about the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures, True Blood, play ‘Can You Guess the Doctor Who Monster?’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:09 — Welcome!
01:39 – News:
01:46 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith wins award & maybe leaving?
03:32 — Misfits: Returns to E4 and a USA remake.
06:01 — Big Finish: New Doctor Who spin-offs audio series – Counter-Measures.
07:59 — Quickfire News Roundup:
08:04 —– Red Dwarf: Six new episodes begin filming in November.
08:11 —– Rentaghost: Russell Brand out, Ben Stiller in.
08:18 —– Doctor Who Experience: Run extended to February.
08:38 — Back to the Future: An electric DeLorean car on the way.
09:23 — Doctor Who: Peter Davison not ruling out a 50th anniversary appearance.
12:09 – The Sarah Jane Adventures: Season 5, the end of an era.
29:55 – Can You Guess the Doctor Who Monster?
32:52 – True Blood.
42:28 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
72:52 – Farewell for this podcast!
73:32 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #43: Doctor Who – The God Complex

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:40:03 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, corridored, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who episode, The God Complex, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s avoiding his fear, Amy’s feeling young again, Rory wants out and the beast is missing Soldeed. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The God Complex…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #117: Fading the Magic

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:07:02 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn talk about the new episodes of Merlin, BBC Three’s The Fades, find some general news (particularly about Doctor Who: Confidential), and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:12 — Welcome!
01:40 – News:
01:49 — Doctor Who Confidential: Dead!
03:16 — Star Trek: Nimoy out of cons, Next Gen on Blu-ray and IDW rebooted comic series.
08:18 — Harry Potter: eBooks delayed and Making Of Tour goes on sale.
09:29 — Time traveller will live here plaque.
10:53 – Merlin: Season 4, episodes 1 and 2.
24:55 – The Fades: Episodes 1 to 4.
38:32 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
89:57 – Farewell for this podcast!
90:45 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #42: Doctor Who – The Girl Who Waited

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:30:30 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, looking glassed, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who episode, The Girl Who Waited, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor is cowering in the TARDIS, Rory’s being a green anchor and Amy needs some skin cream. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Girl Who Waited…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #116: And They Were All Wearing Eyepatches

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:48:20 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: Closing Time and The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor Who convention Whooverville 3, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:52 — Welcome!
01:24 – News:
01:43 — Doctor Who: Christmas 2011 Special guest stars.
03:15 — TV Choice Awards: Doctor Who, Being Human & Sherlock win.
04:22 — Primeval: Canadian spin-off in the works.
06:21 — Harlan Ellison: In Time for the courts.
07:41 — Alex Kingston: Upstairing and Downstairing.
09:49 — Star Wars: Engagement rings from the Throat.
10:24 — Doctor Who: Confirmation for S7 split between end of 2012/beginning of 2013.
11:41 – Facebook questions.
15:25 – Doctor Who: Closing Time.
31:46 – Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song.
51:12 – Whooverville 3.
62:28 – Competition Winners!
68:43 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
111:33 – Farewell for this podcast!
114:14 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #41: Doctor Who – Night Terrors

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:14:18 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn sit down, pyjamaed, in front of the 2011 Doctor Who episode, Night Terrors, and spout our usual nonsense!

George is channelling Arthur Dent, Amy’s got a bit of a wood problem and the Doctor’s hanging around a little boy’s bedroom. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Night Terrors…

Vital Links: