Staggering Stories Podcast

Staggering Stories Podcast #85: Splitters of the Negative Vibe

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:42:17 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the third Doctor Who: The Adventure Games – TARDIS, The Deep and Sky One’s Pratchett adaptation Going Postal, discover some Escape Pod Discs, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:28 — Welcome!
01:47 – News:
02:00 — Doctor Who: 2011 season to be split in two!
07:24 — Doctor Who Live: Nigel Planer heading up the cast.
09:01 — Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth and Return to Earth games announced for Nintendo.
11:05 — Dirk Gently: TV pilot coming to BBC Four.
13:38 — Sherlock: Back in Autumn 2011 for three new adventures.
15:09 — Merlin: Returning to BBC One/HD in September.
19:01 – Doctor Who: The Adventure Games – TARDIS.
29:24 – The Deep: Episodes three and four.
43:49 – Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal.
53:22 – Escape Pod Discs: Robert ‘Flashing Blade’ Learmont.
57:21 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
76:42 – Farewell for this podcast!
89:31 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #15: Doctor Who – Rose

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:36:40 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, nostalgic, in front of the first episode of the 2005 Doctor Who revival, Rose, and spout our usual nonsense!

The Doctor’s blown Rose’s job, Rose has a wandering hands problem and Mickey’s sucked in a wheelie bin. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Doctor Who: Rose…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #84: El Gran Juego

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:23:55 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn recommend Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen, talk about The Deep and Sherlock, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:00 — Welcome!
01:48 – News:
01:55 — Doctor Who: Two new Doctor Who Soundtracks slated before 2011.
03:05 — Torchwood: Season 4 subtitled.
05:20 — Blake’s 7: Sky drops remake like a hot potato.
10:06 — Judge Dredd: Karl Urban cast as title character.
12:52 — Star Wars: TV series on hold…
15:29 — Star Wars: Blu-ray box set for all six films.
16:51 — Doctor Who: New unofficial metal minature figure.
17:45 — Doctor Who: Pertwee’s screwdriver whopped out.
18:52 — Avatar: More money-grabbing – The Director’s Cut coming to cinemas.
22:00 – The Deep: Episodes one and two.
35:57 – Doctor Who: Five minute recommendation – Tomb of the Cybermen.
41:48 – Sherlock: The Great Game.
60:58 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
88:54 – Farewell for this podcast!
89:31 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #14: Babylon 5 – Midnight on the Firing Line

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 08:32:06 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, all alone in the night, in front of the first regular episode of Babylon 5, Midnight on the Firing Line, and spout our usual nonsense!

Ivanova’s avoiding Talia, Garibaldi’s wanting to share his second favourite thing in the Universe with someone, Londo’s got his hate on and G’Kar’s spoo is quite fresh. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Midnight on the Firing Line…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #83: The Other’s in the Albert Hall

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:03:05 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about the 2010 Doctor Who Prom at the Royal Albert Hall and Sherlock, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:41 — Welcome!
01:15 – News:
01:23 — Doctor Who: Moffat reveals how many episodes he’s writing for 2011.
03:34 — Doctor Who: Amy’s History Hunt open to all in the UK.
06:03 — Battlestar Galactica: New online spin-off series, Blood and Chrome.
08:35 — Doctor Who: New computer game to have a new Dalek and Cyberman voice?
09:22 — Primeval: Alexander Siddig’s role revealed.
12:23 — Comic-Con: Bible bashers invade!
14:45 – Doctor Who: 2010 Royal Albert Hall Prom.
40:52 – Sherlock: The first two episodes of Moffat and Gatiss’ modern day Holmes.
58:44 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
83:34 – Farewell for this podcast!
84:08 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #13: Doctor Who – The Big Bang

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:06:57 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, baffled, in front of Doctor Who: The Big Bang and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s pushing up the daises, Rory just has plastic underpants and a trademark, River’s having the TARDIS console explode over her and the Doctor’s stuck in Amy’s box. Phew! But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Big Bang…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #82: Silence of the Fake Crumbly

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:04:30 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about the first two Doctor Who: The Adventure Games and FlashForward, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:42 — Welcome!
01:28 – News:
01:39 — Doctor Who: 2010 Christmas Special News.
03:35 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith to quit Doctor Who after his second season?
07:32 — David Tennant: New Marvel Avengers film role as Bruce Banner?
09:10 — Sylvester McCoy: A hobbit in new Hobbit film?
10:06 — Tron Legacy: More casting news.
12:15 – Doctor Who: The Adventure Games – City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen.
25:20 – FlashForward: Season One wrap-up.
38:40 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
67:47 – Farewell for this podcast!
68:14 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #12: Doctor Who – The Pandorica Opens

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:01:54 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, distraught, in front of Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s being menaced by a head, River’s cosplaying and the Doctor’s afraid of what’s in Amy’s box. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Pandorica Opens…

Vital Links:

DWPA Podcast #004: Matthew Waterhouse Waterstone’s Signing – 4th July 2010

Staggering Stories Podcast — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:01:14 +0000

Summary:
Welcome to the fourth Doctor Who Podcast Alliance joint podcast. This episode was recorded at a signing event with Matthew ‘Adric’ Waterhouse at Waterstone’s, Lakeside, Thurrock, to publicise his new memoir Blue Box Boy and his novel Fates, Flowers.

In attendance were various podcasters, including Dave Keep (Professor Dave’s Ark in Space), Tony Gallichan (the Flashing Blade), Martyn Havell (Bad Wilf) and Adam Purcell (Staggering Stories).

00:00 – Theme tune.
01:03 – Podcaster roundtable.
22:00 – Tim Hirst, publisher, interview.
27:27 – Talking with attendees.
33:02 – Matthew Waterhouse interview.
43:06 – Mark Humphries, Organiser, Interview.
45:13 – Matthew Waterhouse ‘Blue Box Boy’ Reading.
51:08 – Derek from Tenth Planet interview
55:15 – Outro and forthcoming events.

Staggering Stories Podcast #81: The Biggest Bang Since the Big One

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:21:27 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘The Big Bang’, have a general discussion on Season 5 of the new Doctor Who Series, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:47 — Welcome!
02:03 – News:
02:17 — Doctor Who: Bookmaker taking bets on Matt Smith axing.
07:14 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith invades Glastonbury.
08:58 — The Hobbit: Peter Jackson to take over directing?
13:01 – Doctor Who: The Big Bang.
45:57 – Doctor Who: 2010 Season Round-up.
74:49 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
113:14 – Farewell for this podcast!
113:41 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #80: The Monster Department Opens

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:18:57 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘The Pandorica Opens’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
01:32 – News:
01:41 — Doctor Who: Neil Gaiman’s story set to be third episode in 2011.
02:46 — Transformers: Michael Bay admits Transformers 2 was rubbish.
04:42 — Plan 9 From Outerspace Now in 3D!
06:52 – Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens.
31:57 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
44:27 – Farewell for this podcast!
44:59 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #11: Doctor Who – The Lodger

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:01:22 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, potatoey, in front of Doctor Who: The Lodger and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s studio-bound, Craig and Sophie need a room and the Doctor’s quirking it up to 11. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy The Lodger…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #79: The Corden

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:35:00 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘The Lodger’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:02 — Welcome!
02:06 – News:
02:22 — Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston talks quitting Doctor Who.
03:50 — David Tennant to star in Fright Night remake film.
06:42 — The Shat: William Shatner to direct a documentary about himself.
09:59 – Doctor Who: The Lodger.
27:59 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
43:00 – Farewell for this podcast!
44:23 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #10: Doctor Who – Vincent and the Doctor

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:07:43 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, unseeing, in front of Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s star-struck, Vincent’s being stalked and the Doctor’s met a man with a bigger bow tie. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Vincent and the Doctor…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #78: Vincent and the Giant Chicken

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:39:54 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘Vincent and the Doctor’, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:02 — Welcome!
01:37 – News:
01:47 — Torchwood: New comic book for the USA.
03:07 — Brian Blessed sat nav campaign on Facebook.
07:06 — Thundercats: New animated series coming.
10:34 — Tron: Tron Legacy film due out in December 2010.
12:11 – Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor.
37:00 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
45:44 – Farewell for this podcast!
46:03 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #9: Doctor Who – Cold Blood

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:41:01 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, chilled, in front of Doctor Who: Cold Blood and spout our usual nonsense!

Yes, that’s two Commentaries today for the price of none. We held off publishing of The Hungry Earth last week so that you can have both that and this together. If your podcatching software did pick up the previous commentary then you may have to tell it to manually download that one (some only automatically download the latest episode).

Amy’s about to have her clothes ripped open, Rory’s left at the altar and the Doctor’s gone sight seeing. But enough about them, please sit down with us to enjoy Cold Blood…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #8: Doctor Who – The Hungry Earth

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:40:36 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, shaken, in front of Doctor Who: The Hungry Earth and spout our usual nonsense!

Rory’s missing a body, Amy’s showing off her ring and the Doctor’s feeling the Earth move. But enough about them, please sit down with us to enjoy The Hungry Earth…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #77: Cold Mud

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:59:28 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘Cold Blood’ and Iron Man 2, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:04 — Welcome!
01:50 – News:
02:04 — Doctor Who: Big Finished extended until December 2012.
03:55 — The Hobbit: Guillermo del Toro quits as director.
05:57 — Mass Effect: Potential film in the works.
07:48 — Torchwood: Season 4 is go!
11:41 – Doctor Who: Cold Blood.
30:59 – Iron Man 2.
40:46 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
60:49 – Farewell for this podcast!
61:37 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #76: The Hungry Hell

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 07:47:18 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘The Hungry Earth’ and the final Ashes to Ashes episode (spoilers ahoy – Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes finally explained!), find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:46 — Welcome!
01:34 – News:
01:49 — Doctor Who: BBC Worldwide record profits, thanks in large part to Doctor Who.
03:02 — Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to be remade by Syphy Channel.
06:25 — Judge Dredd: More details on new film.
09:56 – Doctor Who: The Hungry Earth.
22:38 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 8 – The End.
47:40 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
58:58 – Farewell for this podcast!
59:59 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #7: Doctor Who – Amy’s Choice

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:52:23 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, expectant, in front of Doctor Who: Amy’s Choice and spout our usual nonsense!

Amy’s swallowed a planet, Rory’s having an early mid-life hair crisis and the Doctor’s considering self harm. But enough of their problems, please sit down with us to enjoy Amy’s Choice…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #75: Amy’s Bellyful

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 30 May 2010 10:35:07 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘Amy’s Choice’ and the penultimate episode of Ashes to Ashes (3.7), find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:53 — Welcome!
02:22 – News:
02:40 — Doctor Who: Live stage show touring UK.
04:48 — State of US Sci-Fi series – Cancelled and survived.
07:50 — TV clothes auction.
09:41 – Doctor Who: Amy’s Choice.
24:26 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 7.
35:20 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
45:23 – Farewell for this podcast!
45:51 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #6: Doctor Who – The Vampires of Venice

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:02:50 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, moist with anticipation, in front of Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice and spout our usual nonsense!

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #74: The Fishy Fingers of Venice

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 23 May 2010 09:35:39 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘The Vampires of Venice’ and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 6, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
02:00 – News:
02:21 — Doctor Who: BBC defends its decisions to send Matt Smith to Venice.
03:42 — Pulse: New series pilot created by Paul Cornell.
06:08 — International Towel Day on Tuesday 25th of May 2010.
07:28 – Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice.
22:59 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 6.
33:27 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
49:12 – Farewell for this podcast!
49:39 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #5: Doctor Who – Flesh and Stone

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:54:15 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, agog, in front of Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone and spout our usual nonsense!

Yes, that’s two Commentaries today for the price of none. We held off publishing of The Time of Angels last week so that you can have both that and this together. If your podcatching software did pick up the previous commentary then you may have to tell it to manually download that one (some only automatically download the latest episode).

So please sit down with us to stare into the crack and enjoy Flesh and Stone…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #4: Doctor Who – The Time of Angels

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:53:50 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down, terrified, in front of Doctor Who: The Time of Angels and spout our usual nonsense!

Hopefully the audio quality is somewhat better this time, it’s still not perfect as the mics were running a bit hot. Oh, and we weren’t really 7 minutes in when we said we were, that included a couple of minutes of junk the PVR picked up before Doctor Who. Nonetheless, please sit down with us to enjoy The Time of Angels…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #73: Flesh and Cardboard

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:00:56 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: ‘Flesh and Stone’ and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 5, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:50 — Welcome!
02:00 – News:
02:08 — Doctor Who: Daily Mail on the attack, once again.
05:20 — Doctor Who: The Time of Angels final viewing figures – high time shift.
08:17 — Planet of the Apes: Another reimaginating.
10:06 — Doctor Who: Crawley local councillor is a fan.
14:12 – Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone.
33:27 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 5.
44:10 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
73:57 – Farewell for this podcast!
74:21 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #72: The Time of Gene Hunt

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:00:24 +0000

Show summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Time of Angels and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 4, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:37 — Welcome!
01:53 – News:
02:00 — Doctor Who: Return to the Proms.
03:03 — K-9: Coming to UK’s Channel 5.
04:40 — Doctor Who The Adventure Games: First game name announced.
05:59 — Leonard Nimoy: Quits acting.
08:03 – Doctor Who: The Time of Angels.
24:57 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 4.
35:47 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
55:26 – Farewell for this podcast!
55:50 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #3: Doctor Who – Victory of the Daleks

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:03 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down in front of Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks and spout our usual nonsense, trying to all be positive this time!

Apologies, hopefully for the last time, for the rather less than great audio quality, we simply haven’t had time to address this yet. It’s not too bad but for the fact that Crumbly seems to have his head in a bucket! By the time we come to the Time of Angels commentary we hope to have this audio issue resolved. In the meantime, please try to ignore the echoes and sit down with us to enjoy Victory of the Daleks…

Vital Links:

DWPA Podcast #003: Nick Briggs Waterstone’s Signing – 24th April 2010

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:49:22 +0000

Summary:
Welcome to the third Doctor Who Podcast Alliance joint podcast. This episode was recorded at a signing event with Nick Briggs at Waterstone’s, Lakeside, Thurrock, to publicise his new Sherlock Holmes audio plays and Big Finish in general.

In attendance were various podcasters, two of which you will hear are Dave Keep (Professor Dave’s Ark in Space) and Tony Gallichan (the Flashing Blade). Sadly the podcaster roundtable recording audio wasn’t usable but there is still plenty to listen to, including an exclusive clip from the new Big Finish Sherlock Holmes’ story, ‘The Speckled Band’.

More information about the Sherlock Holmes range and Doctor Who audios can be found at http://www.bigfinish.com/.

00:00 – Theme tune.
00:58 – Welcome!
01:56 – Talking with attendees.
07:21 – Nick Briggs interview.
30:51 – Talking with attendees.
34:29 – Audio clip from Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band.
40:53 – Organiser interview.
44:04 – Outro and forthcoming events.

Staggering Stories Podcast #71: Victory of the Merchandise

Staggering Stories Podcast — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:57:06 +0000

Show summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Victory of the Daleks and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 3, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:39 — Welcome!
01:25 – News:
01:55 — Sarah Jane Adventures: Matt Smith (11th Doctor) and Katy Manning (Jo Grant).
03:39 — Torchwood: Fox turns down Torchwood USA.
05:53 — Doctor Who: Graham Norton gatecrashes The Time of the Angels.
08:45 — Doctor Who: Cybermen infultrate the Lib Dems.
10:44 — More Politics: Patrick Stewart backing Labour party in Crawley!
12:32 – Doctor Who: The Victory of the Daleks.
29:32 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 3.
40:29 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
58:04 – Farewell for this podcast!
58:52 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #2: Doctor Who – The Beast Below

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:59:45 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins and Keith Dunn sit down in front of Doctor Who: The Beast Below and spout our usual nonsense.

Apologies once again for the rather less than great audio quality, we simply haven’t had time to address this yet (though it does improve a tad beyond the first 10 seconds or so – once we all stop shifting around in our seats!) By the time we come to the Time of Angels commentary we hope to have this audio issue resolved. In the meantime, please try to ignore the echoes and sit down with us to enjoy The Beast Below…

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #70: Oh, You Beast!

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:07:08 +0000

Show summary:
Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Beast Below and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 2, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
01:27 – News:
01:32 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith on magazine front cover.
04:18 – Doctor Who: The Beast Below.
22:12 – Escape Pod Discs: Graeme “The2ndDoctor” Sheridan.
28:50 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 2.
41:40 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
59:19 – Farewell for this podcast!
59:47 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Commentary #1: Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:02:30 +0000

Summary:
Welcome to this first Staggering Stories audio commentary! This time Adam J Purcell, Andy Simpkins, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn sit down in front of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour and spout our usual nonsense.

Apologies for the rather less than great audio quality, that is something we will try to address in future commentaries (assuming people want to hear more). Also please bear with us as we get used to this whole commentary business – The Eleventh Hour is particularly easy to get caught up in!

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #69: When Fish Met Custard

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:39:10 +0000

Summary:
Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour and Ashes to Ashes season 3 episode 1, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:15 — Welcome!
02:34 – News:
02:42 — Doctor Who: The Adventure Games.
05:44 — Doctor Who: The Daily Mail STILL hates Amy Pond.
08:12 — Primeval: DS9’s Julian Bashier to join cast.
10:24 — Doctor Who: Jean sees Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the flesh.
13:37 – Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour.
34:27 – Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, episode 1.
43:06 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
85:30 – Farewell for this podcast!
85:56 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour

Adam J Purcell — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:11:01 +0000

High praise has been thrust upon it from all directions it seems and, I’m afraid, my own opinion of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour mirrors those plaudits.

It would have been a remarkable piece of television even if we’d never heard of Doctor Who before. That it was so amazing when we were all so used to the series by now is, I believe, an even greater achievement. It is very clear that the new production team, headed up by writer extraordinaire Steven Moffat, took their immense responsibilities very seriously. They had a quite the tight rope to walk – retool the series for a new decade but yet keep it recognisably the same. Personally I had high hopes for their efforts but even I was surprised by just how good a job they have already done.

Clearly the most obvious change is the new Doctor, as played by Matt Smith. Moffat is on record as saying he was looking to cast older, probably late 30s to early 40s. The outcry from certain quarters over the young age of Matt Smith is well documented, as is Moffat’s insistence that Matt got the job because he was the best of the best. Moffat appears to be entirely vindicated as the almost universal opinion appears to be that Matt Smith absolutely nailed the part, with one reviewer, Matthew Bell from the Observer, even saying ‘he might be more the Doctor than anyone who was the Doctor before.’ That’s incredibly high praise given how nervous everyone seemed to be about Matt, especially given how popular his predecessor, David Tennant, is. Or perhaps I should say ‘given how popular his predecessor, David Tennant, was’ as I’m seeing, in quite a few places now, people turning around and saying how they were fed up with Tennant or didn’t even like him in the first place! Have these people changed their minds over the 65 minutes or are they only now emboldened enough to admit it? One thing is clear, Matt Smith has taken the part and really made it his own. The uncertainty that lingered after so many first stories for a new Doctor just isn’t there this time. He IS the Doctor and hardly anyone seems upset by that now.

People who know me will also know that I had high hopes and expectations for the new companion, Amy Pond, as played by Karen Gillan. Yes, I do somewhat exaggerate my infatuation with Karen Gillan for comedic effect but, of course, she is very attractive and, vastly more importantly, incredibly good at her craft of acting. I’d previous seen her in the BBC’s The Well web series and, with rather more range, in the Channel 4 comedy sketch series the Kevin Bishop Show. Again I went into the Eleventh Hour with very high expectations for Amy Pond and was anything but disappointed – she may well end up being both the most interesting and most likeable companion yet. Just look at those final scenes around the TARDIS console, she absolutely convincingly goes through a whole range of emotions from amazed, suspicious, outright fearful to overjoyed. Amy is utterly conflicted and you could see all of that in Karen Gillan’s performance. Amazing stuff.

Before I get onto the story itself I should also briefly talk about the young Amelia Pond, as played by Caitlin Blackwood. Unfortunately I was already spoiled that we’d meet Amy as a child before Karen Gillan took over as the grown up version. I also knew that Caitlin is Karen Gillan’s real life cousin. That sounds a bit unsettling to begin with but when you then hear that this 7 year old also had no prior experience with acting and it was all sounding like a disaster in the making. We’ve all seen far too many child actors destroy every scene they are in (the Phantom Menace, anyone?) and these first few minutes of a new era of Doctor Who really could be a bit of a make of break situation. What was Moffat thinking? Entirely the right thing, as it turns out – Caitlin was amazing, a brilliantly funny and natural performance. She made little Amelia really endearing and it did break your heart to see her sitting out in that dark lonely garden for the Doctor to return when, I’m sure we all knew or had figured out, he just wouldn’t. A vital set of scenes that both set up Amy’s character and had to hook the audience in to the new series. The casting people, the director and, of course, Caitlin Blackwood deserve some serious recognition – they gave it a fairytale opening that, I’m sure, almost anyone else would have ruined.

Onto the plot of The Eleventh Hour itself. On the face of it, it’s a bit slight. That’s not the point of a first episode like this though, is it? We need to see the new Doctor stamp his mark on the series, we need to be introduced to the new companion. Not since the episode ‘Rose’ in 2005 has so much had to be done in a single story of Doctor Who. But wait, is it as slight as it at first appears? I don’t think it is, I think there is a lot more going on in this story than meets the eye (no pun intended!) I’ll leave such speculations to the end, though. For now, the plot – there is a crack in Amelia’s bedroom wall and the Doctor discovers it’s actually a crack in space/time (or something like that). On the other side of the crack is a prison and ‘Prisoner Zero’ has escaped through that crack to Earth. The Doctor appears to close the crack before having to rush back to the TARDIS, where upon he returns not 5 minutes later but 12 years. Grown up Amelia (now Amy) and the Doctor rush around for 20 minutes trying to avert the destruction of planet Earth by Prisoner Zero’s gaolers by pointing out the shapeshifting prisoner’s whereabouts to them. Once that is done, and the Earth is safe, the Doctor goads the alien destructor fleet back to give them a good tongue lashing and a veiled threat that he’d sort ‘em out if they ever tried that sort of thing again.

As plots go that doesn’t sound much for the extended 65 minute (well, 63 minute) running time. It doesn’t but I didn’t find any slack moments, in fact it is just full of gem after gem. Little Amelia ‘praying’ to Santa (despite it being Easter) for some help with the crack in her wall, maybe a policeman, just as a Police Box crashes in her back garden. The wonderfully funny food sequence, including the immortal line – “You’re Scottish, fry something!” No doubt the sales of custard and fish fingers have increased markedly this past week, too! A bit earlier the whole: “You’re soaking wet.” “I was in the swimming pool.” “You said you were in the library.” “So was the swimming pool.” Or how about: “On this floor, how many rooms? Count them for me now.” “Why?” “Because it will change your life.” Or, a minute or two later: “Oh yeah, yeah, course! It’s an interdimensional multi-form from outer space, they’re all ‘terrified’ of wood!” Then there’s the: “Blimey. Get a girlfriend, Jeff.” Or the whole scene: “Amy, he’s taking his clothes off. … Are you not going to turn your back?” “Nope.” Or: “No TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare… Who da man? … Alright, I’m never saying that again, fine!” Or: “Hello. I’m The Doctor. Basically… run.” I could go on and on but I think we all get the idea!

I’m rapidly running out of time here, trying to finish off this review before the Beast Below begins in about 10 minutes! I don’t want to spoil this review by tainting it with knowledge of the next episode. I’ll just sum up the episode quickly then, before getting onto a bit of speculation. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour was a triumph. It had the darkness, that much talked about ‘fairy tale’ quality that we’d been told to expect, a great sense of humour that really enhanced the darkness by contrast. Great pacing, wonderful music (ignoring the new theme tune, I’m still undecided on that at this point!) and generally (and genuinely) a fresh and invigorating take on Doctor Who. I can’t say enough good things about it. Superlatives fail me!

On 2nd, 3rd and 4th viewing I am noticing things that might hint at the wider story arc. People were a bit concerned that Moffat made it all a bit too obvious with the crack and the talk of the Pandorica and silence falling. I suspect that’s only the tip of the iceberg and in 12 weeks time we will look back at The Eleventh Hour in an entirely new light. My theory is currently that time has shattered somehow and Amy’s home village of Leadworth is either at the heart of it or at one point of failure. Some potential evidence:

The Doctor seemed remarkably surprised to have skipped 12 years. Even after the TARDIS is repaired he doesn’t realise 2 further years have passed. Is that because time isn’t working correctly in Leadworth?
Just when is the ‘modern day’ Leadworth meant to be set anyway? Modern laptops and mobile phones suggest sometime around 2010 but…
Why does Rory’s hospital badge say issued 30th November 1990? Wouldn’t he have been about 8 years old back in 1990?
Rory’s car is an ancient N reg mini. Is that a coincidence?
Is Amy really dreaming that young Amelia hears the TARDIS and looks up?
Why does Amy seem to have a doll or two of the Doctor with him wearing a brown top rather than his blue shirt?

And a few general questions:

How did Amy explain the shed to her Aunt? Presumably said it was the Raggedy Doctor, was she punished for lying?
Just what happened to Amy’s parents?
Where is/who is Amy’s aunt?

Yes, I’m convinced Moffat has something a little more interesting for us than the usual RTD season arc we’ve all been used to. I’m very much looking forward to further speculation as the episodes come along.

DWPA Podcast #002: The Eleventh Hour London Launch Event – 3rd April 2010

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:07:00 +0000

Summary:

Welcome to the second Doctor Who Podcast Alliance joint podcast, recorded at the London Launch Event for Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour.

In attendance were podcasters Dave Keep (Professor Dave’s Ark in Space), Tony Gallichan (the Flashing Blade), Adam J Purcell (our very own Staggering Stories) and Laura and Chris Sigma (The Ood Cast).

A big thank you must go out to Jeremy Bentham and his illustrious team for all their hard work in organising the event. Also another big thank you to everyone that spoke to us, both on and off mic – without you there would be no podcast!

00:00 – Theme tune
00:29 – Welcome!
01:33 – Before the screening:
01:33 – Professor Dave talks to the queue
13:06 – Tony Gallichan talks with organiser Jeremy Bentham
18:50 – After the screening:
19:04 – Tony Gallichan talks with Alan Stevens and Fiona from Magic Bullet
21:47 – Adam J Purcell talks with Chris S and Laura from the Ood Cast
29:21 – Professor Dave talks with attendees including Nicola, Ronny, Meg and Richard!
33:20 – Tony Gallichan talks with artist Tony Clark.
39:50 – Adam J Purcell talks with attendees Ian and Wyn.
43:11 – Tony Gallichan talks with writer and editor Anthony Brown
46:24 – A bumper from the wonderful Philip Madoc who was in attendance.
46:34 – Wrapping it up
47:09 – Closing music, etc.

Staggering Stories Podcast #68: The Planet of the Funky Gibbons

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:18:49 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: Why is it so popular and Planet of the Apes (the original 1968 film), find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:12 — Welcome!
02:19 – News:
02:45 — Doctor Who: New Doctor Who Series’ Season 6 confirmed, plus Christmas special.
04:09 — Doctor Who: The Daily Mail hates Amy Pond.
06:34 — Doctor Who: Of trailers and such.
08:10 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith front pages The Times with his tweed.
09:44 — Returning TV: Ashes to Ashes, The Prisoner remake, V remake, K9.
11:03 – Doctor Who: Why is the New Series so popular?
23:02 – Escape Pod Discs: Rhys Parton.
28:01 – Classic Movie Theatre: Planet of the Apes (1968).
45:24 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
84:38 – Advertisement Break
85:30 – Farewell for this podcast!
85:56 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

DWPA Podcast #001: Waterstone’s Signing 27th March 2010

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:48:50 +0000

Summary:

Welcome to the first Doctor Who Podcast Alliance joint podcast, recorded at a signing event at Waterstone’s, Lakeside, Thurrock, featuring Colin Baker (the 6th Doctor), Anneke Wills (1st and 2nd Doctor companion, Polly) and Paul Castle (Shooty Dog Thing fanzine and now book).

In attendance were podcasters Luke Harrison (the Minute Doctor Who Podcast), Dave Keep (Professor Dave’s Ark in Space), Tony Gallichan (the Flashing Blade) and Adam J Purcell (our very own Staggering Stories).

More information about the books being signed can be found at http://www.hirstbooks.com/.

00:00 – Theme tune
00:29 – Welcome!
01:20 – The Podcasters round table:
01:20 – Introductions.
04:07 – Actual Doctor Who talk, for a second…
07:15 – Memories of regenerations past, for a second…
11:54 – Back to memories of regenerations past.
20:49 – Hopes for Doctor Who 2010 season.
30:45 – Talking with attendees
33:08 – Anneke Wills interview and reading
39:57 – Publisher Tim Hirst interview
44:25 – Paul Castle, Shooty Dog Thing reading
48:02 – Talking with attendees
54: 21 – Mark, the event organiser
57:41 – Paul Castle interview
65:02 – Talking with attendees
72:40 – Colin Baker interview
78:23 – Colin Baker reading

Staggering Stories Podcast #67: Being Daleks on a Pub Crawl

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:45:09 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Daleks, Being Human Season 2, Alice in Wonderland and a Real Ale Doctor Who pub crawl, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:45 — Welcome!
01:35 – News:
01:59 — Doctor Who: Touring the UK to kick off Series 2, Season 5.
04:10 — Doctor Who: The console game coming to Nintendo Wii and DS.
05:12 — Delia Derbyshire documentary.
06:15 — J. Michael Straczynski taking on Superman and Wonder Woman.
08:34 — The Shat: William Shatner fronting new social networking site.
10:24 — Firefly: Dark House comics bringing out two new Firefly stories.
11:46 — Death: Peter Graves goes to the grave.
12:43 – Doctor Who: The Daleks (the 1963/4 story).
23:32 – Doctor Who: CAMRA pub crawl.
30:35 – Being Human: Season 2.
44:44 – Alice in Wonderland.
53:16 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
91:09 – Farewell for this podcast!
91:45 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #66: Trailer Trash

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:58:40 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora, New Who Season Trailers and Survivors Season 2, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:49 — Welcome!
02:12 – News:
02:33 — Doctor Who: 3D trailer for New Series, Season 5.
05:14 — Syfy: The UK Sci-Fi channel gets a dose of SyFy.
07:33 — Doctor Who: Prop and costume auction.
10:40 — Doctor Who: New Character Options figure – 7th Doctor & Remembrance Dalek.
11:50 — Metropolis: Complete copy found, remastered DVD on its way.
13:25 – Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora.
27:06 – Survivors: Season 2 (2010).
37:42 – Doctor Who: New Who season trailers.
59:30 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
86:17 – Farewell for this podcast!
87:14 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #65: Camping Up the Weekender

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:20:40 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell and Keith Dunn speculate about the 2010 Doctor Who season, talk about The Vampire Diaries and the SFX Weekender convention, have a 30 second recommendation for the Amtrak Wars novels, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:47 — Welcome!
02:35 – News:
02:48 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith to kick off with 60 minute episode.
03:49 — Doctor Who: Neil Gaiman set to write for 2011 season.
06:06 — The Black Hole: Hollywood goes back to the remake well.
09:06 — Star Trek: Flash mob to promote Star Trek Online.
10:15 — Star Wars: Flash mob lightsabre fight in Bristol.
11:24 – Doctor Who: Predictions for the 2010 season.
21:24 – 30 Second Recommendation: The Amtrack Wars.
22:44 – The Vampire Diaries.
31:25 – Competition Results: Name a Doctor Who Companion to win a Whooverville 3 Disc DVD set.
35:07 – The SFX Weekender.
47:03 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
70:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
70:54 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.
73:32— Max Buffer’s Media Museum podcast promo.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #64: Bad Case of Coatal Envy

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:40:08 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith and the Real Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who computer games, Red Dwarf Season 3, have a 30 second recommendation for Iain M Banks’ Culture novels, hold a competition, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:53 — Welcome!
01:59 – News:
02:03 — Torchwood USA: Fox TV developing an American Torchwood.
03:48 — Doctor Who: Computer game to be developed?
06:02 — Rex Is Not Your Lawyer: Canned before it got started?
07:20 — Red Dwarf: Chris Barrie suggests a new full season is possible.
09:05 — Doctor Who: Billie Piper talks about Hollywood Doctor Who film.
09:49 — Star Wars: Wizards of the Coast drop pen & paper RPG and miniatures line.
10:30 – Red Dwarf: Season 3
25:11 – Doctor Who: Computer games past and future.
35:32 – 30 Second Recommendation: Iain M Banks’ Culture novels.
37:21 – COMPETITION TIME! Win a Whooverville 3 Disc DVD set (including interviews with Colin Baker, Anneke Wills, Nick Briggs, and many more!)
38:47 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
56:40 – Farewell for this podcast!
57:05 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.
64:40 — The TARDIS Tavern promo.
66:08 — The Ood Cast promo.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #63: The Trouble with Triffids

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:32:14 +0000

Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about our early memories and favourite villains from Doctor Who, The Day of the Triffids (mainly the 2009 version), the blockbuster Avatar, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:19 — Welcome!
02:07 – News:
02:26 — Doctor Who: Writers for New Series, Season 5 officially announced.
06:51 — Outcasts: New BBC One ’space drama’.
08:30 — Spider-man: Teenage reboot for film series.
11:57 — Edge of Darkness: Hollywood turns another classic BBC Series into a film.
13:51 — Firefly: New TV series tie-in book.
15:45 – The Day of the Triffids (2009)
32:50 – Doctor Who: That Brown Trouser Moment.
42:56 – Avatar.
56:56 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
76:50 – COMPETITION TIME! Win a Whooverville 3 Disc DVD set (including interviews with Colin Baker, Anneke Wills, Nick Briggs, and many more!)
79:37 – Farewell for this podcast!
80:04 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #62: The Episode That Didn’t Want to Go

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:14:04 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake Keith’, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who: The End of Time, our Predictions for 2010, our Hopes and Dreams for 2010, see how wrong we were about our Predictions for 2009, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:02 — Welcome!
02:22 – News:
02:34 — Doctor Who: UK ratings for The End of Time.
04:42 — Syfy renewing Stargate Universe and Sanctuary.
06:51 — Peter Jackson is developing a film based on the Mortal Engines books.
08:48 — Doctor Who RPG: It is out!
11:02 — Star Trek wetsuits – the Red Shirts of the deep.
12:29 – Predictions, Hopes & Dreams and Fears for the future:
12:41 — How wrong we were: Predictions for 2009.
18:01 — How wrong we were: Hopes and Dreams for 2009.
22:14 — Predictions for 2010.
28:22 — Hopes and Dreams for 2010.
31:15 — Fears for 2010.
34:47 – Doctor Who: The End of Time.
65:12 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
89:45 – SFX Weekender announcement and win FREE TICKETS!
93:13 – Farewell for this podcast!
93:45 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.
95:30 — Christmas greetings from other podcasts.

Vital Links:

DWPA – ‘SFX Weekender’ Tickets Up for Grabs

Staggering Stories Podcast — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:23:49 +0000

DEADLINE: Friday 15th January 2010.

The Doctor Who Podcast Alliance (that Staggering Stories is proud to be a member of) has organised, in conjunction with SFX Magazine, free tickets to the SFX Weekender convention, on the 5th/6th February 2010, Camber Sands (Pontins Holiday Camp!), East Sussex, England.

Guests include Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Gareth David-Lloyd, Toby Hadoke, Paul Cornell, James Masters, Mac McDonald, Dave Gibbons, Robert Rankin and many more.

Oh, and if you’re unlucky you may meet some Doctor Who podcasters…

50 sets of up to 4 tickets are to be given away, all you have to do is phone in, quote a code and cross your fingers (if more than 50 people apply before the deadline of 15th Jan 2010 then names will be drawn from a hat).

Phone: 08700 110034
Quote Code: DWPOD
Deadline: Friday 15th January 2010

Staggering Stories Podcast #61: A Very Tennant Christmas

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:00:55 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake Keith’, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Horns of Nimon, Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Time Lords in the dock, play Swanee-Kazoo and Charades, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:40 — Welcome!
02:25 – News:
02:56 — Doctor Who: BBC 1 Christmas Idents (and lots more Tennant about).
05:37 — Doctor Who: Michael Moorcock to write a Who book.
07:31 — Richard Todd (thingie-face) is dead.
10:20 – Christmas Crackers.
15:54 – Doctor Who: The Horns of Nimon.
29:23 – Christmas Nonsense:
29:35 — Christmas Address.
30:02 — Charades.
31:59 – Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Time Lords.
42:22 – More Christmas Nonsense:
42:27 — Swanee-Kazoo.
43:53 — Charades.
47:28 — Happy Birthday Song.
49:40 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
65:46 – Farewell for this podcast!
67:30 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Mr Dalek and the Year of the Gap

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:45:22 +0000

It’s Christmas! A special time for little Daleks everywhere. To celebrate this we proudly present a new Mr Dalek Adventure on our podcast feed.

This new exciting story, written by long time Mr Dalek fan, Benjamin F Elliot, and narrated by Tony Gallichan is published, in audio form, for the first time today: Mr Dalek and the Year of the Gap.

Enjoy!

Staggering Stories Podcast #60: Blathering in Dreamland

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:26:13 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: Dreamland, three Sarah Jane Adventures stories, the BBC series Paradox, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:12 — Welcome!
02:04 – News:
02:12 — Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One named.
03:19 — Doctor Who: Waters of Mars viewing figures.
04:47 — Being Human: Wins two Royal Television Society awards.
06:12 — Forbidden Planet: More details emerge, possible sequels?
07:57 — Bernard Cribbins: BAFTA Childrens award.
10:13 — Christopher Eccleston: to play John Lennon in Beatles film?
11:33 — Doctor Who RPG: impounded by US customs!
13:25 – Doctor Who: Dreamland.
19:29 – Paradox.
28:24 – The Sarah Jane Adventures:.
29:34 — The Eternity Trap.
33:42 — Mona Lisa’s Revenge.
37:54 — The Gift.
44:41 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
63:53 — Breaking News: Torchwood 4 is go?
64:24 – Farewell for this podcast!
66:58 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #59: When Water Goes Wet

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:50:11 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Keith Dunn and a remote Jean Riddler talk about the Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars, Defying Gravity, give a 30 second recommendation, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:38 — Welcome!
01:25 – News:
01:39 — Doctor Who: Air dates for The Waters of Mars in the Austrailia and Canadia.
02:36 — David Tennant: Pilots a new US series.
05:36 — Dollhouse: Sent to the attic, to DEATH!
07:57 — Being Human: SyFy version may change vampire Mitchell’s sex.
09:53 — Gene Hunt: It’s not just an advert, it’s a BBC rip off advert.
11:18 — Doctor Who RPG: 30 November 2009 release but little info so far.
13:45 – Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars.
35:46 – 30 Second Recommendation: Darker Projects.
36:51 – Defying Gravity.
47:43 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
75:20 – Farewell for this podcast!
75:45 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #58: David Tennant’s Little Adventure

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:42:05 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake’ Keith, NOT Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman in the Attic and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, find some Escape Pod Discs, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:50 — Welcome!
01:24 – News:
01:29 — Doctor Who: Air dates for The Waters of Mars in the UK and the US of A.
02:34 — The Sarah Jane Adventures: David Tennant gives it a boost up.
03:57 — Being Human: SyFy copies the originality.
05:55 — Who Framed Roger Rabbit: The sequel did.
07:10 — V: Sky writing advertising would cause too many emissions.
08:41 — David Tennant: The Doctor for life.
09:41 — Doctor Who: A wealth of DVDs on the way.
10:50 – The Sarah Jane Adventures:.
11:33 — The Mad Woman in the Attic.
19:27 — The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.
36:38 – Escape Pod Discs: NOT Jean.
41:42 – True Blood.
54:02 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
60:21 – Farewell for this podcast!
60:50 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Is Media Nostalgia a Thing of the Past?

Adam J Purcell — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:58:41 +0000

Last night I found myself stuck in a YouTube chain of watching late 70s, early 80s children’s TV opening credits. It all started with looking up Floella Benjamin on Wikipedia (after hardly believing that was really her in the Sarah Jane Adventures yesterday – she looked far too young but it was, nonetheless, her!). That led me to seek clips from Play Away on YouTube and it didn’t stop there…

Seriously dating myself (no – not in that way!) I watched the opening credits to the likes of (I’m sure there were more) Play Away (with Jeremy Irons!), Rentaghost, The Flumps, Bod, Worzel Gummidge, Jamie And The Magic Torch, The Adventure Game (including the last 5 minutes, where the contestants have to cross the vortex), Rainbow, Grange Hill (the original opening with the exploding sausage! Also Gripper’s exit scenes from the series), Wizbit, Jigsaw, Look and Read: Dark Towers (no credits, just a good few minutes of the programme) and three crappy American series from the early to mid 80s – Automan, Manimal and Street Hawk.

Is there a point to all this rambling? If there is it is this: will children in the future fail to have the vague nostalgic memories of children’s TV past that we do, because the programmes will always be instantly accessible in perpetuity? For the most part I was only looking at the opening credits last night which is enough to evoke memories but not enough to destroy them! In the not too distant future we will almost certainly be able to bring up programmes at will. Children won’t have the same experience that we had – namely that a TV programme was generally shown once and rarely (if ever) repeated.

Perhaps inaccessibility to a past event isn’t required to generate nostalgia but I do wonder if being able to quickly and easily revisit an old childhood memory might be a bit traumatic when they find it isn’t quite as good as their memory suggests. No, that’s the situation our generation is in, looking back 30+ years without anything to bridge that gulf. Future generations won’t need to have such a gap – as they progress through childhood they can watch programmes to death and revisit them later in childhood, only to find they don’t like them any more. Perhaps for that reason alone TV (and ‘media’ in general) nostalgia will be a thing of the past and maybe that’s no bad thing!

Staggering Stories Podcast #57: Judoon Goon with a Spoon

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:04:31 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake’ Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Sarah Jane Adventures: Prisoner of the Judoon, Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Conventions in the dock, Flash Forward, get a 30 second recommendation, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:09 — Welcome!
02:07 – News:
02:32 — Doctor Who: New Logo and Insignia.
05:57 — Doctor Who: Barry Letts has died.
07:42 — Dollhouse: Will not be yanked off early.
10:17 — Les Miserables: A film version in the works?
12:10 — Doctor Who: Cubicle 7 Roleplaying Game character sheet published.
14:07 – The Sarah Jane Adventures: Prisoner of the Judoon.
25:45 – Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Conventions.
34:18 – 30 Second Recommendation: The Asphyx.
35:38 – Flash Forward.
45:23 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
68:03 – Farewell for this podcast!
63:27 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #56: The Crime was in Being There

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:29:13 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake’ Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Adric in the dock, Red Dwarf Season 2, Escape Pod Discs, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:09 — Welcome!
01:45 – News:
02:04 — Doctor Who: Matchstick Dalek.
04:30 — Primeval: Back from extinction.
07:04 — V: The remake in trouble.
09:21 — Doctor Who: New logo (speculations!)
10:45 — Doctor Who: Cubicle 7 Roleplaying Game due in November?
11:47 – Red Dwarf: Season Two.
26:09 – Escape Pod Discs: Jo! (and premature feedback from Tony).
33:00 – Doctor Who: Gallifreyan Crown Court – Reality vs. Adric.
45:41 – El Presidente.
46:57 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
67:43 – Farewell for this podcast!
63:27 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #55: Pick of the Pits

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:09:16 +0000

Show Summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake’ Keith and ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Quatermass trilogy, Doctor Who Magazine’s ‘The Mighty 200′ story rankings, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:01 — Welcome!
01:43 – News:
01:59 — Doctor Who: Richard Curtis to write for Series 5.
05:28 — The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 3 to broadcast two episodes a week.
08:44 — Buy Gene Roddenberry’s Apple Macintosh.
11:03 — Doctor Horrible gatecrashes the Emmys.
11:59 – The Quatermass Trilogy.
24:23 – Escape Pod Discs: Tony Gallichan.
29:37 – Doctor Who Magazine’s ‘The Mighty 200′ story rankings.
44:39 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
63:03 – Farewell for this podcast!
63:27 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Quatermass

Adam J Purcell — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:24:06 +0000

Quatermass – the 1950s granddaddy of British Science Fiction TV.

In our next podcast (number 55, due out any minute!) we discuss, amongst other things, the original Quatermass trilogy (as written by Nigel Kneale) and the film remakes it spawned. Given we won’t be giving too much background information I’ll take this opportunity to explain it a bit for those who aren’t all that familiar with it all.

Back in 1953 the BBC broadcast the first of three, 6 part, serials revolving around our protagonist Professor Bernard Quatermass. Quatermass was a throwback to, even then, earlier times when scientists were considered heroes. Attitudes were changing, scientists were beginning to be distrusted. Their thirst for knowledge and progress put all of us at peril – just look at the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki only 8 years earlier. This sets the stage for the first Quatermass adventure:

The Quatermass Experiment

Professor Quatermass and his small team of the British Experimental Rocket Group have succeeded in being the first to send a manned spacecraft into orbit. We join the action when all contact has been lost with the craft and its three crew. Quatermass and his ground team think all is lost. Eventually their radar does pick up the craft but its clearly veered far off course, having a much wider elliptical orbit than intended. There is no voice communication from the crew. Are they dead or it is just a malfunction?

After the space craft crashes into London the intact crew module is opened to find only one of the three crew. Where did the other two go? The door hadn’t been opened. Their empty spacesuits were still locked together, as if they hadn’t been taken off. The one survivor, Victor Carroon, is gravely ill and perhaps changing into something less than human…

Looking back at the Quatermass Experiment now it feels a bit like a 1950s B-Movie but, at the time, it was revolutionary, especially for television. Back in those days only a few million people had televisions sets in Britain and there was the only one channel to watch. Nonetheless The Quatermass Experiment has gone down in history as one of the first must-see serials, truly a piece of landmark television. According to Wikipedia, film historian Robert Simpson said that the serial had been “event television, emptying the streets and pubs for the six weeks of its duration.”

Most of the, very few, previous attempts to do Science Fiction TV on the BBC were squarely aimed at children. Quatermass certainly was not, as its (progressively getting later) timeslot suggested. Initially it was screened, on a Saturday evening, at 20:25, moving steadily later as the serial became more shocking, for the final part to start screen six weeks later at 21:00.

Quatermass II

Two years later, in 1955, a sequel series was produced. Professor Quatermass is still heading up the struggling British Experimental Rocket Group, now with plans to build a lunar colony. Events bring Quatermass face to face with an alien invasion via meteorite showers, contact with such a meteor turning people into the aliens’ unwilling slaves.

Very much Invasion of the Body Snatchers, before that film arrived the following year, this serial inspired (to say the least) the famous and renowned first Doctor Who story for the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee – namely Spearhead from Space. The concept of an alien intelligence slowly infiltrating the government has since been much used and in this 1955 early cold war environment it’s very easy to see where the idea might have originally come from.

Like the Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II was performed live on the night of broadcast but as the budget had been essentially doubled they could pre-record even more film inserts. A lot of that pre-recorded material took advantage of the fact it didn’t have to be tied to a studio and were the most ambitious shots ever done in British television to that time.

Again Professor Quatermass’ adventures were a huge success with the (now burgeoning) British viewing public and would live on in the viewer psyche for decades to come. Apparently 90% of viewers questioned, soon after the serial concluded, had watched at least five episodes of the production. A viewing figure that little or nothing could hope for today.

Quatermass and the Pit

Perhaps the best remembered Quatermass story hit our screens at the end of 1958 and through to early 1959, in the form of Quatermass and the Pit.

Partly inspired by the Notting Hill race riots of 1958 this tale told of an ancient insectoid Martian race that millions of years ago had come to Earth and genetically manipulated humanity, giving us much of our darker aspects. This story also takes the previously SF-only series into the realm of the supernatural (although all ‘explained’ scientifically, of course) with telekinesis, telepathy and racial memories.

This was the final Quatermass the BBC television produced (not counting the 2005 live remake of the Quatermass Experiment, featuring Jason Flemyng as Quatermass and David Tennant as Dr. Briscoe). In the mid-60s there were plans for the BBC to make a fourth Quatermass serial but, after a difficult and prolonged gestation, it finally went to the rival ITV station in 1979. Simply called ‘Quatermass’ that serial, starring John Mills as a retired Bernard Quatermass, concluded the Professor’s adventures. As I have yet to see this particular story I shall leave talk of it until a later time!

Watching Quatermass Today

The original BBC serial of Quatermass and the Pit was, again like it’s two predecessors, performed largely live on the night of broadcast but with film inserts to cover scenes too complicated to perform live or requiring location work. Fortunately by Quatermass II the BBC had realised what they had on their hands and telerecorded the live transmission (basically pointing a film camera at the TV monitor as it was performed!) For that reason Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit still exist in the BBC archives and are available on DVD. They began to telerecord the original The Quatermass Experiment (a very unusual undertaking in 1953) but stopped after the second episode as they didn’t think the results were of high enough technical quality to be resold abroad (not helped by an insect flying about the monitor (and therefore being inadvertently filmed) in episode two). Those two episodes are available on the BBC’s ‘Quatermass: Complete Collection’ DVD boxset, which contains all the 1950s TV serials and various documentaries.

Besides the original BBC serials there were also corresponding big screen film adaptation made of each of the three by Hammer Film Productions. Named The Quatermass Xperiment (or, in the US, The Creeping Unknown), Quatermass 2 (US title: Enemy From Space) and Quatermass and the Pit (finally both the same name in the US and the same name as the original serial!) The first two featured, the somewhat controversial choice of, the American actor Brian Donlevy as Professor Quatermass. Donlevy being the only man, on screen, to play Quatermass in more than one story. Quatermass and the Pit starred, the much better accepted (and British! (specifically Scottish)), actor Andrew Keir as Quatermass. Keir is the only other man to have played Quatermass twice, though the second time on radio rather than screen in the BBC’s 1996 The Quatermass Memoirs.

As we say in the podcast, if you are a fan of Doctor Who (or, really, British Sci-Fi in general) then you owe it to yourself to seek out Quatermass. Its impact on British Science Fiction TV cannot be underestimated. I would recommend the BBC serials over the Hammer films, at least initially (though I personally think Hammer’s Andrew Kier might be the finest Quatermass) as that way you’ll see them exactly as the original 1950s TV audience did – groundbreaking television. I would warn you though, this is very early television we are talking about, over 50 years old, so don’t go in expecting modern acting, pacing or visual effects! Close the curtains, turn out the lights and try to imagine you’ve never seen its like before!

There are conventions and there are conventions…

Adam J Purcell — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:23:34 +0000

The Time & Again DWAS convention will only be allowing people from the one particular podcast to record any conversations with the guests. Clearly they are well within their rights to do so but it has ruffled a few feathers, to say the least.

A heated debate raged on Twitter earlier this evening between one podcaster who would be allowed to record and another who wouldn’t. Forgive me for being vague, I don’t want to turn this in any way personal, it’s the policy I want to examine not the people on any side of the of the ‘debate’! I only name the event because people deserve to know in case the policy might affect their choice on whether to attend or not.

I want to take the heat out of the situation and look at it rationally and hear other people’s opinions on the subject, should they have any.

When asked, via email, “what are the chances of getting a few words with your guests for our podcast?”, the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS) responder replied “On this occasion we have agreed that will do any podcast in return for advertising on their site which we have been getting for some months now. At this stage I’m afraid I cannot turn around and say that someone else is also having access. However for the future,…?”

On the face of it that doesn’t sound totally unreasonable and does leave things open for the future. It does, however, totally fail to take into account the sort of social gatherings conventions are, especially in this newly connected world.

DWAS, at one time, used to hold the biggest Doctor Who conventions in the world until the American cons, especially Gallifrey One, really took off. Since then DWAS have rather melted away and haven’t held one of their once annual Panopticon extravaganzas since 2003. Time and Again is very modest by comparison.

Perhaps we were spoilt by Whooverville? There all podcasters were treated equally, invited in even. It was a wonderful atmosphere of freedom, fun and socialising. It was run by fans, for fans. The guests interacted with fans throughout the day in a casual way not a forced restricted way. It was utterly unlike the sort of media expo where guests are segregated from the fans and any interaction has to be paid for in advance (the organisers acting like their pimps). It’s a shame DWAS (a fan run organisation) has apparently gone at least some way down that route. Even the great (and massive) Gallifrey One has, somehow, avoided that trap.

Doctor Who fandom has long since had its ‘in crowd’ of fans, a level above the ‘ming mong’ crowd. That was always a sad state of affairs and I’m sorry to see that sort of elitism still exists. I’m not asking for a fan panel like the podcaster’s panel at Whooverville. I’m not asking for the guests to be forced to talk to every person with a handheld recorder – this isn’t a publicity event for a new film, after all. All we’d like is to be able to ask a guest or a fan attendee if they’d be prepared to talk to us for a few moments. We’re not looking for long in-depth interviews – that wouldn’t be fair on all the other attendees (or the poor people we’re wanting to talk to!) Leave it up to the individual we ask to decide for themselves if they are willing to spare us those few moments. If they’d rather not, then tell them they shouldn’t be afraid to say no. We don’t consider them to be duty bound to do so, only for us not to be prevented from asking. As one Twitter user said ‘There’s a difference between denying access to guests and giving podcasters special access. A big difference.’ I don’t think any of us are asking for special access, just equal access.

Whooverville was a masterstroke – invite all the podcasters along and get a lot of free publicity and general good will. Good will epitomises Whooverville. Time & Again seem to be taking the opposite view. If the bad will I’ve seen generated this evening is anything to go by then Time & Again (and DWAS conventions in general from now on) could well go down in infamy. That’s just not a way to run a convention.

Those people behind this short sighted decision should do themselves a favour and take another look at it. Conventions should not be about control freakery but openness and fun. Unless I’m not seeing the full picture here, this seems like a largely pointless self inflicted wound. A wound that may fester for years to come. Reconsider.

Whooverville 2009 Podcast Panel

Adam J Purcell — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:13:13 +0000

Whooverville was more than a Doctor Who convention, for me at least. A historic meeting of so many Doctor Who podcasters.

It all began on a slightly chilly Butterley Train Station platform at 10AM on Sunday 6th September 2009. Four of our Staggering Stories team (Karen, Jean, Keith and myself, Adam) stumbled onto the platform to be greeted by The Colin Baker posing next to a black Dalek. Probably an unusual sight for this particular museum train station, I’ve not had the chance to return on a different morning to see if Colin and Dalek are there again – I rather doubt it.

I can’t remember the order of the meetings but, like a coalescing star, somehow the podcasters were drawn together on the platform – the geekest of the geek horde that had invaded the heritage railway station. Kindred spirits!

The steam train to take us on to the giant shed that was to host Whooverville was waiting at the platform as we arrived. It was, however, lacking a ‘fireman’ (a coal shoveller) so we were late getting away. That wasn’t a problem, though, as it gave us more time to talk amongst ourselves and have a wonderful photo taken for our albums:

Whooverville 2009 podcasters, at train station (by kind permission of Nat Titman)

In the above photo (taken by podcaster Nat Titman from Bridging the Rift), starting at the the left we have -
Back row: James Rockliffe from Whocast and Dad’s Army podcast, James Naughton from Podshock and Hitchhiker’s Guide to British Sci-Fi, Jean Riddler (holding the Head of Pertwee) and Karen Dunn from Staggering Stories, Marty Perrett from Whocast and Box Room, Dave Cooper from Cultdom Collective, Luke Harrison from the Minute Doctor Who Podcast.
Front row: Keith Dunn and Adam Purcell from Staggering Stories.

The celebrity panels were, for me, less compelling than simply hanging out with the numerous other podcasters on hand. That’s not meant as a slight on the guests as they were all very interesting people but in many ways I felt like I knew the other podcasters, it was like catching up with old friends! Besides Tony and Jo (and the rest of the Staggering Stories team, of course!) I hadn’t ever actually met any of the others. I doubt an outsider would have had any clue that was the case.

For the most part I immediately recognised my fellow podcasters on sight – I’d seen their faces in pictures or videos. Any doubt (still photos don’t always give a perfect representation) was immediately dispelled when I heard their voices.

Steve Hatcher, who appeared to be the main driving force behind the Whooverville convention, invited us podcasters along for the express reason of getting us together on the stage for a Podcast Panel. That was a masterstroke for getting us all together. I think it is fair to say that no previous British event had brought together so many Doctor Who podcasters. Fortunately he didn’t have any dastardly plan to wipe out a good percentage of the world’s Doctor Who podcasters – it would have been the perfect opportunity had he done so, though!

Here we are on stage for the Podcasters Panel:

Whooverville Podcast Panel 2009 (by kind permission of Jo Cummins)

In the above photo (taken by podcaster Jo Cummins from The Flashing Blade) starting from the left we have -
Back row: Tony Gallichan from The Flashing Blade, Michael from the Tin Dog Podcast, Karen Dunn and Adam Purcell from Staggering Stories, Marty Perrett from the Whocast and Box Room, Dave Cooper from Cultdom Collective, James Naughton from Podshock.
Front row: Nat Titman from Bridging the Rift and Luke Harrison from the Minute Doctor Who Podcast.

The podcast panel itself was lively and fun, at least from my point of view on the stage. A very slight (surprisingly slight) trepidation accompanied me onto the stage but it was very quickly dispelled. I’m hardly a natural public speaker but facing the onlooking crowds was a lot easier thanks the eight friends on stage with me.

By the time all of us were up on stage and settled (squeezing 7 chairs on the small stage was not an easy task!) we had already spent about three minutes of our half hour time slot. That left us with only about twenty-seven minutes to fill. With seven and, when Nat and Luke quickly joined us (sans chairs!), soon nine of us on the stage it’s not hard to burn through such a short amount of time – most podcasters tend to easily fill an hour or two, rambling away each week!

The podcast panel itself wasn’t quite what I’d expected. I’d assumed it would be a round table affair, with a mic each or a series of mics along the table that picks us all up. That wasn’t quite what we had, instead there were about three handheld mics that we were passing between us. I’m not sure if that was a good or bad thing. The downside being that it made the panel a little more stilted than it might otherwise have been. On the plus side it stopped it getting too far out of hand and minimised any one person hogging things too much! On balance, it was probably for the best!

Let me wind things back to the previous evening, for a second. It didn’t really all start on the train platform as six of us actually met up at the hotel the night before (one of which being Jo, who doesn’t appear in either of the photos above):

A few podcasters gather the night before Whooverville 2009

In the above photo (taken by myself) starting from the left we have -
Tony Gallichan and Jo Cummings from The Flashing Blade, Jean Riddler, Karen Dunn and Keith Dunn from Staggering Stories.

So, that was Whooverville 2009. There is much more to be said about it. Seek out all the podcasts mentioned above (especially their episodes directly after 6th September 2009) to hear more. Fear yourself to tales of The Colin Baker meeting the Head of Pertwee and more! Also seek out Staggering Stories Podcast 54 – ‘Hounds of the Whooverville’ for more of our Staggering thoughts on it.

The attached audio file (MP3) features a few more words from me and, more importantly, the recording of the Podcast Panel I made on the day. The background noise is a bit overpowering sometimes but hopefully it is nonetheless intelligible. Enjoy!

Staggering Stories Podcast #54: Hounds of the Whooverville

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:27:50 +0000

Show summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, ‘Fake’ Keith, Jean Riddler and ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who convention Whooverville, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:59 — Welcome!
01:50 – News:
02:10 — Doctor Who: The End of Time named.
03:32 — Doctor Who: Big Finish licence renewed until end of 2011.
04:46 — Disney wants to buy Marvel Comics for $4b.
06:52 — Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Hitchcon’09 on 11 October.
08:01 — Terry Wogan quits BBC Radio 2 breakfast show.
09:03 – Doctor Who convention: Whooverville.
48:13 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
67:03 – Farewell for this podcast!
67:24 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #53: Crow Balancing for Beginners

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:28:59 +0000

Show summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Jean Riddler and ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Black Guardian DVD boxset (that being Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead, Doctor Who: Terminus and Doctor Who: Enlightenment), find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:21 — Welcome!
02:07 – News:
02:16 — Doctor Who: Tom Baker doing new Audio Plays.
05:46 — Doctor Who: Dreamland (animated story) blog.
07:44 — Caprica: James Marsters joins the cast.
09:03 — Battlestar Galactica: Bryan Singer attached to direct new movie.
13:02 — Heroes: Ernie Hudson gets a call.
13:48 — Warner Brothers to build a Lego film.
16:48 — World of Warcraft: Cataclysm details emerge.
19:36 — Jean celebrates England’s Cricket win.
21:03 – Doctor Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy -
22:25 — Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead.
41:00 — Doctor Who: Terminus.
52:52 — Doctor Who: Enlightenment.
71:16 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
88:59 – Farewell for this podcast!
89:22 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

The TARDIS – New and Old

Adam J Purcell — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:36:09 +0000

Rumours abound about the new TARDIS set. It was only a matter of time before news of the new TARDIS interior leaked, perhaps we have already reached that point. Someone (sorry, I’ve no idea who) posted the following to (I believe) gallifreybase.com, before it was allegedly removed and then copied by various websites around the world (including this one!):

“The set is on 2 levels, joined by a spiral staircase, but is not as big as I’d thought. It’s apparently finished though sections of it seem to be missing at present. We saw the console room, a lab area, a sort of sitting room area, a fairly long section of corridor leading nowhere and numerous other little nooks and crannies. The console room reminds me of a new and shiny version of the old one, except the roundels are very simple and basic looking, simply spherical dents in the walls.

These new style roundels are featured throughout the whole set, though not on every wall. Back to the console room – mainly golds and silvers and the coral theme has been replaced with a smooth marble like finish. Also the room is not circular, it’s a kind of hexagon-joined-to-a-square shape, the hexagon bit containing the console, which to me looked like the same console they’ve used throughout the series except with new buttons and blinky lights, though apparently it’s entirely new. Your beloved hatstand was still there but no sign of the interior doors, also there was no ceiling to the set – could be that these bits are meant to be there but were missing from the set for some reason I suppose.

Apparently the whole set has been designed in a modular way, so things can be moved and double as other parts of the ship. The roundels are different colours in each area, gold for the console room, silver/grey/blue in the lab, brown in the sitting room. The roundels can be removed/swapped out or even turned around completely to be convex rather than concave, in order to become a different area. I’ll forward some photos and more info shortly…”

If this is in any way true then I am quite excited by it! You see, my formative years were the late 70s through to the mid 80s. That was a time when the TARDIS was massively large on the inside, with labyrinthine corridors and countless rooms. The interior of the TARDIS was a thing of wonder and mystery – a place you could explore for days, always finding something new and interesting.

In Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who (and towards the end of the JNT era) the TARDIS seemed to shrink until it was little more than the console room. It stopped being a something like a home and instead became more akin to a car – something you enter to travel and then step out of when you’ve arrived. Yes, the TARDIS was still a wondrous, even magical, machine but I couldn’t help but feel a little short changed. The brief mention of (and eventual short scene in) the wardrobe room almost made it worse rather than better – we knew the TARDIS was vaster than we were being allowed to see.

I’m not saying that the sprawling interior we occasionally saw in the original series was always great, often it wasn’t. I don’t mind the idea of a bit of variation in the general look as you move through the various TARDIS areas but I’d really rather not see the return of ‘The Invasion of Time’ style brickwork. Also, having recently watched Terminus, even the ‘real’ TARDIS set could look quite ropey back then. The state of the corridor wall that Turlough opens the roundel in, is shocking. Perhaps not noticeable on the small TVs, half way across the room, that we had in 1983 but on a modern 42″ LCD, upscaled to 1080i, it really does look shockingly cheap and tatty! Interestingly, on the same setup, I never thought the same of the RTD TARDIS interior.

Which all brings us on to the Steven Moffat’s (the Vast Toffee (MN)) rumoured redesign of the TARDIS interior. It all sounds very plausible to me. It sounds like a cleaner, almost Apple, redesign based on the classic TARDIS look. The two levels in the console room make me think of the Torchwood hub – clearly a successful and workable example. The new roundels sound brilliant – minimalist but stylish. If they can be swapped out for slightly different colour ones, to denote different sections of the ship, that sounds like a very clever design and suggests we might see a lot more of the TARDIS interior. That reminds me of the way the ’sectors’ worked in Babylon 5 – they basically had one set of corridors and just changed a coloured strip half way up the wall! Ingenious!

A lab, a sitting room. Are we going to have scenes with the Doctor and Grunhilde (sorry, I mean Amy!) relaxing, having a cup of tea? Seems unlikely we’ll see too much of that – new Who doesn’t have time to take a breath like that. Nonetheless if these rumours are to be believed then perhaps we will see just that! The lab is a bit more useful to the series, I would think, especially given the ‘physics teacher’ look of the eleventh Doctor. Could this be the beginning of CSI: Doctor Who?

The apparent modular nature of this new look TARDIS is, perhaps, a bit of a ‘no brainer’ if the Vast Toffee has plans to really show us around the TARDIS. Redressing and reworking sets is a very common tactic in all TV drama. In many ways I wonder why that was never considered when they redesigned the TARDIS in 2004. I wonder if they ever regretted that decision – I suspect the Christmas Invasion and its wardrobe scene might have made them think twice, if only for a second or two!

I look forward to seeing the new TARDIS interior through Amy’s eyes. I look forward to hearing talk about architectural reconfiguration. I look forward to the possibility of a new Zero Room (done with modern technology) and the option for the writers to do a modern take on The Edge of Destruction. I look forward to the TARDIS being a vast and unknowable place again. I look forward to 2010!

Staggering Stories Podcast #52: The Dwarf is Green

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:18:30 +0000

Show summary:
Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith and ‘Classic’ Keith Dunn talk about Doctor Who’s The TARDIS, The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand De Bargos’ Mashup Movie, Red Dwarf: Season One, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:07 — Welcome!
02:01 – News:
02:11 — Doctor Who: New Waters of Mars trailer.
04:30 — Futurama: Original voice cast cut a deal!
06:06 — Alien: Ridley Scott to direct Alien 5.
07:00 — Russell Crow: Rich giving to the poor.
07:58 — Slingers: New Sci-Fi TV series in development.
11:00 — Doctor Who: New Character Options figure – 6th Doctor in 5th’s clothes.
12:07 — Torchwood: memorials left at Hub entrace in Cardiff.
13:09 — The Hugos 2009: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog beats Doctor Who.
14:21 – Doctor Who: The TARDIS.
33:52 – Mashup Movie!
43:20 – Red Dwarf: Season One.
58:21 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
75:44 – Farewell for this podcast!
76:08 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Staggering Stories Podcast #51: How Much Wood Would a Torchwood Torch..?

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:00:40 +0000

Show summary:
Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk extensively about the Torchwood radio stories Asylum, Golden Age, the Dead Line, also Torchwood: Children of Earth, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:44 — Welcome!
01:35 – News:
02:05 — Doctor Who: Karen Gillan’s character named.
04:06 — Doctor Who: Matt Smith’s costume unveilled.
06:25 — Doctor Who: New look TARDIS exterior.
08:03 — Futurama: Voice cast get the heave-ho.
10:01 — World of Warcraft: Sam Raimi to helm the film.
11:25 — Tron 2: Now named ‘Tron Legacy’.
12:38 — Amazon US gets all Big Brother with 1984 and Animal Farm eBooks.
14:58 — The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand De Bargos: The Movie!
16:41 — Captain Pugwash creator, John Ryan, dies.
17:48 — Podcast 49 reply – Our names in Doctor Who (it’s not really news!)
19:01 — Doctor Who: Exclusive Character Options toys.
20:33 – Torchwood:.
21:23 — Radio Play: Asylum.
26:04 — Radio Play: Golden Age.
30:45 — Radio Play: The Dead Line.
35:18 — The Children of Earth.
67:22 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
86:19 – Farewell for this podcast!
87:12 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Crusade – Why I like it, in 5 minutes or less

Adam J Purcell — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:28:07 +0000

Welcome to the Staggering Stories Audio Musings. I’m Adam Purcell, and I’ll be your host for this musing.

This is my third and final, at least for this set, musing about Herd Nurdles – things I like that I often think I’m completely alone on.

So I present to you my justification for liking the 1999 Babylon 5 spin-off series, Crusade…

Poor old Crusade, the Babylon 5 spin-off.

I’m a big fan of Babylon 5. I’m never sure if Babylon 5 or Doctor Who is my favourite TV series – there’s nothing between them. I’m not going to pretend that Crusade is up there with B5 or Doctor Who but I really enjoyed it nonetheless, what there was of it, that is.

It didn’t last long, TNT (the cable TV station behind it) meddled terribly to the point of killing it. Probably worse even than Firefly got from Fox.

Basically for the first couple of seasons or so, it was to be about our heroic heroes venturing forth into the unknown to search for a cure to a nasty plague that was about to wipe out everyone on Earth. Going in, we kind of of knew Earth would be safe – we’d seen the final B5 episode, Sleeping in Light, set some 10-15 after Crusade season one and Earth was fine then.

That’s not the point, though. The B5 universe is littered with history. Wars between the First Ones raging over billions of years, younger races rising all falling throughout that time. It’s all about the crew of the Excalibur searching the dead worlds left behind by these conflicts and getting into bother.

No, it’s not even about that. “Who do you server and who do you trust.” There’s Galen, an apparently kindly Technomage who is manipulating Captain Gideon and his crew, for reasons we, sadly, never really discover. You also have the wonderful ‘Apocalypse Box’ an ancient alien- something that Gideon ‘won’ in a card match. It speaks to him, demands he keeps its existence secret. It too is manipulating Gideon and it hates Galen (but Galen doesn’t know about it). Clearly there was a showdown due to happen between Galen and the Apocalypse Box – who would Gideon serve or trust. We never got to see it.
Like first season B5, there’s more going on here than meets the eye. It’s fun to watch and speculate what is going on.

There’s some great characters – Gary Cole’s Gideon, David Allen Brooks’s amoral archaeologist Eilerson and I actually thought Peter Woodward’s Galen was great. I did, really!

Cut down before its prime – it’s worth a reevaluation. I believe it is still available on DVD, probably for a very reasonable price if you look around.

Crime Traveller – Why I like it, in 5 minutes or less

Adam J Purcell — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:23:18 +0000

Welcome to the Staggering Stories Audio Musings. I’m Adam Purcell, and I’ll be your host for this musing.

This is my second in a group of three musings about Herd Nurdles – things I like that make other people think I’m mad.

So I present to you my justification for liking the 1997 BBC1 Sci-Fi/detective series Crime Traveller…

My two favourite genres are Science Fiction and Detective series. Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse, Columbo! How can I not like Star Cops and Crime Traveller?

Crime Traveller wasn’t the best series ever, I won’t pretend otherwise. It was designed as a lightweight Saturday teatime programme but it was more than that. What would a detective want more than a Time Machine? They could travel back and witness the crime! Okay, they’d probably prefer doughnuts but let’s pretend! Anyway, that’s the premise of the series. It is set in 1997, when the series aired and is about a regular CID… department (and they carry guns – lets gloss over that, too). Their science officer (yes, played by second Kochanski, Chloë Annett) owns a time machine her father built into their living room. None of that matters, though.

The point is – there are two theories of time travel, as I’m sure you all know. There’s branching timelines – when you go back your arrival creates a new timeline. You can then happily murder your own grandfather and have fun like you won’t believe – it doesn’t matter because you’ve come from a different timeline where this didn’t happen, so no paradox.

Then there is the single timeline theory. When you go back, you aren’t actually changing anything because you always went back – it is part of established history already. It is impossible to kill your own grandfather when he is still a child, for example – fate will always conspire to stop you, no matter how hard you try – your attempts and failures are set in historical stone. You don’t see many time travel stories like this. Crime Traveller is one of the few.

They go back a few hours, no more than a day, to observe the crime. The viewer is shown the crime taking place. Every now and then you might catch a glimpse of someone watching the events or something bizarre might happen. Then our heroes are called in. They are stumped, jump in their time machine and now you see the crime again from their perspective – they were the ones we saw the first time around hiding in the bushes, or whatever. Events unfold exactly as they did the first time but now they have the evidence and can arrest the evil doers.

It a great premise. The execution wasn’t always as great but they played it pretty light and I think it’s highly underrated. Don’t expect too much and you might be pleasantly surprised. Again, sadly the DVDs are deleted but a determined search might bring the episodes up from somewhere.

Star Cops – Why I like it, in 5 minutes or less

Adam J Purcell — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:20:28 +0000

Welcome to the resurrected Staggering Stories Audio Musings. I’m Adam Purcell, and I’ll be your host for this musing.

This doesn’t replace the proper Staggering Stories Podcast feed but is instead a VERY irregular (in more ones than one!) outlet for individual members of the Staggering Stories team to vent and generally spew forth…

This is the first of a group of three musings (actually recycled MP3 comments…) about Herd Nurdles. Herd Nurdles, do I hear you ask? Probably not. It’s a term introduced by the fabulous people over at the Box Room podcast, used to represent Science Fiction that one person really likes but few others do. It’s the opposite of Nerd Hurdles… seek out Box Room Podcast 29 and onwards if you want to know more.

Without further ado, here’s my justification for liking the 1987 BBC 2 Sci-Fi/detective series Star Cops – my first Herd Nurdle.

You don’t know Star Cops? Where were you in the late 80s?! BBC 2, 1987. A science fiction crime drama, devised and mainly written by none other than Chris Boucher, of Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.

Okay, the production values… leave a little to be desired. Let’s not even talk about the zero-G acting… There’s some great model work, though… By I’m drifting.

It’s basically Hard SF – It’s set in 2027 and there’s no magic tech, it’s all plausible. There’s no anti-gravity, no faster than light travel, no transporters and NO aliens. It’s real people policing a realistic Earth orbital stations and lunar colony universe.

There’s some really great writing, some fantastic dialogue, clever ideas about the sort of crime that near future environment might encourage. Some great performances too, especially, for my money, by David Calder and Trevor Cooper.

It’s not for everybody – a lot of people probably won’t even get past the awful theme tune.

Star Cops is something people seem to either love or hate. It’s in my top 4 favourite TV series, along with Doctor Who, Babylon 5 and Firefly. Give it a go – you might just love it! You probably won’t, most people hate it but you never know… Sadly the DVDs are long since deleted but no doubt it is available via alternative means..!
I can’t defend that cast photo on Wikipedia, though. I think they must have just eaten from the BBC canteen or, perhaps, just been fired…

“The name’s Pond.. Amy Pond.” And not forgetting Matt Smith’s Doctor Who costume

Adam J Purcell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:03:13 +0000

Today Matt Smith and Karen Gillan begin their Doctor Who career proper – they have started filming. Today we have, finally, discovered Karen’s character name and see the eleventh Doctor’s outfit. It all feels a little bit leaked. Was it a controlled leak? We may never know but it certainly wasn’t the big glossy publicity shot of the two of them I was expecting.

Instead of the big headline (Doctor Who Magazine covering) shot we get a rather more intimate, behind the scenes sort of picture. They two of them look relaxed and happy. They look natural rather than artificial and posed. Perhaps that was the point, if there was one. They look at home both together and on the set. No first day nerves for these two? Probably a twinge but there is no sign of it here.

We do know they’ve been in Cardiff for a few days. A couple of days ago, or so, some lucky fan came upon the two of them wandering around what looked like Cardiff Bay and got their photo taken with the two of them. A picture that quickly did the Twitter rounds before been removed from the originating website. So clearly Matt and Karen didn’t just meet this morning. No doubt they met up for dinner a couple of months ago, too – I know I would in their situation.

But lets get onto the meat of today’s revelations.

The Name
I have to admit to being a little disappointed that Steven Moffatt (the Vast Toffee (MN)) didn’t go with my choice of companion character name – Grunhilda Knobnacker. Instead he opted for ‘Amy Pond’. Okay, perhaps Karen does look more like an Amy than a Grunhilda (assuming such name/appearance correlations are valid at all!) I’ll forgive the Vast Toffee, this time!

I do wonder why there was all that secrecy about the character name up until now, though. It’s not a name that means anything to anyone (so far as I can tell, anyway). Nor did they break the silence in a big shower of publicity. It just kind of leaked out a couple of days ago and was confirmed in a ‘by the way’ fashion today, to go alongside the news of Matt Smith’s costume. That leaves me utterly baffled as to why they didn’t release the name Amy Pond when they announced Karen Gillan’s appointment. Confound that Vast Toffee and his unfathomable ways!

The Costumes
The real news, though, appears to be Matt Smith’s tweed jacket, complete with elbow patches, and bow tie. A somewhat professortorial look for Doctor 11, then. With rolled up trousers and combat boots! He’s a man ready for action, either down in the trenches or in the library – a man for all seasons!

I have to say, I do quite like Matt Smith’s costume. It doesn’t immediately appeal to me as much as David Tennant’s costume (perhaps because Tennant’s costume is a little bit more like I wear myself!) Nonetheless, I do rather like Matt’s outfit. They’ve gone for a look that I (and probably most brits) associate with the Open University and old school science teachers. It takes the edge off his young appearance. Makes him seem a little more timeless. Job done there, then.

A quick poll of people around the firm seemed to give tentative thumbs up, although one person was concerned that he looked exactly like ‘Pee-wee Herman’. I don’t know how well that character is known in the UK – I’ve heard the name referred to in US films and TV but don’t really know who he is. I don’t think the 1950s/60s American High School ‘Poindexter’ look means much on this side of the pond – that’s certainly not what I see in his costume, as I said he looks like an old school professor to me. I do wonder if Amy will start calling the Doctor ‘Professor’!

I’m not quite so sure what to make of Karen/Amy’s outfit. For one thing, it is probably more likely to change as time goes by, as Rose’s did (more so than, say, Martha’s). Has she stolen Tennant’s shoes, though? I know she’s tall but I doubt they’d fit her! To be honest, I preferred her outfit from the publicity shots they did for the announcement of Karen Gillan’s appointment. Maybe we will yet see something more like that – who knows what might be under that baggy pullover of hers!

Conclusion
To sum all that waffle up – I’m happy with the 11th Doctor’s costume. I like the new companion’s name (even if it wasn’t the silly name I came up with!) I am really encouraged that they look so relaxed on set on their first morning of filming. I am a bit disappointed these new facts weren’t released as some big publicity drive with cool looking promo photos but these more informal shots have given me real confidence that Karen and Matt are going to be a great duo.

Good luck to both Karen Gillan and Matt Smith – enjoy it, make it the time of your lives.

Staggering Stories Podcast #50: The Insanity of Cake

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:03:20 +0000

Show summary: Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn eat cake, talk about their Favourite and Least Favourite bits of Doctor Who, see a Fight Club face off between Old and New Captain Kirks, experience a frightening vision of the future, feel the ire of the Agony Nanny, overindulge in a game of Swanee-Kazoo, find some general news, and a variety of other stuff (especially cake), specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:49 — Welcome (with celebratory cake)!
06:36 – News:
06:59 — Torchwood: UK Children of Earth ratings (no spoilers!)
08:23 — Heroes: Is Claire going to bat for the other team?
09:39 — View-Master: The Movie coming?
11:07 — T J Hooker: a film in the works? Let’s hope not…
13:00 — Hong Kong Phooey: The Movie!
14:38 – Doctor Who: Favourite and Least Favourite Bits.
28:37 – Fight Club: Original Captain Kirk vs. New Captain Kirk.
33:14 – Real Keith presses the Future Podcast button:
33:19 — Intro and theme tune.
33:39 — Welcome!
34:12 — News:
34:24 ——- Doctor Who: New spin-off series confirmed.
35:46 ——- William Shatner: compromise on where his body will be displayed.
37:22 — Doctor Who: Revenge of the Nimon, part 1.
50:20 – Nanny Ireland: The Agony Nanny
51:34 – Swanee-Kazoo: Guess the Theme Tune.
53:36 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
59:04 – Farewell for this podcast!
59:35 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.
60:19 — Outtakes and a couple of interloping interlopers!

Vital Links:

Are David Tennant’s ‘Special Doctor Who Projects’ undermining Matt Smith?

Adam J Purcell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:59:04 +0000

We must be mere days away from Matt Smith beginning his tenure as the Doctor by filming his first scenes. David Tennant has already filmed his last scene as the Doctor for the series proper (future guest appearances aside, such as in 2013). So, it’s all Matt Smith’s now? He IS the Doctor? No, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be that simple for him.

In stark contrast to his predecessor, one Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant seems to be clinging on for all he’s worth! No sooner than the likes of Russell T Davies are talking about Tennant filming his last scene, than they are talking about Tennant being back as the Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Then he’s back again for a seven part animated story. Then RTD adds: “… it would be nice to round things off with a Special Project 3… I can promise, it’s worth waiting for!” I can’t but begin to wonder – has David Tennant really quit the role at all?!

Right now we don’t know what the special third project is, rumours of a big screen film adaptation aside. Whatever it is, though, we do now, effectively, have two Doctors running concurrently. Special projects one and two (the Sarah Jane Adventures and the animated stories) are designed to fill the gap of Doctor Who on our screens this year – they will air before Tennant’s official final scene, even if they weren’t recorded in that order. As for this third project – we just cannot say for now, it is likely that it too is designed to fill the gap before Matt Smith’s on-screen début as the eleventh Doctor.

No problem then. A bit of concurrent recording can’t possibly cause Matt Smith any problems. On the face of it, no. Except I can’t help but think if I were in Smith’s shoes I might be getting a bit concerned that the wildly popular chap I’m supposed to be replacing is still doing my job! Perhaps Matt Smith isn’t nearly as insecure as I might be – almost certainly not. Nonetheless, you don’t want your predecessor breathing down your neck when you are trying to make the role your own.

I am, undoubtedly, overplaying this rather – at least I hope I am! If those rumours of a major Doctor Who feature film turn out to be true and it isn’t Matt Smith on the big screen (especially if it is, instead, David Tennant) then perhaps I am not overplaying it at all. Any such film won’t be out until long into Smith’s tenure as the Doctor. The whole film theory is probably unlikely though, isn’t it..?

Before I leave you to your thoughts on this, I would like to point out that I am a great fan of what David Tennant has brought to the series. His has got to be the most popular Doctor since Tom Baker’s. David (breaking into first name terms even though I’ve never met him but it feels like I have) genuinely seems to be a great chap – a really down to earth guy who I think would fit in perfectly amongst my group of friends. He’d be great on the podcast! I don’t for a second think he’d ever do anything personally to undermine Matt Smith, quite the reverse. Nor do I think that Matt Smith isn’t capable of taking the role and making it his own, no matter what else might be happening elsewhere.

No, I didn’t want to see David Tennant leave the series but, now that he has, I am very keen to move on and welcome Matt Smith. Perhaps it isn’t Matt Smith that these David Tennant ‘Special Doctor Who Projects’ are undermining but my own sense of closure. I felt a tinge of sadness at the announcement that Tennant had filmed his last scene. Maybe I needed a bit of time to mourn, even. Now it almost feels like David Tennant is playing ‘cry wolf’. Will the big bad wolf of David Tennant truly leaving the role ever come?

Staggering Stories Podcast #49: Daleks Are Special, Too

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:32:14 +0000

Show summary: Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk (extensively!) about Doctor Who’s Daleks, dig up some Escape Pod Discs, get a 30 second recommendation, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
01:11 — Welcome!
01:37 – News:
02:03 — Torchwood: Children of Earth UK airdates.
03:16 — Sarah Jane Adventures: Nigel Havers and Brian Miller cast.
04:33 — Heroes: Bryan Fuller quits (again).
05:22 — Indiana Jones: more fifth film talk.
07:47 — Teen Wolf: a TV series is in development…
08:40 — Farrah Fawcett has died.
09:41 — New Doctor Who Roleplaying Game isn’t dead, after all.
11:15 — Tron: more new film details.
12:17 – Doctor Who: Daleks (in general).
42:57 – El Presidente.
44:23 – Benjamin Elliott’s 30 Second Recommendation: Legend.
46:02 – Escape Pod Discs:
46:28 — Lizaanne.
49:38 — Sarah M.
51:45 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
67:59 – Farewell for this podcast!
68:23 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

Doctor Who: The Invasion – thoughts and observations

Adam J Purcell — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:05:03 +0000

It was a brave move by 2|Entertain/BBC Worldwide to release this incomplete Patrick Troughton story on DVD. The problem they are facing is that only 6 of the 21 Patrick Troughton stories are complete in the archives, the other 15 are missing at least one episode. As I write this only two complete second Doctor stories are left to be released. Their solution to this big problem was to hire Cosgrove Hall (famous TV animators behind the likes of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula) to recreate the two missing episodes, with hopes to do the same to other such stories. Apparently The Invasion DVD didn’t sell that well, though, so plans for any more animated recreations are sadly on hold. Or are they? Rumours abound of the same being done for Power of the Daleks but that has zero surviving episodes, so I have my doubts.

Before I continue, I should say that I am writing this before we recorded Staggering Stories Podcast 48, where we discuss this story (or will!) This is, in part, my way of gathering my thoughts before we talk about it. It will also, I hope, expand upon that podcast slightly.

The obvious place to start is with the length of the story. The Invasion is eight 25 minute episodes long. The average (mode) is 4 episodes per Doctor Who story, so clearly this was twice as long as most stories. It doesn’t drag as badly as you may think but there is quite a gap before we see the alien villains of the piece, at the end of episode four. There’s a lot of messing around with our heroes gaining access to the human villain’s lair (more than once!) Fortunately some great characterisations keep it enjoyable.

It’s a Cyberman story, let’s not try to hide that fact. There aren’t in it very much and we certainly don’t get any kind of face off between them and the Doctor. Instead we find the familiar (particularly in later third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, stories) concept of a power mad human using an alien invasion force to personally rule the world! The obvious benefit of this is that you have the Doctor battling someone that can emote (snear, mainly!) In this case we are presented with the evil Tobias Vaughn, played brilliantly by Kevin Stoney. Vaughn is so perfectly archetypal that he wouldn’t look out of place in a James Bond film. He’s an electronics mogal, a bit like a less evil version of Alan Sugar, who has somehow (rather glossed over) made contact with the Cyberman fleet in deep space and ‘done a deal’. Vaughn gets a leg up on his competition with electronics technology donated by his allies and within five years has cornered the market.

You can see that Stoney is enjoying the part, especially on those many occasions where he says “Packer…” (during the commentary many of them, notably Nick Courtney and Fraser Hines, do their impressions of Stoney saying ‘Packer’!) Like most evil genius villains he doesn’t really get to leave his lair, at least not until the very end and I don’t think he makes it off the grounds! That’s a shame as it means he has little interaction with most of the cast. If this were the Pertwee years you could be sure that the Brigadier would get to storm into his office and then have to slope off after getting a warning from some top ranking politician under the villain’s thumb!

That brings us neatly onto Tobias Vaughn’s human associates. The most notable of these is, of course, Packer. A sadistic thug who has the brains of a turnip. At first I couldn’t figure out why Vaughn would want such an incompetent as his closest ally. Then I realised that his lack of intellect was exactly the point – such villains as Vaughn often make the mistake of trusting someone too ambitious, someone who will inevitably stab them in the back to take over themselves. Packer would never dream of doing anything like that – he knows he couldn’t replace Vaughn. Packer’s loyalty reminds me of a hunting dog, waiting patiently (for the most part) for his master to unleash him on some unfortunate little animal that he then enjoys tearing apart. In the end, though, Packer’s incompetence in capturing the Doctor indirectly leads to Vaughn’s downfall.

Other characters in Vaughn’s employ appear to be few and far between. He has at least two large complexes, one in the country and another, a skyscraper, in central London. Odd then that the only other employees we see are Packer’s security men (again in true Bond style) and a couple of scientist types. Are these buildings otherwise empty?!

I’ve mentioned the Pertwee era a few times already and that’s no coincidence. This is a prototype Pertwee story, plain and simple. The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) is first introduced and Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart makes his second appearance in the series, this time promoted to his famous rank of Brigadier. I haven’t seen ‘The Web of Fear’ (Lethbridge-Stewart’s first appearance) but by ‘The Invasion’ he seems to be the fully formed Brig who becomes a regular in the next season with Jon Pertwee – crappy stick on moustache and all!

The only other really important guest characters are Professor Watkins and his daughter Isobel. Watkins has been kidnapped by Vaughn because he had a device that might give Vaughn power over the Cybermen. Isobel is, effectively, a third companion – there mainly to give Zoe someone to get into trouble with while the Doctor pairs up with Jamie.

Let’s get into the nuts and bolts of it, though. This story is echoed by many later Cyberman stories. Let’s start with the brain washing. At first it is key people, government types it would seem. At the end of the story that is extended to the entire human population of Earth via a special circuit put into all of International Electromatics products (IE being Vaughn’s company). Very much like the earpods in the New Who, alternate Earth, Cyberman creation story ‘Rise of the Cybermen’. Then there are the sewers. This is more like a call back to ‘The Web of Fear’ where the Yeti were also roaming around under London (in that case in the London Underground metro system rather than sewers). Once they’ve had a taste for the London sewers the Cybermen can’t seem to get enough, though – in Colin Baker’s ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, full of historic Who references, the Cybermen travel back in time so they can frolic in the sewers once again!

Then we have some pretty blatant cast holidays. For an episode Zoe (and her story companion Isobel) are kidnapped and don’t appear in an episode. Then we have Jamie unexpectedly shot (just a flesh wound, we are told) and missing from the final episode as he recuperates. Zoe’s absence was so well written into the script that you hardly notice it is exactly one week she is gone for. Jamie’s is rather less well done – he’s shot. You’d think that would be a major plot point, something they’d play up for dramatic effect. They don’t – it goes hardly remarked, just enough to say he was only very lightly injured. At least in the final, pre-recorded location scenes, they did have the foresight to give Jamie a bandaged leg but I didn’t get the impression they’d really given it enough thought!
Another thing I thought was a little odd, poorly plotted even, was all that stuff in the first episode. Namely the IE colony and the general ‘1984′ air to it that disappear in subsequent episodes. International Electromatics go from being a sinister cult who controls a sizeable part of the country to a man in an office with some security thugs, albeit a sinister man in an office!

Another interesting but rather glossed over element is the partial cyber-conversion that some IE personnel have apparently undergone. The first evidence of this are the super strong workmen who are shifting the inert cybermen (in their boxes) around. Next was Vaughn’s laughing immunity to bullets. I can just about imagine Vaughn agreeing, even being eager, to be ‘upgraded’ – so long as his mind is left unaltered. He’d want the results – the physical superiority to match his intellectual superiority. I’m less convinced he would trust the Cybermen enough to let them actually carry out the, no doubt, extensive surgery. How could he have been sure he would have woken up without any alterations to his brain? Perhaps he had some kind of insurance, a hold over them stronger than their merely needing his company, IE. Sadly such details are glossed over, especially considering the story is over 3 hours long!

All these criticisms aside, it really is a good, fun story. Patrick Troughton is a great Doctor and his teaming up with Frazer Hines’s Jamie really did produce one of the best Doctor/companion pairings of the entire series. Wendy Padbury’s Zoe is by no means bad but she just can’t match the chemistry between Patrick and Frazer. There are a lot of really good performances and characters, as previously mentioned. That’s the real strength of this story – it’s not the slightly hackneyed plot and certainly not the deus ex machina resolution (would the Cybermen really be vulnerable to that?!). No, watch this story to enjoy the characters.

Staggering Stories Podcast #48: Our Segments Overrunneth

Staggering Stories Podcast — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:27:49 +0000

Show summary: Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Invasion, Ashes to Ashes, Primeval, dig up some Escape Pod Discs, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
00:40 — Welcome!
00:47 — Jean takes one for the country!
01:30 – News:
01:43 — Doctor Who: New animated series, featuring David Tennant.
02:50 — Primeval: Axed, to death!
05:03 — Torchwood: New Radio 4 play dates announced.
06:27 — Futurama: new 26 episode series.
07:07 — New ‘Bladerunner like’ web series, Purefold, from Ridley Scott.
08:23 — Hugo Weaving back for The Hobbit
08:51 — Liam Neeson for the A-Team?
10:07 — Total Recall remake writer announced.
11:52 — Michael Shanks to guest star in Sanctuary.
12:50 — David Carradine found dead in the closet.
14:22 — Dalek for sale.
15:22 — Doctor Who funeral for fan.
16:10 – Doctor Who: The Invasion.
40:15 – Escape Pod Discs: Real Keith.
44:09 – Ashes to Ashes.
58:39 – Primeval.
67:47 – Shameless Plugs:
67:51 — The Tin Dog Podcast.
68:26 — The Flashing Blade Podcast.
69:47 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
70:59 – Farewell for this podcast!
71:18 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

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Primeval is History – some post-mortem thoughts

Adam J Purcell — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:50:51 +0000

To minimal surprise, ITV has cancelled its early Saturday evening family action/adventure drama series Primeval. If you will indulge me, I’d like to just say a few things about this sad outcome.

The ITV Contender
Let’s not pretend otherwise, Primeval was ITV’s attempt to rival the BBC’s unexpectedly popular revival of Doctor Who (no doubt there are some that will now say they always expected New Who to be as massively popular as it now is but I certainly wasn’t amongst them and nor were the BBC suits in London (but let’s not get into that right now!)) As a series, Primeval never quite hit the heights of Doctor Who, not in terms of viewing figures, audience appreciation figures or the general saturation into popular culture. Of course Doctor Who had something of a head start, what with a dormant affection, in many of the older generations, for the original series and a rich history to plunder from. Primeval had to start from cold.

The Winning Formula
Children like dinosaurs! They also like Doctor Who and that’s got time travel. So, thought ITV, lets make a rival to Doctor Who with people who time travel to prehistoric Earth! Even better, extreme wildlife programmes, such as the BBC “Walking with…” series, are popular – lets make those time travellers modern day zoologists and animal conservationists! No, this isn’t Primeval I’m talking about but its immediate predecessor, Prehistoric Park. Borrowing heavily from the Jurassic Park idea of conserving otherwise extinct animals (mainly ‘dinosaurs’ to my untrained eyes) in a vast animal preserve. Real life naturalist and wildlife presenter, Nigel Marven, played himself as the head of the Prehistoric Park team and the whole thing was played as a ‘docu-fiction’. They even had David Jason narrating it. It was entertaining enough but, as it was supposed to come across as a documentary, they were limited in the dramatic licence they could take (even though they were jumping back through man made time portals and coaxing extinct wild animals back through them).

Clearly ITV decided they needed more drama, more adventure. The production company behind Prehistoric Park were contracted to take their CGI dinosaur expertise and make a true rival for Doctor Who. Prehistoric Park, with its time portals and dinosaurs coming through to modern day, was gone, instead we had Primeval, with its temporal anomalies and, er, dinosaurs coming through to modern day… On paper they sound quite similar and it is clear to see how they took the Prehistoric Park premise and retooled it for an action/adventure family drama. The park was gone and the man made time portals are replaced by (apparently) natural temporal anomalies. Nigel Marven’s leading role is replace by an evolutionary biologist character named Professor Nick Cutter (played by Douglas Henshall).

I won’t go into massive detail but the basic plot is that each week a temporal anomaly will appear in modern day England linking back to, usually, a prehistoric period. One or more ‘monsters’ will emerge and wreak havoc and Cutter and his team will be called in to clean the mess up (usually getting the animals back through the anomaly). It was very much ‘monster of the week’ fare. As the series went on we would begin to see future creatures come through (a chance for the CGI team to come up with something not based on fossil records) and a political intrigue storyline was layered underneath the familiar monster attack theme.

The format was beginning to feel a little tired, even with a rival ‘evil’ team and Professor Cutter’s ‘evil’ wife on the rampage. The producers slavishly stood by the monster of the week format, though augmenting it with these extra elements. Now I can’t claim to have seen every single episode but I have seen the majority of them. I have to wonder, though, if I was getting a little fed up with the formulaic nature of it, what were people who had seen every single episode thinking? Presumably those people would be its biggest fans and probably rather liked it how it was. The more casual viewer might not have minded either – after all they knew they could miss an episode or two but still tune in and know what to expect (the plot ‘arc’ wasn’t deep or all that necessary to follow (and, yes, the naming of the Anomaly Research Centre (ARC) cannot have been a coincidence!)) Millions of people tuned in every week and there are a lot of very vocal fans, so perhaps they weren’t wrong in their approach. I can’t say the series really grabbed me but maybe that is just me.

Drama bad…
Beyond the merits or otherwise of Primeval, what does its cancellation mean for genre TV? Clearly it isn’t good. Primeval was pulling in respectable numbers, not quite up there with Doctor Who but that isn’t a fair comparison. With a retooled format (and perhaps slightly more engaging characters – or is that just me, too?) it may have gotten Who levels of viewers and audience appreciation. I do rather doubt it, though – at least for the viewing figures side. ITV has been in a massive decline for some years, as has TV viewing in general. ITV consistently trails the BBC nowadays but it is not without its successes. I am, of course, talking about the likes of Britain’s Got Talent and other talent, reality and game shows. Popular and very cheap to produce. You can just imagine the ITV bean counters saying to one another – we can spend more on a drama series or spend less on a talent show and get higher ratings, let’s fill our schedules with talent shows! Thank goodness for the BBC, whose charter prevents such short sighted thinking.

Money Matters
It’s not just the success of their cheap programmes at ITV that has sealed the fate of Primeval. Obviously money is the important factor and CGI dinos don’t come cheap, even these days. ITV intends to cut £160m from it’s programming budget over the next three years and, in the past day or two, an ‘ITV spokesman’ has been widely quoted as saying “Our current focus is on post-watershed dramas,” although they are not ruling out commissioning or airing pre-watershed dramas entirely…

Talent shows and reality TV might be cheap and popular but where are the merchandise opportunities? People don’t (as far as I know!) buy DVDs of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ or ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get me Out of Here’. Action figures? Books? Computer games (actually quite possibly for talent shows!) Film rights (such as the proposed Hollywood adaptation of Primeval?) Look at the massive Doctor Who merchandise industry and imagine all that licensing money that must be coming into the BBC. Then add in overseas TV rights. According to Wikipedia (the font of all knowledge!) new Doctor Who has been sold to at least 42 countries. I cannot find such information for Primeval but I don’t doubt for a second that it has much higher international interest than, say, Britain’s Got Talent. Even the repeat (or ‘rerun’) value of a good drama like Primeval has got to be vastly superior to a talent show where the audience voted for contestants (but, clearly, cannot on a repeat). It does feel like a false economy to axe Primeval if they were looking beyond the very short term.

Going It Alone
I think we can be certain that Primeval’s intended stablemate, Demons, won’t be returning either. That really won’t surprise anybody, especially after Philip Glenister very publicly stated he wouldn’t return for a second season. How much did the failure of Demons affect the cancellation of Primeval? We can never be sure but if we look at Primeval sitting out there on its own in the ITV schedules and then turn the channel to BBC 1 and see what they are doing… Very quickly after the success of Doctor Who, the BBC announced they were going to create a new Robin Hood series, to take the same slot as Doctor Who but in the Autumn (as opposed to New Who’s Spring slot). Now BBC 1 also has Merlin in the same early Saturday evening family drama slot that Doctor Who created. When Doctor Who returns in 2010 the BBC will have such family, pre-watershed, drama on throughout the year (the quiet summer months aside and assuming both Robin Hood and Merlin continue). That’s a pretty solid line up that will keep people coming back week after week. ITV just didn’t have that. They tried but Demons destroyed that hope for them. Without the money to create a replacement for Demons there wasn’t really a sustainable place for Primeval, it just wasn’t making a big enough mark on its own.

Competition and Imagination
Whatever the cause of Primeval’s extinction (and the wider extermination of drama on ITV) it is a very sorry tale. Doctor Who has some indirect competition from Robin Hood and Merlin but is that enough? I think it is vitally important that ITV gives BBC 1 competition as well. Clearly that is not going to happen from now on, for a good few years, at least. Thank goodness for Doctor Who – if that hadn’t have come back in 2005 we would almost certainly be completely bereft of quality family drama now – as we were for so many years before. At least there is something out there to fire children’s imagination but our hopes for a multi-channel family drama renaissance have been destroyed.

Karen Gillan and Thoughts on the New Dr Who Companion

Adam J Purcell — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:32:27 +0000

I just want to quickly expand on those few thoughts we expressed in Podcast 47 on the subject of Karen Gillan’s new Doctor Who companion.

Name?
First, before an announcement leaks out to ruin everything, I want to quickly discuss this new character’s name, or lack thereof. We are in a rather unusual situation where we know the actor but not the character name. For the announcements of both Billie Piper and Freema Agyeman each were given their respective character names in the initial press release. Catherine Tate was, of course, a special case insomuch as she was originally a surprise guest star. That leaves Karen Gillan as the first modern day Who companion announced but not named! We’ve got to ask ourselves, why? What is Steven Moffat (the Vast Toffee (MN)) up to? Yes, it is a long time until we will see her onscreen but that’s no reason to withhold the name – it’s just a name, isn’t it? We knew the name ‘Rose Tyler’ similarly early but that too was just a name at that point. What could possibly be different this time? A famous person from history or otherwise a name that might give away something about her? A relative/descendant of a past character? If she retains her natural red hair does that mean she might be the love child of Vislor Turlough and Donna Noble?! Probably not…

Whatever the secret is (and there may not be one – just a new level of media management by the Vast Toffee) we are left referring to her only by the name Karen Gillan. As I suggested before the recording of the last podcast, we should speculate on what name she might be given. Pointless but fun! Here were our choices:

Grunhilda Knobnacker
Jaden
Blodwyn Puddephat
Dementia Nightterrors
Megan

Yes, my suggestion of Grunhilda Knobnacker might sound slightly ridiculous (and vaguely rude, in a Slartibartfast sort of way!) but, you may be surprised to learn, I have it on very good authority from someone close to the production team that the character’s name will, in fact, not be that! Yes, not be that. Actually that’s not true at all. I don’t really have any insider knowledge (or links to anyone with such knowledge), so we can all rejoice – it may yet be Grunhilda Knobnacker! Isn’t speculating fun!

Karen Who?
What about young Karen Gillan herself? Another name that we all said ‘who?’ to. It was Matt Smith all over again! Unlike with Matt Smith’s casting, this time there wasn’t too much speculation in the press. A few silly names were bandied around, most notably pop star Lily Allen (clearly influenced by the previous choice of Billie Piper – except that Billie had already moved into acting by that point (and was rather good at it, too!)). Despite the muted speculation, her name, like Matt’s, came out of left field. Certainly no one can claim stunt casting this time!

Now I must admit I’ve not really seen Karen Gillan in anything yet, a few short YouTube clips of The Kevin Bishop Show aside. But, of course, pretty much every Doctor Who fan has probably already seen her as a Soothsayer in last year’s The Fires of Pompeii. I haven’t rewatched it yet but from what I remember it wasn’t exactly a meaty role, so don’t expect to learn much about how she will play Grunhilda from that. Matt Smith was a little different for my initial ‘who?’ reaction (I heard the name some 20 minutes before it was officially announced on TV) but I did recognise his face when I saw it, though not his name. I had previously seen him in both the Sally Lockhart dramatisations.

There seems to be something of a tradition in New Who when it comes to casting companions. All of them (bar Billie Piper, for obvious reasons) have previously appeared in the series before becoming regular companions. By companions here I am only really referring to Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble and Grunhilda Knobnacker. As I said, Rose was a special case as there wasn’t any New Who before her. Donna Noble appeared as a special guest star before landing a regular role (so she still counts, in my book!) Freema and Karen both appeared with minor roles before getting the real gig the next season. I don’t imagine that is deliberate on the part of the corresponding Executive Producer, just an odd twist of fate. I’m sure there were many people interviewed for the roles of Martha and Grunhilda who haven’t previously appeared in Doctor Who (heck, maybe even Lily Allen was among them!) It does go to show the sort of background talent they get in even for minor roles.

Age
Some people (such as Jean in our latest podcast) have raised concerns about Karen Gillan’s age, namely is she too young? Clearly she is far from the youngest person ever to take the role as the Doctor’s companion. The wonderful website Den of Geek has put together a list of ten companions played by actors younger than Karen: http://www.denofgeek.com/television/260706/doctor_who_10_companions_younger_than_karen_gillan.html Far be it for me to just steal names off that list but here I go anyway! Dodo, Nyssa, Adric (of course!), Victoria, Zoe, Vicki, Jo Grant, Peri and Turlough. Being lazy I’m not inclined to look for more but, perhaps surprisingly, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan was actually a year or two older than the 21 year old Karen Gillan (despite playing a character that was still in school (although quite possibly hundreds of years old!))

Of course a lot of people don’t look at Karen’s age in isolation. If it was just her that was, to many of our now older eyes, ‘too young’ then fewer people would complain. It’s when she’s paired with the ‘youngest Doctor ever!’ that people seem to get nervous. Personally I think it is a good move for the Vast Toffee (Master of Nightmares), Steven Moffat, to (apparently) go back to the traditionally winning format of the Doctor and a younger (if only slightly here!) female companion. In future seasons, once Matt Smith IS the Doctor in everyone’s eyes, he can play around with the format. Older companions, alien companions, 51st century kind of companions and virtual companions could all be before us. For now, though, (much as I hate to use the phrase) let’s get back to basics. Matt Smith has one tough act to follow, so let’s not do anything ‘exotic’ straight off the bat. Of course, for all we know perhaps Karen Gillan’s character is rather less normal that she appears in those three official photos we have of her (and those, I presume, weren’t of the character but of Karen).

Chemistry
There have also been concerns raised, in part due to their relative young ages, that Matt and Karen’s characters may get ‘romantically involved’ in a similar way to the Doctor (particularly David Tennant’s) and Rose Tyler. It’s a fine line but I don’t really want to see anything quite so overt again, however I do think it is vital that they enjoy each others company. That’s doesn’t mean Matt Smith’s Doctor can’t be stand offish with strangers but I do think he needs to take an instant liking to Karen’s character (and vice versa). Let’s not have a repeat of Colin Baker’s early days with Peri where it looked like they hated each other (why did she stay with him?!) That sort of behaviour is the main reason, in my view, that Colin’s Doctor wasn’t greatly liked by the masses (though I don’t entirely agree with them!) Start lighter and go darker (as they have, to an extent, with David Tennant’s Doctor). We really don’t want to turn the audience off the Doctor because then they will simply stop watching. The biggest barrier to entry for audiences with a new Doctor is the chemistry between him and the companion. It worked with Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston and again with David Tennant. Her contribution to the success of them both, and the series in general, cannot be underestimated. I don’t think it worked so well with Freema Agyeman or Catherine Tate (at least at first). It didn’t matter in those cases because everyone had bought into Tennant as the Doctor already.

Hopes
So, where does all that rambling leave me? I am very hopeful about Karen Gillan, I think she really must be something special to get the part. I trust the Vast Toffee. I look forward to see Matt and Karen working together, I think it really could be something special. A duo to rival David Tennant and Billie Piper, I hope. Time will tell. Will my speculations about her being a traditional companion be correct? Of course by that I mean a New Who traditional companion – the days of two dimensional, screaming, exposition prompting companions are gone (I hope and trust). I still can’t quite shake the question – why the secrecy on her character name? Also, why no publicity shots with Karen and Matt together yet (probably nothing but a scheduling thing – I suspect her promo shots were done whilst Matt was off in Cannes). Perhaps closer to the time (when they actually get together, again, to start filming next month?) they will do a combined publicity shot, maybe even announcing her name at the same time. We will see…

Ashes to Ashes Thoughts and Speculations

Adam J Purcell — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:08:02 +0000

As I write this the final episode of Ashes to Ashes season 2 will air tomorrow evening. Like Alex Drake, time is running out for me – I must speculate now or it will forever be lost to the past.

Since recording the last podcast (on Monday the 1st of June, overlapping with Ashes to Ashes 2.7) I have now had a chance to see the penultimate episode of season 2. Or series 2, if you prefer, but that is even more confusing in the context of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes – during the podcast the phrase ‘the first series’ was used. Did we mean Life on Mars in general or just Ashes to Ashes season one?! We meant the latter in that case. But I’m drifting!

I was clearly very wrong on my assumption that the mysterious ‘young’ Martin Summers was actually the ‘time travelling’ middle aged Martin Summers who had, somehow, assumed a different appearance. Keith was very correct – there were two Martin Summers, the 2008 version and the ‘native’ 1982 version. Does that mean he cannot change his appearance? Probably. Does this put paid to my theory that Martin Summers is, in reality, Sam Tyler in disguise? Most probably but not certainly. Is Fake Keith’s £5 bet with me, that it is Gene Hunt in the hospital bed AND that Martin Summers is Sam Tyler, in danger? I think so!

Ever since the final episode of Ashes to Ashes season one, there has been a new wrinkle of doubt about the 1980s reality. Did Gene Hunt save the young Alex Price (or Drake, as we now know her) in the real 1981? Alex’s flash backs to the event, before she relived it in her coma, suggests he did. How is that possible? Is/was there a real Gene Hunt? Perhaps the 2008 Gene Hunt (who, assuming he’s 46 in 1982 (Glenister’s current age) would be about 72 in 2008) is in a coma along with Alex and Sam Tyler before her? Maybe but I don’t quite buy it. As for him being the man in the 2008 hospital bed that we saw in the first scene of Ashes to Ashes 2.1, no, I think the hints that he is Martin Summers are too strong for that. That would also displace Summers and, rather late in the game, raise the question as to what/where is he in reality.

As for Martin Summers – “The first man ever to live through a successful suicide attempt!” What does his killing of his younger self tell us? That just leads me back to thinking this 1982 world is a fiction, as we all (Alex included) originally thought. But if none of this is real, why is Summers going to so much trouble to put ‘Operation Rose’ into operation? Personally, I think it is a fiction. Somehow a shared fiction, a shared unconscious. But there are rules to it, nonetheless. A powerplay to break the reality? Summers claims to be able to leave 1982 anytime he wishes. Is he just staying for entertainment then? What’s the point? The only ‘real’ thing he can influence is Alex’s mind but when she wakes up I can’t see how any hold on her would persist into the real world. My speculation runs dry here. I can’t see Martin Summer’s motivation or goal. Operation Rose? Clearly he needs a lot of firepower and he couldn’t wield all that on his own. Looks like he’s planning a little war. Revenge against someone in power? A fantasy revenge he can play out but, at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything in reality.

So, Sam Tyler. Is he dead? I was absolutely convinced he was in that final episode of Life on Mars. I always read that as him committing suicide. I know others didn’t see it that way at the time but the writers confirmed that and the files Alex Drake had on him quite clearly say ‘Suicide’. So why the sudden doubt? For one thing, the rumours that a Life on Mars star (that isn’t already part of Ashes to Ashes!) will be turning up in Ashes to Ashes season two. The general assumption is that it would be Annie (who Sam Tyler apparently married in the 1970s years that were, in reality, his last seconds of life in 2006). But what would be the point of Annie turning up if that isn’t a pretext for Sam Tyler to return? Perhaps the whole ‘returning character’ thing was nothing but misdirection, there to make us think that Martin Summers is Sam Tyler? Possibly. We’ll find out tomorrow evening, I suppose. Still, I quite like the idea of Alex and Sam meeting up. Are those reports of a third and final Ashes to Ashes season true (that will wrap up BOTH Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes)? What of that old fashioned iPod, that we so closely associate with Sam Tyler, that appears alongside Martin Summers’ 2008 hospital bed? More misdirection? So small that only the real fan will see it – just the sort of people they would try to misdirect. I do think Sam Tyler is dead but I can’t help but like the idea that the fifth and final season of the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes saga might end with both Sam and Alex working together. It probably wouldn’t work, though – I’m not sure even Gene Hunt could cope with both of them!

So the big ending tomorrow? Obviously the ‘evil’ Martin Summers has to be dealt with. Death in 1982 means death in 2008? Probably. That will prompt some big reveal about the nature of 1982 which will push us into a slightly different direction for next season. Perhaps Alex will gain the ability to move between 1982 and 2008. That raises the question of why she would ever leave her daughter, Molly, for 1982 again, though…

Also, has anyone else noticed that the amount of the 1980s compared to real time has dropped dramatically recently? Since being shot and found, Alex has spent about 6 months in 1981/2. Suddenly she is found and the time between the ambulance arriving and them finishing the (presumably) several hour long surgery was only a matter of weeks (at most) in 1982. Let’s assume she was found within the ‘golden hour’, that was 6 months in the 1980s, for an hour in 2008. Then, for presumably several hours in 2008, she only lives through a few weeks in 1982. Most of that was before they took the bullet out, too, in case we think that is the cause. Adrenaline dropping? Does Martin Summers experience 1982 time at the same speed as Alex now does? I doubt they’ll ever talk about that in the series!

So, pretty light speculation in the end. I have more questions than theories. Let’s see what answers the final episode of Ashes to Ashes season two brings tomorrow!