"You say it's your birthday..."
Doctor Who is sixty this week, and his encounter with The Star Beast is imminent. But unlike ten years ago, this year’s Doctor Who anniversary special is...
The Five Doctors
“Always onwards to the valley they thundered! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!” A version of this went out to paid subscribers months ago, but if there’s a day...
“The Tide is ‘Hai!’”
When Jodie Whittaker unexpectedly1 regenerated into David Tennant rather than Ncuti Gatwa in what is, at the time of writing, still the most recent Doctor...
“Doctor, Doctor…can’t you see I’m burning”
The Power of the Doctor features no fewer than eight actors playing the Doctor1 in new material. Even for a twenty first century series now rather keen on...
“A morning suit can be avoided by taking a route straight through what is known as…”
Shortly after The Dominators completed recording on the 7th June 1968, its co-authors, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln completed a deal with Walter Tuckwell...
“Remember, remember the fifth of November…”
On Bonfire Night 1966, against a background of Guy Fawkes parties and fireworks, the Troughton era of Doctor Who began. The road to this “renewal”, as the...
“It’s not really like me to lash out (Oh, oh, oh, oh) I gotta let it out.”
Episodes: Timelash Seen: 9th and 16th March 1985 On the 9th March 1985, HTV’s Robin of Sherwood returned to the ITV network for a second series. While the...
The Two Doctors
“Doctor, I’m in trouble... ” Seen: 16th / 23rd February and 2 March 1985. The Long Way Round In his introduction to the novelisation of The Two Doctors, its...
“Ooh, the second time is so much better, Baby..”
The brave new era of streaming is suffering some teething troubles. Recently several people on the late, unlamented Twitter were very exercised about the...
“My brain is scattered. You can be Alice, I'll be the Mad Hatter.”
I’ve alluded to the tall, felt hat worn by Patrick Troughton’s Doctor in a handful of Doctor Who episodes a couple of times in this newsletter already. I’m...
The Mark of the Rani
“My troubles are coming by threes and by twos, We’ll lay off tomorrow with the coal miner’s blues.” Seen: 2nd and 9th February 1985 The Doctor Who stories...
Vengeance on Varos
“She said ‘Viva Las Vengeance’…” Seen: 19th and 26th January 1985 The Long Way Round Writer Philip Martin approached the Doctor Who production office because...
“Toymaker, Toymaker, how do you know / Where all the pieces in your jigsaw puzzle go?”
This is an amended, edited and shortened version of a much longer essay sent to paid subscribers early this year. One which I’ve produced in response to some...
“‘Ha! Ha!’ said the Clone.”
The Sontarans are a clone species. Every fan knows that. But when did we find it out? When did the idea become textual?1 Well, on meeting Sarah Jane Smith in...
Season 18
"18 and life, you got it18 and life, you knowYour crime is time and it's18 and life to go." Season by Season Logopolis was the first of three 1980s Doctor...
“And if you go chasing robots..."
This is a full length and free to read version of a post written and sent to paid subscribers a while back. You may have read the first third back then,...
Season 8
“It’s the Master, step in time!” Season by Season Doctor Who got out of the 1960s more or less by accident. Once a top ten series watched by more than 10m...
"Better Living Through Chemistry"
For the best part of a couple of decades many Doctor Who fans regarded The Krotons (1969) as little more a punchline, and that was true for both the four...
Season 14
“Fourteen's all about being free.” Season by Season Back in the 1990s there was a running joke among Doctor Who fans that if asked in a social situation what...
“We're at the lost and found.”
The first time The Tomb of the Cybermen whizzed past on Twitch, a staggering five years ago now, it did so as one of around one hundred and twenty five...
