The Wedding of River Song

Hi Guys

With a day to go until the Series 6 finale, it's with an air of excitement that this time I get to watch it as it goes out, with everyone else, instead of my privileged position of getting a preview. This year, previews were limited to a London Screening, and no preview discs went out, so I know as much about it as anyone else.

It has to be said, it seems like there's an awful lot to pack into forty five minutes, with what amounts to two seasons' worth of questions needing answered before the Doctor disappears, sans the Ponds, for his Christmas Special and then outa here until Autumn 2012 - which may very well be the beginning of the 50th Anniversary Season! So tonnes to get through.

The Radio Times front cover shows us a Doctor with much longer hair than usual, and SFX talk about a return of an old look for the Doctor... talk in Outpost Skaro seems to suggest we're going to see the Doctor in his Day of the Moon beard (along with a toga!), so perhaps that's it? There's also the eyepatch look, sported by all the main cast, as well as the bad guys - and again, forum talk is suggesting maybe it's a way to see the Silence and remember them? There's also Rory looking all Special Forces and the return of Winston Churchill!

There's also talk of previous guest star Simon Callow making a return appearance, and whilst he's definitely in the episode, who he plays is still a mystery. Is this the return of Charles Dickens? There are also pterosaurs in the trailer, a Viking-type fella and a steam train going into a pyramid! Personally, my heads spinning with it, but I'll be glued to the screen to see how Steven Moffat manages to pull this all together. Unlike other "epics" - Journey's End springs to mind - there seems to be no extra minutes being added, so it looks like being a hectic three quarters of an hour.

Our friend Friendsofderek will most likely to the review for this episode, so I'm looking forward to read what he has to say about it. And remember, from straight after broadcast, you can tell us as well what you think, on the forum.

One final thing before I sign off for the weekend, folks, and that is you may have become aware of a couple of bogus blogs and twitter accounts claiming to be me. Well, they're not, and, apart from upsetting my kids, I'm not sure what the point is of them. So, if you come across them, and some of the stuff they're coming out with, please ignore them. You'll get me here, here and on Twitter both on @outpost_skaro and @ed_at_motherwel, but no where else. Sorry for the confusion, but there's little I can do about them, and the guy clearly has a problem with me, which is a shame. I'm not going to start a flame war with anyone. Life is way too short.

Anyway, have a great weekend, a fabulous Doctor Who Day and I'll be around bright and early next week with Spooks, Merlin and The Fades to bore you all with.

Happy times and Places

Ed

Goodbye, Confidential...

Hi there faithful readers,

Bit of a shame this but:

The BBC is to axe Doctor Who Confidential, the BBC3 spin-off from its sci-fi drama, as part of the corporation's ongoing cuts programme.Doctor Who Confidential, which features behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Doctor Who as well as interviews with the cast and crew, has aired in an early evening slot on BBC3 since 2005, when the corporation revived the main series with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Time Lord.However, with the corporation facing budget cuts of up to 20% across its output as part of its "Delivering Quality First" initiative, BBC controller Zai Bennett has chosen to axe the show at the end of its current series.Bennett is understood to be pursuing a strategy of focusing investment on original commissions in post-watershed time slots. Since taking over, he has decommissioned shows including Ideal, Hotter Than My Daughter, Coming of Age and long-running sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.Speaking last month at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Bennett said: "It's about focusing my budget on 9pm and 10.30pm; those are the time slots that count. Budgets are tight, so we have to be sensible with the money we have."Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, will unveil the corporation's cost-cutting strategy – the outcome of the DQF process – on 6 October. It is thought to include proposals to exploit greater "synergies" between BBC1 and BBC3, with the digital channel acting as a "nursery slope" for its terrestrial cousin. BBC3 will also fill a greater proportion of its 7pm to 9pm slots with repeats of BBC1 shows.A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "The Doctor Who spin-off series, Doctor Who Confidential, has been a great show for BBC3 over the years, but our priority now is to build on original British commissions, unique to the channel."

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ONLINE

We'd only just been talking about the change in the way DWC shows the programme in the latest of our Podcasts when we thought it was a bit strange that they had Lynda Baron as a guest star in Closing Time but she wasn't even mentioned in the DWC, considering her roles in previous Who stories Enlightenment and The Gunfighters. We felt then that it was becoming less of an all-round Doctor Who documentary, as it most definitely had been in Series One (after which it ditched talking heads from previous Doctors and concentrated more on a "making off") and more of a hybrid of what it used to be and the defunct Totally Doctor Who, aimed mostly at kids. That, I suppose, is the wrong audience for this type of show.

Still, it's a shame, especially with the Anniversary Series fast approaching. I'm sure there were lots they could have done.

Let us know what you think about the axing of DWC in our Forum.

Happy times and Places

Eddie

TWITTER

The Story So Far

Hello there Faithful Readers!

How are you all today? Good stuff. Cept you. Ah, never mind. Am I gettin to you yet? Am I gettin to you yet? Haha.

Anyway, enough of the oblique nonsense, I thought I was remind you guys that just because Doctor Who is coming to an end this weekend - and look how exciting THIS is! - Outpost Skaro doesn't end. We don't just fade away into the background, oh no, not us.

So I thought you might like to know what we have coming up this year? We have a tonne of great new shows to talk about - we have Fringe, for a start, starting it's new series really soon, and my old mate Friendsofderek has taken a liking to This Is Jinsy so expect coverage of that too. Add to that Supernatural, Medium, NCIS: LA, Castle and many, many more, then we have more than enough to keep us occupied until Christmas. Don't forget too we get to say our special farewell to the spectacular Elisabeth Sladen in the final episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures along with other BBC previewed shows like the scary The Fades, the thrilling Spooks and of course, the return of everyone's favourite wizard, Merlin. And finally, but by no means least, remember our continuing support and brilliant relationship with the geniuses behind Big Finish and our reviews of their amazing ranges - soon to include the Fourth Doctor, and friend of Skaro, our very own Tom Baker. Along with that we have competitions - the latest one is for our Australian chums - previews, reviews, the occasional spoiler and our very popular Podcasts where you can hear us wittering on about stuff, and, if you want, join us! Details in our forum.


And talking of that, our online community too continues to flourish. We have almost 5000 members now - if you're not one of them, please do come along, join and join in. It's free, it's fun, and it's YOURS! Anyone who thinks they may not be made welcome due to past problems, well, guys, forget about it, we all have, it's ancient history. You're more than welcome. No grudges held here, and we're sorry for our part in any problems. So please, feel free to drop by and say hello. Life is way too short and way too important for childish games. Unless it's Buckaroo. Love Buckaroo, me. And Kerplunk. It's been a real tonic, for me personally, to see how so many people can have minds of their own, can see that fandom is fabulous place and full of great people - with guys like our friends at Kasterborous and Blogtor Who where we are building up proper, friendly and respectable online community of friends and enthusiasts.

So, this week, this blog will have a run down of clues on the finale! I know, exciting, isn't it? Keep your eye out, and we'll give you the top ten definitive Need To Knows about The Wedding of River Song! I for one can't wait to see it! So please feel free to drop by, leave comments, ask questions... either here or here and I very much look forward to hearing from you.

So, until later in the week, when we'll all be done up in our finery for the Wedding of the Year.

Happy times and Places

Eddie McGuigan
The Truth
More of the Truth
Spoilers!

Mr Dork's Nonsense

Hello there Faithful Readers

You know, they say you've not made it till someone attacks you, and it's come to my attention that I'm being attacked! Eek, I hear you cry! Ee gads! And other such scary noises.

It seems a former employee of Outpost Skaro has written a nasty blog about me, and all the evil things I've done. This fella, sinister apparently, called Mr Dark (yeah, not really a name that, more of a, whatsitcalled, ah, that's it... not a name...), is going on about how evil I've been. Apparently it's evil to say I know people like David Tennant or Russell T Davies. It's evil to say I work on Doctor Who! It's evil to say things like that. Jeesh. Well, that's easy sorted. Let's repent. Have I spoken to David Tennant recently? Nope. I wouldn't know how to, except through his agent. What about Rusty? Nope, not a peep. Same thing really. Actually, that last one isn't true... I did get a nice rejection-for-an-interview reply because he was too busy. I'm sorry if this makes me Jack the Ripper.

See, what happened, in all honesty, was this. And, you know what, it's ancient history, so my apologies if it's not word perfect. Winding up some trolls on a forum a few years ago, things got a bit out of hand, a bit personal, so we pulled the horns in and decided it was all a bit silly and childish. My good friend, Lee Mansfield and I were attacked personally for saying things like, and you may have to sit down because it's so shocking "We know what happens in next week's Doctor Who!" I know! I'm such a bastard! Anyway, it all got silly, so we decided to grow up. Mr Dark, however, well, he didn't grow up. He did what he does, and set up some blogs, blogs slandering a bunch of "high profile fans" on what was then Outpost Gallifrey. Like the one he's now done for me (should I be honoured?), they were slanderous, hateful and basically makes him look like a bit of a lonely sociopath with few real friends, but at Outpost Skaro we really thought things had gone too far. We asked him to stop. Well, to be honest, we asked who he was. Cos, see, my names Eddie McGuigan - THIS is my google profile, and, yes, that's my big daft old face in a really bad hat. It says what I am and what I've done. It says where I've been - six months in Japan as a teenager learning karate and six months in LA as an adult in the 90s trying and failing to be a tv writer - but it's very me. Anyway, all the Admin on Outpost Skaro know each other properly - we're all on each other's Facebooks, for instance, we speak on the phone most weeks, text, do podcasts, and some of us meet up for a beer if we're local. So we asked Dark to tell us who he was. Curiously, he wouldn't. Turns out he was having an affair with a married forum member, so, to be honest, we didn't push it. But, well, it was a bit unnerving.

But when the blogs started to get more unhinged and abusive, and involved a lot more people from around fandom, we decided enough was enough. The former owner of Outpost Skaro basically sacked him. He then made an abusive post in the forum. That same former owner then banned him. Next thing, here he is on Blogger, networking and talking to himself and creating a myriad of blogs to get himself up the rankings so that it makes it look like I'm... well... what? To me, it makes me look a little bit like a big mouth - and to quote the Doctor, judging by the evidence I certainly have a gob - and have been doing a bit of name dropping. Sorry. My bad. To be honest, the more people got wound up, the more we wound them up, it was just a joke... but, in the end, it was this... ahem, *clears throat* - US TALKING ABOUT DOCTOR WHO AND WHETHER CERTAIN MONSTERS WERE COMING BACK OR NOT! That's what the conversations were about, that's what the arguments were. Honestly. That childish. Yeah, it got out of hand and yeah it got personal. It was also, wait for it, three years ago. At the same time that the admins of Skaro were trying to hold Mr Dark's blog-fetishes back I discovered that odd, unused "Profiles" of me were appearing all over the place - distasteful ones on dating sites and sex sites. It had Mr Dark written all over them. Nothing at all to do with me. But it seems this is all that's in his mind. Filth written in the (entirely innocent) comment pages of Angry Who Fan was authored by Dark too, about myself, AWF, other Who fans, other Skaro members... and that was the final straw.

The guy has been banned from every forum going. When he does return he usually lasts six months or so before being banned again. He actually has to pop up in other guises - his favourite being The Comedian. But, the thing is, that's ironic, because, it IS actually funny. If it wasn't for the fact that he's talking about my children, miscarriages, and alleging some kind of sexual deviancy I would have ignored it. Because whether I have a degree or not, or two, or where I live, or don't, or who I know, or don't, is all a bit pointless. I think thirty odd interviews and a myriad of verified reviews prove I'm not making anything up. But the irony here is that here I am - on my profile, in my forum, in this blog, on Twitter, being me, and if you get to know me better, you'll see my facebook too - just a normal bloke, no one special, and I'm being libelled by a man with no name and no face and no identity at all. My own, apparently, stops in 1992. Yeah, I'm on Friends Reunited folks and I didn't update it. I hear that's a hanging offence in Darkworld.

So, faithful friends, I'm sorry for the blog rant - it's my only words on this nonsense, so please indulge me. Mr Dark is someone who tried to be our friend and didn't know how to. When he became sick and abusive we got rid of him - that's a WE incidentally, the WHOLE OF Outpost Skaro - and he now sits alone, occasionally arguing with people in forums til he gets banned and occasionally rattling his blog and replying to himself with dummy ones. But in all that time, in all these years, when I'm here, my face, my town, my age, my job, all out there, all real, who is he? Where is he? Well, apart from Leeds. If it's SO important to him that everyone is open and honest (and incidentally, I'm so lilly white I have a Disclosure Scotland certificate and have carried it for the last ten years!), why is he hiding behind a shadowy profile picture, with no biog, no name, no personality? Surely, to expose someone, you should really be lilly white yourself? The whole thing smacks of "if I can't play with your toys, then I'm going to smash them". Jealousy and loneliness are terrible things aren't they? I feel a bit sorry it's ended up like that, cos he's clever enough to have been part of the reviews and interviews and all the great stuff that we do at Outpost Skaro, but instead sits in a blog on his own being rude about people from behind a mask.

But check me out. I have my own stalker! Isn't he soooo cute? He has a bad temper, bullies women, has no friends and won't even meet me face to face and everything! He's like a real one, only with no balls. Aw, diddums. What a wee cutie. Criticising someone for being an abusive fraud whilst being an abusive fraud. He's almost unbelievably not real. AND the big joke is that, most of the stuff, it's bollocks! He's either made it up or badly researched it! Can we put him in a wee box with airholes and give him bits of cheese? Can I put a wee coat on him? Aw look, he has shiny eyes and everything!!! It's almost, em, what's that word... Ironic!

Irony, eh? That's your friend.

Happy times and places

Ed (Who has never lived in Glasgow and has TWO children)
The TRUTH Is Out There
And here

River Songs Swansong

Hello faithful readers,

You know, River Song is a great character, one full of promise and finesse, but one, it seems, with a limited shelf life. Of course, she could go on forever, in a timey wimey way, and her popping up from now until Doomsday with a "shhh, spoiler!" line isn't impossible, but the actual linear narrative of her and the Doctor must come to and end, because it has a built in top, middle and bottom, unlike most relationships which, like Sarah Jane for instance, can be open ended for ever.

The River Song in Closing Time, for what it's worth, is pre-Silence In The Library. I know that might sound a bit like "well, EVERY River since then is pre-that", but by that I mean, literally, she's pre-everything, with the exception of Let's Kill Hitler. Her role in that episode too, will lead us to a few dead certs in a season of what ifs. When we see River on Saturday, we will categorically know that, in at least one scene, in the whole of the series, there have been two Doctors and two Rivers. Sometimes standing right next to each other.

The Silence is a religion, remember, not the big Scream-esque boogie men from Day of the Moon. It's the theme that's been running through two seasons and why the TARDIS blew up. Things have happened that we don't remember - because the characters seeing them don't remember. Our Scream-guys are tools for that job. So, like everything Steven Moffat writes, perspective is everything.

Time can be rewritten, we're told now - but, the question, surely, is which time? In Turn Left we saw a world without the Doctor, a world in which chaos ruled because he wasn't there. Now, if the Doctor, two hundred years older, is killed on the shores of Lake Silencio, we have to ask ourselves, where was he from? What was he doing? Was he visiting the shores of the Silver Devastation? Was he helping Craig Owens change nappies? Or was he, perhaps, doing something entirely different.

For Time to go back to the way it was - not one with dinosaurs and Dickens and Churchill and loop the loops - someone has to kill the best man she knows. And, by the end of Closing Time we'll know how she does that - but perhaps it's the Doctor's death that rights the wrongs done in his name - the big ball of mixed up wibbly wobbly Time Stuff that needs straightening out.

He has his stetson, he has his envelopes, he's travelling alone in the TARDIS... but two of someone in the same place at the same time - echoed in The Girl Who Waited - is a paradox even the TARDIS can't stand.

Even for a half-Time Lord.

And what of the Ponds? Shopping obliviously in Closing Time? Will the Doctor say hello? Will he put them in danger again? Or are they caught in a loop so important he can't. If they do talk, what do they say? And if they say anything, is it really important. For the girl who's tired of waiting, perhaps, she has to wait just a little while longer.

Suffice to say, Steven Moffat has forty five minutes to tie up two years worth of stuff, because, after The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor's off, sans Ponds, sans River, but still very, very much alive.

I wonder how?

Happy Times and Places

Ed
Spoilers

Did He Just Eat Jim The Fish?

Hello faithful readers,

This week, I had a jolly conversation with Derek and Andy from Outpost Skaro about not only next week's Closing Time but also the season finale The Wedding of River Song. In a bold move, however, we've introduced a new feature - Five Rounds Rapid - where I am thrown five questions submitted by Skaro users about Closing Time and our knowledge (or lack of) things to come! So we have five very specifically answered spoilers just waiting for y'all to hear!

The Podcast is available here - Did He Just Eat Jim The Fish? and also, shinily, on iTunes. Like everything else we provide, it's free! 

So check on the iTunes link here or download or just listen to the podcast here which will discuss brand new spoilers, questions from yourselves and also expand on the teasers here. All we ask is that you let us know what you think! It's all about your opinion, not ours!

Happy Times and Places

Ed
SPOILERS!

Outpost Skaro Podcasts

Hello there, Faithful Readers!

Tonight we're recording a very special podcast - it's a podcast where we'll answer YOUR questions on the up and coming episode of Doctor Who - Closing Time. Anything you want to know about it, we'll answer candidly and honestly. So, wanna know who's in the Spacesuit? Wanna know what the Ponds do in this episode? Wanna know Amy's latest job? Anything at all, we'll answer.

Now, we only have a limited time, and the questions are flooding in, so get yours in early, make it interesting and we'll try to get around to it.

Also, do you want to take part in our podcast? Outpost Skaro likes to have guests occasionally join us for a chat, so if you would like to be the one, let us know. To be fair, you're very likely to be privvy to a VERY spoilery conversation, most of which won't be broadcast, so perhaps this is a good way to find out what the hell is going on here! Haha

This is how you submit your questions and apply to be a guest. You go to Outpost Skaro and Private Message either myself (Eddie) or Friendsofderek. We'll be taking part in the podcast - along with Andy - tonight, GMT 10pm! So hurry, get your questions, apply to join or whatever - if you don't want to register for Skaro (and why not? Everyone is welcome, we have a total amnesty on any ancient nasties!) - then email us at outpostskaro@gmail.com your request. As long as you provide a proper name, and not some crazy username/alias we'll try and answer your question and try and get you into the podcast. All you need is Skype and a set of headphones.

So, I look forward to speaking to YOU tonight! Oh, what fun!

Happy Times and Places

Ed

Spooks - Series 10 - Episode One

Spooks Series 10

Episode One

Reviewed by Eddie McGuigan

Spooks is back again for what is being billed as it's final series. This makes sense actually, considering the aborted Spooks Code 9 spin off series takes place in 2012, and has a completely different set of characters, including no Sir Harry Pearce. Although, after speaking to former Spooks chief writer Ben Richards, SC9 has been "erased" from canon, so who knows what the future brings.

Series 10 begins with the fall out from series 9 - the Lucas North affair still resonating in the corridors of Whitehall and Sir Harry being hauled over the coals for giving away top secret information - albeit useless information - in exchange for the life of his erstwhile not-quite lover and Section D swiss army knife Ruth Evershed, as well as allowing Lucas to became section head when, in reality, he was a terrorist. All this is put on hold, however, when events further back in Harry's past emerge to haunt not only him, but Britain as a whole.

Britain it seems, straining at the seams of a relationship with the USA, are considering joining forces with Russia, and the face of Russia right now is an old adversary of Harry's cold war days - Sasha Cravik. Not only were these two opposite numbers, but Harry and his CIA colleague had managed to turn Craviks wife into an informer. Not only that, she and Sir Harry had an affair. So the whole deck of cards is threatening to come tumbling down around MI5, and the Home Secretary reinstates Harry to the Grid - a stay of execution, it seems, not a pardon.

Sir Harry finds the grid slightly different. Gone is Beth, thought to be too close to Lucas and South American drug lords, and in comes Calum Reed (Geoffrey Steatfield) as a high flying techie to augment Tariqs role. Running Section D in Harry's absense is Erin Watts (Lara Pulver) whom the Home Secretary insists is kept on to head up the section in the absence of Lucas.

So this episode really sets the ground rules for what looks like being a series of interlinking stories rather than the threat-of-the-week formula, something Spooks goes back and forward from.

So with Harry back in charge and his new team assembled, can he shake hands with the enemy, avoid the machinations of the CIA and avoid any personal involvement with Alice Krige's Elena Gravik? All this, and Ruth too... especially with Harry's cliffhanger revelation.

Spooks is hard not to like. By now, we know to suspend belief, 24-style, in the ways of this pseudo realistic M15. It's a programme not quite set in the real world, with made up Middle Eastern countries, and not one MI5 agent who is in anyway mentally able for the job, but it is engaging, intriguing, polished and classy. In fact, it takes itself a lot more seriously than the premise should really allow.

This first episode is as good as any other, although the revelation won't be hard to guess, and it looks like being another intriguing series, this time very Harry-centric, which is only fair, seeing as it's the last series and Peter Firth is the only remaining cast member.

Ruth's simmering indecision for him is always played well by Nicola Walker, of course, and it's nice to see someone of Alice Krige's standard pouting her way through another femme fatale, but the rest of the team really, for me, are a lot more vanilla than the likes of Tom, Adam and Lucas have been in the past, and new section head Erin is a little too pretty and cold for the job she's been tasked with. Calum, too, is no Malcolm, and as one of Spooks strengths is getting us to care enough about the characters to be shocked when they're put through the mental or physical mill, it might be a stretch in the final series to introduce newbies we just might not get time to care about.

It's good having Spooks back though, and it will be missed when it's gone. Peter Firth carries the command of Sir Harry Pearce with genuine class and ease, and the story looks intriguing enough - global yet personal enough - to hold our interest for its all-too-short six episodes. This series will be all about how it ends. According to SC9 it SHOULD end in a chemical attack that wipes out have of London and kills everyone in the Grid. I'm assured by Ben Richards it won't though. Sort of.

Some Finale Teasers

Hello faithful readers! Am I annoying you yet? I know I'm annoying some people. Anyway, here are fourteen teasers for the finale, from both Closing Time and The Wedding of River Song. I know! Squee.

1. I thought maybe he was a cowboy on his way to a gunfight.
2. Silence will fall when the question is asked.
3. We we always coming for you.
4. It's a story - and this is where it begins.
5. According to some accounts, it's the day the Doctor dies.
6. Doctor Song, how clever you are.
7. It's time.
8. Tick tock, goes the clock, and what now shall we play...
9. Hey, I'm the Doctor, I was here to help.
10. He seemed so happy, but so sad at the same time.
11. You never really escaped us, Melody Pond...
12. Tick tock, and all too soon, your love will surely die
13. Before I go, I'd like to know why I have to die?
14. All those times I've heard those words, I never realised it was my silence...

Happy times and places

Eddie McGuigan

Even MORE Spoilers

Closing Time - Teasers

Hello there, Faithful Reader

Quicker than I thought, this week, here are some Closing Time teasers!

1. I'm coping on my own
2. You've redecorated - I don't like it.
3. I may have drawn some arrows on the fridge.
4. Increased sulphur omissions... look at the state of this place!
5. Do they have off switches?
6. He calls himself Dark Lord Stormaggeddon
7. A farewell tour?
8. The robot dog! Not as much fun as I remember...
9. Someone's been using the beam-me-up-Star-Trek teleport.
10. Is partner better than Companion?

Happy times and places

Eddie McGuigan

The God Complex - Teaser Quotes

Hello faithful readers - here are some juicy quotes, hints and paraphrases from The God Complex. Oooh, I wonder they mean? Exciting, isn't it?

1. Resistance is... exhausting!
2. Right, you're doing it in your pants!
3. The Doctor, it seems, has a doctorate in medicine! And cheese.
4. Have you just done it again?
5. Amy Williams.
6. I'm not a hero.
7. Plonk themselves down on a planet and set themselves up as Gods.
8. You don't want to do this. You want it to end.
9. That's quite enough of that.
10. Because you showed me a picture of it once and said "I'd love that..."

Happy times and places

Eddie

TWITTER

SPOILERS!

Goodbye, The Ponds

Hello faithful readers,

When I was about six I remember watching an episode of Doctor Who called The Hand of Fear, and this was a pretty standard, although companion heavy episode about a malevolent alien who could control humans through the power of a special ring. In the end, it was a pretty easy fix for the Doctor, even though the whole of England was threatened with nuclear meltdown a couple of times and poor Sarah Jane was hypnotised and made to do a few pretty heinous things.

At the end of this episode though, my whole world turned upside down. Arbitrarily, and out of the blue, the Doctor made a decision on his companion, and, for one of the only times in the show's history, decided it was time for them to leave. Of course, he had a good reason (sort of), that he had been called to Gallifrey and that humans weren't allowed - but this really doesn't hold water, as before and since humans have been to Gallifrey, and it's never been mentioned since. Retro-fixing things, as us fans do, the new accepted "canon" is that the Doctor sort of knew what was in store for him on Gallifrey - a meeting with his best enemy - The Master - and that Sarah would not have been safe. With her own protests on how she had been treated recently still ringing in his ears, the Doctor sacrificed his relationship with his best friend and left her on Earth as he whizzed off, alone, in the TARDIS. The TARDIS appears in a suburban street, a normal road, and despatched Sarah Jane Smith, and her goodies, and the Doctor left.

More recently, the Doctor's need for a companion has seen him struggle with the dangerous he puts them in as opposed to the need to show off to someone. "Go home, Rose Tyler," he tells the love of his life, and he baulks against Donna and flatly refused to take Christina. In his knew regeneration he's been much more keen to show off again - his TARDIS has bulged more than ever before, whether it be Amy Pond, the Williams, River Song or even Canton III and he's not averse to going back looking for help from old friends.

But at what cost? The constant in his Eleventh Persona has been Amy Pond. Little Amelia, the girl who waited, sitting on a suitcase until she fell asleep in her garden, whisked away in her nighty the day before her wedding, and her whole life rewritten at least twice.And where do we start that as a mother Amy has had the most traumatic time of all companions - her whole self being a facsimile, her child stolen from her, her husband killed, more than once, wiped from her memory, and reinstated. All because of the Doctor, that raggedy man, and his need to show off.

During the encounter with Fenric, the seventh Doctor, Time's Champion, realised it was as dangerous to love him as it was to hate him - Fenric feared faith, feared the concept of unconditional love, and that love for the Doctor saw Ace, another companion who's life was so wrapped up in what and who the Doctor was it became a paradox of itself, actually having the ability to stop the Doctor saving everyone. Her very faith in him resolving the matter was the very thing stopping him.

Amy has that unconditional love for the Doctor. She has waited, more than once, for decades, for centuries for him. She knowns, without a doubt, he'll always come back. That he is a hero.

But at what cost? Is the Doctor being selfish? In Let's Kill Hitler he asks the TARDIS for an interface he can trust. It shows him Rose, Martha and Donna, all of whom the Doctor admits to having crushing guilt for - Rose, trapped with a half Doctor in another universe, Martha, her family tortured and enslaved, her own heart broken, now not a Doctor but a soldier and Donna, a shallow, mouthy wanderer when she is so, so much more. So the Doctor feels guilt for his past companions. But not for the Ponds?

The Ponds (Williams) time is coming. It surely must be. In The Girl Who Waited, Rory voices his concerns on how the Doctor changes people, how his seemingly charming and easy going nature gets people killed. Real people, in real situations. The fact Rory and Amy are still talking to the Doctor is a miracle. Death, rewritten histories, stolen children... and all for the TARDIS. "Offer a child a suitcase of sweets," the Doctor says... "Offer them the whole of Time and Space..." he then muses and the girl he's with, Rita, isn't daft - "Have you just done it again?" she asked.

The Ponds have been a great team for the Doctor. They have been patient, tolerant, brave and loyal. The Doctor, the hero, the man who always comes back, surely isn't that selfish? Surely the Ponds have been through enough? Perhaps for them to leave, it doesn't need alternate universes, temporal paradoxes or world destroying threats? Going with the themes of intimacy in series 6 - particularly 6b - perhaps all it needs for the Doctor and the Ponds to part company is for the Doctor to realise, like he did with Sarah, like he did with Christina, that, in the end, they're better without him?

The Doctor's middle name, he tells Amy, is Bad Penny - it gets some funny looks when he fills out forms - so he'll always turn up, so I don't think this is the end of the Ponds - indeed, now, with the Anniversary year approaching, it would be unrealistic to think we've seen the last of them - and, of course, Steven Moffat has been treating us with lots of loose ends being tied up, so the finale to Series 6 - including a Pond wedding again - would really suggest we haven't seen the end of them. But the Doctor, and the Ponds, in the TARDIS... those days aren't just numbered, but over.

I wonder who's next?

Happy Times and Places

Eddie

The God Complex - Teasers

Hello there, faithful readers!

Here are some The God Complex teasers...

1. The Doctor's room is number 11.. when he sees what's in it he says "Of course..."
2. There are many old monsters, check the walls!
3. Rory doesn't have a room.
4. Amy's room number is number 7...
5. Rory gets a present from the Doctor
6. The Doctor repeats a line from Tooth and Claw
7. He repeats a strategy from The Curse of Fenric
8. Oh, trailer for next week - "I work in a shop now.."
9. The Doctor really admires a cheese plant. And an apple.
10. The Weeping Angels are not for who you think they're for.

Happy Times and Places

Eddie McGuigan

SPOILERS

Torchwood: The Bloodline - Review

Hello there, Faithful Reader!

It's fair to say that this series of Torchwood took some time to dig in. The jarring from Cardiff to America, and the involvement of the CIA, particularly Rex Matheson, definitely took some time to get used to. Rex was brusque, unlikeable and unheroic, despite his grim expression and gritted teeth, and Esther Drummond was a bit wet and scared and pointless.

So, by episode ten, are they, actually, Torchwood? And if they are, are they heroes? 

Damn right they are.

By episode nine we know that the Blessing is something that connects Buenos Aires and Shanghai and it is something that needs, and calls for, Jack's blood. We have Torchwood split in two and in strategic places, helped randomly by an increasingly pointless Oswald Danes and hindered by an increasingly confused Jilly Kitzinger. Back at Langley, the closest we have to a HUB, John de Lancie - for whichever character John de Lancie plays it is, without a doubt, John de Lancie - barks orders out Picardlike and seems the stony faced, unmoving, granite chiselled Secret Service man of old. We also know, finally, that the Three Families, after seeing Jack in 1928, have used the knowledge of his immortality, given to him by Rose Tyler, to create and distribute the Miracle. Why? Is it to enhance the finances of the pharmaceutical giant Phicorp? To create a Messiah in the form of paedophillic murder Oswald Danes? Or, perhaps, something else? 

Well, actually, it's something else. But nothing too taxing.

Torchwood Team One and Two, now with the help, albeit knowingly of Langley thanks to Rex, eventually find there way to the hub of the matter - the reason both cities are important - and find a way to destroy the Miracle - and with the Miracle gone, everything, it seems, snaps back to normal, including the Category Ones now becoming, actually death. With one bullet, it seems, Gwen Cooper can bring death to the world. But at what cost? Who has to die to bring back death? And if Jack's blood is needed on both sides of the world at once, what do Esther and Rex do if they find themselves without it, and a gun at their head? Have, in fact, the families won?

You know, this is another episode which uses the words "The Doctor said," and it also uses the words, "Racnoss", "Silurian" and "Hibernation Matrix" and well as "a sympbiotic morphic field, fed on the blood of an Immortal." But when Gwen turns to Jack and says "You don't know, do you?" Jack has to smile back.

With Davies AND Espenson at the helm for this one, all neatly wrapped in a story by RTD, we know we're getting epic, we're getting emotions, we're getting sharp dialogue and we're getting twists. Desperately, I didn't want the soul sapping emptiness I was left with at the end of Children of Earth, I wanted it to be triumphant, to be magnificent, and I wanted a punch the air moment.

There are at least three of those in this episode, but not all of the Torchwood team survive. Even more are changed for ever. But this story is complete, with a neat segue into Torchwood Five, should it ever emerge, and the Doctor Who anniversary year, because, let's face it, it won't be the same without Gwen. Or whatever shape Torchwood takes.

John Barrowman is as good as he's ever been, here, and this is a sharply cut, brilliantly edited piece of heart thumping, air punching, adrenalin whooping actioner as you'll ever see. It is this best this new Torchwood will get, and, probably, insures it another series of this type. It's sad, of course, it has it's casualties, and it has at least two WTF??? Moments that will absolutely resonate back to the Doctor. 

As an experiment, it was patchy at times, and it changed gears too often and it was probably too long. Ten or thirteen mostly individual episodes (can we see the US order 22?) would be better, and, for what's left of the Torchwood team, and to add new faces, would be the best way to go.

Roll on the next time we see "that" man, who cannot die, and who's a bit pissed off about it.

Phew. Torchwood made it!

Happy Times and Place

Ed

SPOILERS

TWITTER or, even TWITTER 

New Reviews, News and Previews

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Finale!

Hello there, Faithful Readers!

Wow, the time has come, in America at least, for the last episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

I thought it might be a good idea to refresh people's memory of everything that's gone on in TWMD so far, so, if you haven't already done so

Click here for our Spoilery Review

Click here for our Survivors Roll Call

Click here for our spoilers!

Everything you need to know is HERE and HERE and, of course, let us know what YOU think HERE or here with comments CLICKETY CLICK.

Thanks for all the positivity and enthusiasm with your responses, and keep watching for more Who - based stuff! The finale of Series Six is just around the corner!

Happy Times and Places

Ed
Oooh... Spoilers

Torchwood - Miracle Day: Survivor Roll Call

Hello there, Faithful Readers. Irritating, isn't it?

Here is a list of the Lives and Not Lives in the finale of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

My dear, dear Jack, so much alive and yet so very much dead, the man with all to die for and nothing to live for, finds a way to do both, and his pain is seen through others eyes. Gwen Cooper, more concerned for her daughter and husband, and the horror that is falling on them, does the only thing she possibly can, and sacrifices her true self for the greater good. But so does Rex, as he watches Esther shot at point blank range, can either of them, blood splattered and alive, survive? Both die, unfortunately, and one at the hands of Charlotte, the CIA Family infiltrator, who does a good job at blowing up everyone else in the CIA, to the point where it's hard to know if the Blessing was enough to save even them. Poor Q. Love a Q.


And what of Kitzinger? Will her sins be forgiven as she scambles for the exit? The flames of the end of the Miracle engulf her, and there's nothing the others can do. And then, of course, there's Oswald Danes, a man so evil, so corrupt, so twisted surely, never, could salvation be found in those flames? And again, is it enough? Goodbye Oswald. Will we ever see you again.


And so Team Torchwood is set for America, but with people gone and others not there, whilst some are oh so, so alive, it looks like the next year, thanks to Jack, Gwen, Oswald, Esther and Rex's sacrifice is secure.

Well, you didn't think I'd just tell you, did you? Ssshhh... Spoilers!

Happy Times and Places

Ed
Oh, you should go here too...

The Girl Who Waited - Spoilers

Hello there Faithful Readers!

Here's some spoilers from The Girl Who Waited. 

1. I take you to a paradise planet and you want to update Twitter?
2. Time goes wibbly wobbly - I hate it when it does that!
3. What's the answer to not get us killed?
4. Ah. That'll be the small act of vandalism alarm.
5. Cage dancing Amy? Oh my.
6. Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Third time.
7. Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?
8. This isn't fair, you're turning me into you.
9. Glasses are cool.
10. I'm going to pull Time apart for you.

You'll enjoy this one, it's bloody brilliant - we review it HERE

Happy Times and Places

Ed

Night Terrors! Teaser Spoilers

Hello there, faithful reader!

Here are some Night Terror Spoilers for you to mull over! Enjoy!

1. Sontarans get a name check
2. Rory contemplates always getting killed
3. The Doctor, perhaps, gives a clue about the finale
4. Just this once, everybody lives. Well just this third time, I suppose
5. Vampires of Venice is referenced - second week on the trot
6. The self referencing hits overdrive with The Seven Keys of Doomsday. I know!
7. Do Daleks wear clothes? Or do they just all agree that the Emperor's are nice?
8. From raggedy Doctor to raggedy Amy. Brush your hair woman!
9. The psychic paper HURTS!
10. Spot the re-used locations from, amongst other places, The End of Time Part One (finale), The End of Time Part Two (Rose sequence) and The Christmas Invasion

Not the best episode of the year so far, but probably not the worst either. Although, if I'm honest, there hasn't really been a BAD one, just some bad acts... Act III of Curse of the Black Spot, for instance. Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Twice that's been used now. The Moff must like Star Trek Voyager. Aahhh... so he's the one!

See you on Monday for some big Torchwood: Miracle Day revelations, including the Survivors Roll. And I mean, "roll"!

Happy Times and Places

Ed