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