One of the things that becomes apparent when watching season 7 after the black and white years, is just how good the direction is. It is brilliant by classic ‘Doctor Who’ standards – the show has a real sense of pace and urgency, of dramatic tension, a mix of interesting shots and with great actionContinue reading “Season 7 – A change of direction”
Category Archives: Articles
Spray of Death – Robert Holmes and the writeness of ‘wrong’
Sylvia, will you check Mister McDermott’s entitlement on termination of employment, please? There is a shift that happens in the writing of Robert Holmes which starts with ‘Spearhead from Space’, but becomes really apparent in ‘Terror of the Autons’ – a mining of horrific, macabre concepts and dark set piece moments, but one that isContinue reading “Spray of Death – Robert Holmes and the writeness of ‘wrong’”
I come to praise Terry Nation, not to bury him…
I’ve heard it said that ‘Terry Nation was a lazy, hack writer who re-cycled the same ideas, a stale set of clichés.’. Fandom these days seems determined to denigrate his role in the development of the show and his capabilities as a writer. All of which I think is a stale, clichéd and lazy pieceContinue reading “I come to praise Terry Nation, not to bury him…”
Zoochosis, environmental enrichment and stereotypical behaviour patterns – Life in Exile part 1
These are, to say the least, interesting times to live through. I started writing this piece during the UK lockdown in Spring 2020 and as I finish the piece now, we are heading back that way, with parts of the country already under heightened restrictions. If you take away the uncertainty for the future, theContinue reading “Zoochosis, environmental enrichment and stereotypical behaviour patterns – Life in Exile part 1”
A Series 11 and 12 Retrospective
Now that a bit of time has passed, I thought I’d attempt an assessment, good and bad of the last two series of the show. It is just my personal view, it doesn’t claim to be objective, but I have at least tried to provide some balance. It is rather warily and wearily that IContinue reading “A Series 11 and 12 Retrospective”
The Stuff of Nightmares – Doctor Who and the Monsters
I’ve been pondering a question while writing my review of ‘Spare Parts’ – one of a series of reviews I’m about to write about the Cybermen – what is it that makes monsters work? The more I thought about it, the more complicated the question became. Not least because monsters prey on our fears andContinue reading “The Stuff of Nightmares – Doctor Who and the Monsters”
Do you believe in Magic?
For those with some arcane knowledge of 60’s West Coast pop, so sang John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful. ‘Doctor Who’ supposedly has an ‘indefinable magic’, but magic in the programme itself? Not for me. We all have our own pet hates and bugbears – this is one of mine. Inspired by the recent DWMContinue reading “Do you believe in Magic?”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland -a tribute to Deborah Watling
The following article was written in July 2017 just after I heard the news that Deborah Watling had died. This was my tribute to her. I am going to talk about a few specific scenes from 1960’s Doctor Who. It is to remember Deborah Watling and the companion she played – Victoria Waterfield. I haveContinue reading “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland -a tribute to Deborah Watling”
Never cruel or cowardly
A tribute to Terrance Dicks (first posted in the aftermath of his death in 2019) When I first met Terrance Dicks at a convention in the early 80’s, I was still a child really and I was meeting the man who had written the first book I ever bought. My first real encounter with himContinue reading “Never cruel or cowardly”
Douglas Adams and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things
‘I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.’ ‘Hundreds of people who’ve never written before send in ‘Dr. Who’ scripts. They may have good ideas, but what they fail to realise is that writing for TV is incredibly complicated. They have no idea how difficult it is and whatContinue reading “Douglas Adams and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”
A Journal of Impossible Things 