Book Review: Doctor Who - Shada, by Gareth Roberts
Shada! Shaaaaaada! To be spoken in an inimitable whispering yet booming voice, the stuff of legend. I remember the Winter of Discontent mainly for school lessons taking place in some unorthodox locations, the bin bags being communally taken to a nearby car park, and moving house, with the vendors' ( Read more... )

On Saturday we travelled to Cardiff to meet up with my university friend Rhodri WINOLJ. Having checked the train times, we needed to make an early start. Due to engineering works the train diverted from Reading to Westbury, then up to Chippenham, back to Swindon, before on to Bristol, Newport and Cardiff - essentially doubling the travel time. In ( Read more... )

Book Review: Doctor Who - The Drosten's Curse, by A L Kennedy
One quirk of the work book sale is that most of the time there is an accompanying press release tucked inside the cover. The title for my post is attributed to a review in Starburst Magazine in the press release, for a previous, short story version of this tale ( Read more... )

I realised I hadn't written about Doctor Who since Deep Breath, so it's definitely time for an update.

( Timey-wimey-spoilery )

We watched Deep Breath on Saturday and I have just re-watched, so it's time for a write-up. My initial thoughts were "good, but not brilliant"; at a second viewing I am a little more positive. I liked the opening titles, but not so much the music.

( Possible Spoilers )

( The Day of the Doctor - Spoilers! )

I've seen a few things over the last few weeks commenting on low viewing figures for this half-season. This seems a shame to me, because on the whole I think there has been a good combination of new and more traditional stories. ( Does anyone worry about spoilers any more? )

The Proms programme was announced this week. uitlander and others may be interested to note that there's a Doctor Who prom (reprised in another concert the following morning); my advice is, book early if you want a seat, and turn up early if you want to stand.

My long-list:

• Prom 5 - Mahler 5
• Prom 9 - Stenhammar, Szymanowski and Strauss
• Prom 24 - British Light ( Read more... )

Book Review: Who's There? - The Life and Career of William Hartnell, by Jessica CarneyThis is a biography by Hartnell's granddaughter. Hartnell had quite a tough childhood, being brought up by a single parent at the start of the twentieth century, and could easily have slipped the wrong side of the law. Fortunately an intervention by Hugh Blaker ( Read more... )

When I booked my trains for Christmas it was the end of October. The tickets offered were more confusing than usual but without any explanation, and I ended up with tickets to travel with a 10-minute connection at Nuneaton; just as bizarrely, for the return leg the cheapest available fare was First Class Advance ( Read more... )