Doctor Who

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TV WEEK (Australia) of May 25-31 2024 has the first Gatwa season of Doctor Who on Disney+ as the week's top streaming picks.
It is with the heading of "New Time" and the subtitle of "As He Takes Over The TARDIS, Ncuti Gatwa Heralds In A Fresh Era For The Sci Fi Series".
It presents pictures of Gatwa and Millie Gibson.
The article gives a brief history of Doctor Who and includes this quotes from Gatwa about his Doctor:
"He's very intelligent, he's got a purpose to fight for as well, he thinks about society as a whole and how to better it."
It also has a "Where Are They Now?" feature on Gatwa's NuWho predecessors Chris Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker and what they have done in their careers since last playing the Doctor.

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The Official Doctor Who Podcast: Space Babies and The Devil's Chord:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7oPQRSvMvc

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Millie's Set Tour - Behind the Scenes on The Devil's Chord:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTOK7T44iwg&t=2s

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44.3 Boom:
Written by former showrunner Steven Moffat, writing his first episode for the series since the Peter Capaldi swansong Twice Upon A Time which was also Moffat's own swansong as showrunner.
I was surprised on seeing Moffat and Julie Anne Robinson, the director of this episode, getting executive producers credits.
On reflection now I should not be surprised on Moffat getting such a credit due to him being a former showrunner plus it seems an American thing to do (due to Disney+) giving visiting contributors such a credit.
On the latter point, Robinson received an executive producer credit when she directed the pilot of Selfie starring Karen Gillan which was Robinson's only work on that series.
While this episode is called Boom written by former showrunner Moffat, current showrunner Russell T. Davies had written the similarly named Boom Town during RTD's previous stint as showrunner and is the episode that came straight after The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Moffat's official debut as a Doctor Who writer.
I didn't realise until afterwards that playing Mundy Flynn here was Varathu Sethu.
Sethu had been announced as a new companion alongside 15 and Ruby in the next season.
Sethu therefore makes her unexpected Doctor Who debut in this episode and is not the first person to make her debut in Doctor Who prior to playing a major Doctor Who character.
For this episode Moffat brings back elements from his previous work in Doctor Who.
This starts with military clerics and one of them John Francis Vater gets killed when he steps on a landmine.
The landmine comes from the Villengard weapons manufacturing company.
Villengard was first mentioned in The Doctor Dances also written by Moffat and this planet itself makes its appearance in Twice Upon A Time.
Despite Vater being killed off this early on, it was not the last we see of Vater as he then appears as a hologram.
Shortly after Vater's death, the Doctor and Ruby arrived on the planet and the Doctor accidentally steps on the landmine.
The focus of this episode from this point on is figuring on how to get the Doctor out of the landmine without him getting killed.
The Vater hologram plays its part in solving this problem plus having to deal with a menace that is the Villengard ambulance (not an ambulance the viewer would normally see).
Whilst on a landmine the Doctor says about doing things the long way around.
Moffat had previously wrote the long way around line for the Twelfth Doctor.
The Doctor also makes a quote about the moon and the President's wife. This is something Missy had said in The Magician's Apprentice also written by Moffat.
The military clerics came on the planet to fight an enemy known as the Kastorians and the Doctor figuring who the Kastorians are ultimately helps to get the Doctor out of the landmine.
Pretty thrilling episode that is about the Doctor getting out of that landmine.
I certainly didn't expect that Moffat spent much of his Doctor Who return with the Doctor literally stuck at one place.
The Doctor early on being stuck on the landmine soon realised that this is Ruby's first time on an alien planet.
I also didn't expect Ruby spending much of her time on her first planet on one part of it due to the Doctor on the landmine.
After the Doctor gets out of the landmine, Ruby only gets to view another part of the planet for two minutes before she and the Doctor leaves.
Before I got to see Boom I got wind that the Doctor makes reference here to fish fingers and custard which is his favourite.
Moffat of course established that the Eleventh Doctor likes fish fingers and custard which was invented by that Doctor himself.
I thought that 15 was going to eat fish custard himself but instead it was only a reference.
The subject of snow comes up in this episode and snow in connection with Ruby first came up in her debut The Church on Ruby Road.
Two episodes before Boom, snow was shown in Space Babies also directed by Robinson.
Curiously enough Boom ends with a sight of a snowflake!

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Supernature:

Episode 1:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9NXBPQ2fXM

Episode 2:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZi9BcWzMa0

Episode 3:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRf_PYYFIFo

Supernature is DWM's first Eleventh Doctor comic strip story in DWM 421-23 between 29 April and 24 June 2010.
Also featuring Amy, this story was released during 11 and Amy's first season together on television with 29 April coming two days before Flesh and Stone on May 1 and 24 June coming two days before the season finale The Big Bang.
Written by Jonathan Morris with art by Mike Collins.
Supernature has the Doctor and Amy arriving on a planet one that is inhabited by criminals.
Not only that but these criminals has gotten an infection which turns into creatures.
Unfortunately this infection has caught up to Amy.
The Doctor is therefore in desperation to solve this situation at hand especially in turning Amy back to normal.
Overall a fascinating premise of a story that marked 11 and Amy's DWM comic debut.
As the story wraps itself up I was certainly surprised the boldness that Morris had by displaying Amy in a certain state after reverting back to normal, the kind of boldness that would not have been allowed with my wife Karen as Amy on television.

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The Golden Ones

Episode 1:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=70BdCQUQiLY

Episode 2:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7OHsiC89Bs

Episode 3:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mm-nNAmdk

Episode 4:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR2VkIlkfC4


The Golden Ones is a comic strip story from DWM in issues 425-28 between August 19 and November 18 2010.
Featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy.
Written by Jonathan Morris with art by Martin Geraghty and David A. Roach.
This is a fan-made presentation of the story.
This story has the Doctor and Amy helping out UNIT Japan as Japan has children being addicted to a new drink and a TV show called Goruda.
The drink in question has the children turned telepathic and golden!
What is behind all this is an old enemy of the Doctor's, one that he and UNIT encountered once in the classic series but hasn't to this day on NuWho.
This truly developed a very enthralling story as the Doctor finds a way to combat this old enemy of his before The Golden Ones can engulf the whole of Japan.
Very good how the action and development unfolded up to its denouement.

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Boom - Behind the Scenes:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6zAd_nTLXY

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Short Trips: The Three Flames:
The Three Flames is the third episode of Vol. 12 of Big Finish's Short Trips.
Featuring the Twelfth Doctor and read by Dan Starkey (Strax).
Released in February 2023 and written by Sophie Iles.
The Three Flames is about a family of Tenaborgs who are fleeing from their dying world when they crash landed on a strange planet. Their only hope of survival is a stranger called the Doctor.
Intriguing story as the Doctor helped this family out and what a revelation the Doctor ultimately makes of this family from a historical standpoint.

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Imaginary Enemies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPrWXceD49w

Imaginary Enemies is a comic strip story in DWM #455 in December 2012.
A Doctorless story featuring Amy and Rory, their last comic story in DWM and this came three months after their TV swansong The Angels Take Manhattan in September.
Written by Scott Gray with art by Mike Collins.
This is a fan-made presentation of the story.
The story mostly takes place in the 1990s in Leadworth with Amelia and Rory as kids.
The nativity play is about to start when Amelia gets bullied by the play's star Veronica who just happens to be the mayor's spoiled daughter.
In the midst of all this comes the villain of the piece the Krampus that infamous monster at Christmas time.
Interesting how the problem of the Krampus gets dealt with especially with no Doctor around.
Overall a heartwarming Christmas tale especially what comes after the main plot is resolved.
At this point in time Amy and Rory had been in A Christmas Carol & The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, the 2010 and 2011 Christmas Specials but they had a minimal involvement in those specials with the latter being no more than a cameo.
Imaginary Enemies seems to rectify Amy and Rory's minimal involvement in those TV Christmas Specials as well as providing coda for them from The Angels Take Manhattan.

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The Official Doctor Who Podcast: Boom:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS6ZPI6K8fs

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Landmines and laughs on the set of BOOM!:
www.youtube.com/shorts/_AJ0ECdeRg4

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"Liberating!" What was Ncuti Gatwa's favourite scene to film in BOOM?:
www.youtube.com/shorts/DJwVW-9qPjc

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BOOM: From Script to Screen:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEXZtingExA

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The second episode of Icons Unearthed: The Lord of the Rings, Finding the Fellowship had an interview with Sylvester McCoy as he was up for Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings films but the character ultimately went to Ian Holm.
The narrator Graham McTavish points out that McCoy would later be in The Hobbit films which the programme would go into another time.
McTavish also says that McCoy had played the Doctor in Doctor Who and it showed a picture of McCoy as the Doctor with Cybermen around him and another of him with Bonnie Langford as Mel.
In this interview McCoy says that Jackson is a big Doctor Who fan.

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Leverage: Redemption 2.10 The Work Study Job is set at a university and had Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) presenting fake references from a Dr Tennant and a Dr Whittaker saying they are great mentors!
This episode came on January 4 2023, almost two and a half months after The Power of the Doctor on October 23 2022 in which at the end Jodie Whittaker regenerated into David Tennant.
In the scene that came just before the fake references of Dr Tennant and Dr Whittaker had Breanna finding and then sitting with physics student Emma (Erin Ruth Walker) under a tree.
Emma says that she chose to sit under the tree because that was how physics began.
Coincidentally almost 11 months later on December 2 2023 saw the said beginning of physics when Isaac Newton was at that fateful tree when he met the Doctor and Donna in Wild Blue Yonder.