Axos calling Earth ... Axos calling Earth ...

Hai!

The Master looks great, and the Axon is well detailed, and as you can see towers over the others! Only the Giant Robot compares in size with this (and if you have green spraypaint you have the bonus of a Krynoid too!!!)




Meanwhile, back in the 1960s two tribes go to war in Hammersmith!

I must admit I was mainly attracted to the above set by the Special Weapons Dalek, which really looks cool 'in the flesh' - it certainly makes the other Daleks look a bit 'basic' ... well at least until the 21st Century versions hit the screen!

And I do like the nifty backdrops that came with the sets, too!

It's always nice to find the old Target novelisations on second-hand bookshelves! Here's a collection of them that were in a stall in Great Yarmouth:

For some reason The Curse of Peladon seems a little unpopular?!!!

There seems to be a school of thought that suggests that the name of Brendon School was not named in the series until Turlough mentions it during Planet of Fire. This was propagated on the DVD release of the story, and then re-affirmed in the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#327).

Quite why this has gathered weight is beyond me; even though the school name isn't mentioned by a character during Mawdryn Undead, it is shown on screen, as you can see here!

It might not have been so obvious on the old VHS release, but the nice shiny DVD reveals all (grin).

Following up on my item a couple of weeks ago, Death of the Doctor has now broadcast, and perhaps inevitably fandom has gone into overload over the "507" comment. Russell knew this when he wrote it, something he acknowledges in an interview with SFX.

Of course, people seem to have missed what was actually said. Clyde asks how many times he can change his appearance, and the Doctor answers "507". Not how often can he regenerate - that word doesn't even crop out in the entire story! And we have two precedents for this in the classic series.

1. the obvious Romana regeneration scene in Destiny of the Daleks, where she tries on several bodies before settling on the one she wishes to 'wear', i.e. Princess Astra (indeed, she chooses this twice in the story!). There's no inference that changing appearance in this way has any detrimental effect on future regeneration.
2. the slightly less obvious scene in The Brain of Morbius when the Doctor and Morbius push each other back through their past. There are several faces attributed to the Doctor himself that we've never encountered before, but again this doesn't seem to affected the regeneration count either.

So maybe Time Lords are limited in regenerations but not quite so limited in their appearance after all.

But then again what would Doctor Who be without contradictions for us fans to argue over?!!

Spotted on BBC Breakfast this morning during an article about gadgets in our lives and could we do without them, taking place at Bournemouth University ... maybe the Doctor sees this as something worth investigating himself!

A fan of Simon Pegg's new book "Nerd Do Well"

Is this a case that - having seen the Daleks suped up with an extension on the back - the TARDIS too is having a revamp?

Fortunately not! This is an endeavour by Brighton & Hove City Council with Brighton & Hove Police and Surrey & Sussex Probation Trust to make improvements at an underground car park in response to concerns from local people about incidents that occur there.

It's been built from an old vending kiosk, and so looks a little "wider" to the usual appearance of the TARDIS!


If you want to deter crime in the neighbourhood, then what would be better than the return of the police box?!!!

So is this find a sign of the divine, or actually a sign for the Cult of Skaro?!!!

According to the finder, American Bill Johnson,  "I happened to look down there and I said, ‘That looks like Jesus. It just amazed me'."

Presumably when the Earth got stolen by the Daleks, they simply couldn't be arsed with North Carolina!!!!

(seen on io9)

Age has no fury ...

All this talk of regeneration, immortality, etc., but what of the Doctor's actual age? Our first encounter with the Doctor is when he's about 650 (in production documentation). On-screen, he tells Victoria on Telos that he's 450 years old in Earth terms, but reaches "several thousand years" by his third incarnation. Then it is a hop-scotch around the 749-759 mark for the fourth, whilst the sixth persona states he is 900 years, followed up by the seventh pointing out he's the same age as the Rani at 953.

Enter a modern Doctor, and he's back to 900, reaching 903 three series later (Voyage of the Damned). He's 906 by the time Wilfred is travelling with him, and the latest incarnation reflects on being 907.

Maybe the Doctor simply doesn't know. But, then again, time is relative ...

Thus says the second Doctor to Jamie in The War Games. Something that was seemingly lost in the mists of time since Robert Holmes deemed a distinct life-span for Time Lords with his plot requirements for the Master in The Deadly Assassin. Well, until now, that is.

People have harped on about the impending end of the Doctor with him having reached his eleventh persona. Just two more to go ... so we all expect them to get out of it somehow. Not too tricky, being back in The Five Doctors the Master is offered a whole new life-cycle - not to mention Borusa seeking the immortality that Rassilon seemingly has found (Stargate's ascension, anyone?). Then, the Time War came along and we hear of Time Lords being raised from the dead to fight (and presumably getting their "whole new life-cycle" too judging by the Master regenerating in Utopia!).

Still, where does this leave the Doctor? We know he fought in the Time War, and was pretty much the sole survivor (well, apart from a seemingly unending supply of Daleks and chameleon-arched wanderers to get around it). Do the rules of regeneration still apply? Back in The Tenth Planet/The Power of the Daleks we were told by the Doctor that the process goes hand-in-hand with the TARDIS, which itself used to draw its energy from the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey (TVM, well at least from Gary Russell's novelisation!). No more Gallifrey, and the TARDIS draws its energy from other sources, notably the Rift in Cardiff Bay (the Doctor will get a bit of a shock next time he goes there after the Hub blew up!). So, if the TARDIS gets its power elsewhere then can the Doctor do so too in order to regenerate? (point to note, in new Who all regenerations have been in the TARDIS, including the Master's!). And if the power needed is independent to Gallifrey then so too might be the old rules governing the ability to regenerate.

Along comes Death to the Doctor, and newspapers (notably the Guardian) have latched onto a line where the Doctor indicates he can change some 507 times - which whilst it gets the series out of the dilemma of what to do in two Doctors time, still doesn't make him immortal like the paper reckons: 'immortal' means you can't die, which is different to "living forever, barring accidents" that the second Doctor says!

So ner!

Tuesday evening saw the National Film Theatre play host to a special showing of the forthcoming Sarah Jane Adventures story featuring special guest stars Katy Manning and Matt Smith, Death of the Doctor. I won't spoil the story for people, but suffice it to say it was very enjoyable and a veritable nostalgia-fest for us oldies who remember Jo Grant from our childhood!

It was followed by a Q&A with Elisabeth Sladen and Katy Manning, plus script editor Gary Russell, SJA writer Joseph Lidster and branding manager Edward Russell. Plenty of discussion about the series, not to mention the influence of Russell T Davies. At the end of the panel both Katy and Lis paid tribute to Barry Letts, who was responsible for the creation of both of their characters alongside Terrance Dicks (and Robert Holmes - who wrote both their first stories, they forgot that!).

A sample of photos, there are some more on Facebook!


Katy Manning and Elisabeth Sladen pay tribute to the late, great Barry Letts