Author Archives: Caleb Woodbridge

About Caleb Woodbridge

Caleb comes from the Death Zone on Gallifrey – sorry, North Wales. He became a fan in the wilderness years when the show was off the air through the repeats, novels and audios, and is also a big fan of the show since its return in 2005. He has had a number of short stories published, including The Shopping Trolleys of Doom, featuring the Seventh Doctor, in Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life, and Blessed are the Peacemakers, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah, in Short Trips: Indefinable Magic, both published by Big Finish. He is currently seeking publication for his first novel. He also writes A Journal of Impossible Things, a blog about fiction, fantasy and faith.

Torchwood Miracle Day – Spoiler-Free preview/review

By

Posted on

Caleb Woodbridge and Swithun Dobson look ahead to Torchwood: Miracle Day – we’ll have our commentary on episode 1, The New World, online immediately after UK broadcast. Don’t forget to check out our Children of Earth commentaries (Day 1, Day 5) and interview with Gareth David-Lloyd!

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:35 — 4.4MB)

Caleb’s spoiler-free review:

Miracle Day opens with Oswald Danes, a murderer and a paedophile, about to be executed by lethal injection. It’s a clear statement of intent: Toto, I don’t think we’re in Doctor Who any more. Like its immediate predecessor, Children of Earth, this series looks set to take a twisted sci-fi look at the dark side of our humanity…

Continue reading →

Science Fiction & Fantasy in Videogames Discussion

By and

Posted on

Mass Effect 2, one of Olivia's favourite video games

Caleb Woodbridge interviews Olivia Cottrell, resident gamer geek for Impossible Podcasts.

When is a Reaper not a time-wound sterilizing flying dinosaur thing? When it’s a synthetic/organic space ship, of course!

We discuss the many connections between science fiction, fantasy and video games, especially Olivia’s favourites from Bioshock such as Mass Effect. What’s the place of storytelling in video games today? Are they “art”, and does it matter? What does the future hold?

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:11 — 14.6MB)

What are your favourite games? Are sci-fi and fantasy especially suited to games? Are games now mainstream? Let us know your thoughts!

Tolkien Discussion: Fantasy, Wales, The Hobbit movie and more!

By

Posted on

Caleb Woodbridge and Olivia Cottrell are joined by fellow Tolkien-geeks Gwen Williams and Alex Zens to get the literary lowdown on all things Middle-Earth related.

We chat about why we love Tolkien, plus those things about his writing that perhaps aren’t quite so great. We also discuss Tolkien’s impact on the fantasy genre, his relationship with Wales, and what it’s like to study Tolkien at university. And to round it off, we talk about the upcoming Hobbit movie and what we liked and didn’t like about The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:54 — 27.3MB)

Mentioned in this podcast:

Let us know what you think about all things Tolkien-related in the comments!

Doctor Who – A Good Man Goes to War – Review

By

Posted on

Amy and Melody Pond

James Willetts reviews the mid-series finale, with a somewhat less positive take than that of this week’s commentary team. Who do you agree with? Let us know in the comments!

If the first half of the episode was all about building the Doctor to be an all-destroying Action Hero, crushing everything in his path, the second was all about drawing him back from that path.

I’ve written a couple of times this season about my unease at the way the Doctor seems to solve problems with battles, and I’m glad that it was addressed here. I recognise that there is an intrinsic problem in television in showing conflict-resolution which doesn’t involve stuff blowing up. The problem many people have with much of Star Trek is the endless diplomacy. No one wants to see the Doctor changing people through dialogue and mediation with no running around and shouting. That’s boring, even if it is a better, more realistic route.

Continue reading →

Doctor Who Commentary – 6.07 ‘A Good Man Goes to War’

By , and

Posted on

River Song’s identity is finally revealed as ‘A Good Man Goes To War’! The Doctor and the Last Centurion, otherwise known as Rory Williams, husband to a kidnapped wife, father to an abducted daughter, go chasing after Amy and Melody Pond.

Find out what we thought of the latest developments in the Moffat Master Plan in our commentary!

This edition’s commentators: Caleb, Peter, and Swithun.
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:18 — 33.5MB)

Doctor Who Commentary – 6.06 ‘The Almost People’

By , , and

Posted on

Join us as we discuss ‘The Almost People’s’ many twists and turns, as the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory attempt to escape the island and bring peace between humans and flesh, and face some startling discoveries of their own. We discuss everything from Roman Rory through to Moffat’s alleged sexism, and of course, that cliffhanger!

This edition’s commentators: Caleb, Peter, Swithun and Olivia.
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:23 — 53.8MB)

What did you think of ‘The Almost People’? Does the ongoing story have you enthralled, or has it distracted from the individual stories? Remember to read James’s review, and let us know what you think in the comments below!