Lively Doctor Who podcast commentaries, plus reviews and discussions of science fiction and fantasy in books, TV, films and more!

Random Encounter #5 – Tropes Vs Me

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Is there a sexual sickness at the heart of geek culture? Olivia squares up against the latest controversy, and the gloves are coming off…

Recently I’ve been trying to write something on this Tropes vs Women in video games debate that’s being raging on the Internet. For those not in the know, Anita Sarkeesian, who runs a popular YouTube series called Tropes Versus Women, recently asked for funding to produce a series that looked specifically at video games. While Sarkeesian received the funding she needed (and then some), she also provoked a backlash of the most poisonous kind. Every aspect of her online presence – her YouTube channel, Facebook profile, Twitter account and her own website, to name but a few – was flooded with misogynistic comments, threats of death, sexual assault and violence. There were event attempts to have her YouTube channel shut down by flagging her videos as ‘terrorism’.


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Points of Who #7 – Caroline John, Series 7 and more

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Caroline John as Liz Shaw

Caroline John, 1940 – 2012

Welcome to our monthly round-up of Doctor Who news, views and rumours.

We reflect on the sad death of Caroline John and examine her role as Dr Liz Shaw, one of the most distinctive companions of the Classic Series. Was she dropped for being too strong a character, or did the show’s new Earth-bound format simply work against her?

We also look ahead to the debut of Series 7 and the return of the Daleks. Listen to our theories about what lies in store!

Plus, we make a couple of very exciting announcements about the future of the podcast, including your chance to take part!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:47 — 23.6MB)

Doctor Who Commentary – 5.09 ‘Cold Blood’

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Your intrepid hosts, Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell conclude their commentary on the return of the Silurians. Frankly, it could have done with a few dinosaurs…

As the humans and Silurians teeter on the brink of war, we discuss the thorny issue of gender politics in crisis situations, wonder why the new Silurians act more like Cybermen than reptiles, and ask why on earth Chris Chibnall decided to have a secondary character start narrating the action half way through the story.

And, of course, there’s that ending…

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:41 — 49.2MB)

Visual Memory #5 – ‘Discworld’

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In this month’s column, Christopher Bell revisits another comedy classic…

I’ll start with a quick question: What do Doctor Who, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Gavin & Stacy have in common (apart from the fact that they’re all well-known British TV shows)? The answer is that some of their stars (Jon Pertwee, Eric Idle and Rob Brydon) lent their voices to this point-and-click adventure based upon Terry Pratchett’s best-selling series of comic fantasy novels.

The game’s story is loosely based on two of the most popular books, Guards! Guards! and Moving Pictures, requiring players to fill the billowing robes of Unseen University’s most inept wizard (or should that be wizzard?), Rincewind, voiced by Eric Idle. A shady sect of hooded villains has managed to summon a dragon into the streets of Ankh-Morpork, and it’s running amok. The fate of the city now rests upon Rincewind’s shaky shoulders (because no-one else wanted to fry), forcing him to rely on his wits and sarcasm. Oh, and a piece of luggage with feet.

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Doctor Who Commentary – 5.08 ‘The Hungry Earth’

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There’s something amiss in the Welsh valleys (isn’t there always?) but fear not – your commentators Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell are here to talk you through it.

As Moffat redesigns his second classic monster of the series, we ask whether the new-look Silurians are really such a failure. There’s also a brief discussion of POV Monstervision, the logistics of running the world’s biggest deep-core drilling operation from a couple of laptops in a shed, and whether Chris Chibnall could have crammed any more Pertwee references into this story if he’d tried. All it’s missing is the Whomobile!

Now there’s an idea for the 50th anniversary…

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:13 — 46.9MB)

Doctor Who Commentary – 5.07 ‘Amy’s Choice’

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Join Swithun Dobson, Sarah Burrow and Caleb Woodbridge as Doctor Who goes all wibbly-wobbly, dreamy-weamy.

As the TARDIS crew are forced to choose between two competing realities, we ask why the show doesn’t do more of these “format breaker” episodes. Plus, we assess the emotional see-saw that is Amy’s love life, the dark side of the Doctor and re-examine the start of a phenomenon – Rory kicking the bucket.

Join us, for all this and more!

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