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

Torchwood Review – Miracle Day 6, ‘The Middle Men’

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Reviewer James Willetts weighs in on the latest episode of Torchwood. Has his patience finally paid off?

With a single episode Torchwood has sparked a resurgence, albeit one that may well have come too late for the casual viewer. After five weeks of lethargically plotted, unyieldingly slow story, we’re finally rewarded with three ongoing plot threads that are equally relevant and interesting. It’s hard to believe that this is the same series.

Whilst Rhys and Gwen try to break her father out of the Welsh concentration camp, Jack does some investigative work into PhiCorp and Rex and Esther set out to reveal the truth about the death of Dr Juarez.

Rex and Esther are both given a chance to shine here and, after five weeks in which neither have shown much in the way of engaging characterisation (Esther in particular having suffered from a bad case of the ‘Nobody Cares-ies’) it’s certainly refreshing to see them both engaging in some plot advancing escapades. Their story also benefits from a series of scenes which successfully build the tension as Rex digs himself deeper and deeper into trouble.

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Torchwood Commentary – Miracle Day 6, ‘The Middle Men’

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Caleb Woodbridge, P.G. Bell and Gwen Williams discuss Miracle Day episode 6, ‘The Middle Men’. (Check out our spoiler-free review!)

We discuss Shanghai geography, Chinese swearing, whether 45 storeys is enough to guarantee unconciousness, Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson’s turn as Stuart Owens, Jack Harkness as gay or omnisexual, Esther’s uselessness, Gwen’s awesomeness, and the amount of posing that goes into blowing stuff up! Plus much more…

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:07 — 30.5MB)

Doctor Who – Moffat Bingo! – Your Chance to Take Part

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It’s time to play Moffat Bingo! With Series 6b almost upon us, we’re finally making good on an old promise and compiling a list of the Moff’s most enduring tropes to see how many of them turn up in the new episodes. And we want YOU, faithful podcast fans, to help us!

Simply visit our Facebook page, post your suggestions on the wall and we’ll add the best (and funniest) to our patent-pending Moffat Bingo card, which will be posted here on the blog so you can play along at home. See how many tropes you can tick off per episode! (I feel a drinking game coming on…)

Here are a couple to start you off…

1. The Doctor adopts a new form of headgear

2. A Classic monster receives a controversial (and largely unnecessary) redesign

3. We meet a character who knows more about the Doctor’s future than the Doctor does

4. Alex Kingston regenerates into Julia Sawalha

Okay, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea!

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Doctor Who – ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ Spoiler-free Review

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Direct from the BFI screening, Caleb Woodbridge brings us his spoiler-free review of ‘Let’s Kill Hitler‘, the first episode of the autumn run of Doctor Who!

As the Doctor, Amy and Rory search for Melody Pond, they find the TARDIS hijacked! Arriving in Berlin, 1938, they discover they aren’t the only time-travellers present and that Hitler isn’t the worst war criminal on the loose…

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the BFI screening of Let’s Kill Hitler in the two hours before they sold out. The screen was packed with fans and press, who laughed and cheered and whooped in all the right places. Scattered around the room were various Doctor Who cast and crew, from Michael Pickwoad the producting designer, to writer Phil Ford, Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury and many others of the great and the good. And, of course, Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill – though sadly not Matt Smith, who is busy filming another series.

We’ll have more on the screening and Q&A soon, but now you can hear my first spoiler-free reactions to the episode! Hit play or click download to hear my review.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:24 — 5.9MB)

You can also read my 10 hints and teasers about Let’s Kill Hitler, and we’ll have our usual podcast commentary online after the show airs on BBC1!

Doctor Who Spoiler-free Teasers – ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’

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You can also listen to Caleb’s spoiler-free review of ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’!

10 Clues and Teaser about ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’:

1. Some time has passed since the end of A Good Man Goes to War.

2. The opening shot is similar to one in series 5, but not for long!

3. There may be someone new taking a trip in the TARDIS…

4. The Doctor’s fame has spread even further, but not everyone is as hostile as the Clerics.

5. We find out why the Titanic sank.

6. Alex Kingston steals some clothes. And most of the scenes she’s in.

7. Some familiar faces are glimpsed, and they don’t make the Doctor happy.

8. The Beano may have been the inspiration for one plot thread!

9. The Doctor’s death is a fixed point in time, apparently.

10. Remember, the Doctor lies. And so does Steven Moffat.

Torchwood Review – Miracle Day 5, ‘The Categories of Life’

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James Willetts is back to pick over the bones of the latest episode of Miracle Day. Warning: may contain traces of Buffy.

So that was it. Torchwood’s big twist was that there was no twist. The concentration camps are just concentration camps and Oswald Danes really isn’t a nice man after all. Yes. It’s not exactly The Sixth Sense. Hell, it’s not even The Village, but Torchwood should really be applauded for its enthusiastic willingness to play it straight.

The only problem is, no one seems to have told the show runners, who breathlessly announced that this was the point at which PhiCorp’s true intentions would be revealed. Except, as it turned out, they were the same intentions that were revealed last week.

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