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

Coming Soon: Doctor Who ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ BFI Screening Report

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Tomorrow evening, the BFI is hosting a special preview screening of Let’s Kill Hitler, the first episode of the autumn run of Doctor Who. Tickets sold out within hours, but our esteemed editor Caleb Woodbridge managed to nab a seat…

That’s right, I’ll be reporting on the event tomorrow night! I rewatched A Good Man Goes to War today in preparation for the screening, and I can’t wait to find out what happens next. How will Amy and Rory react to the news that River Song is their daughter? Will they rescue Amy’s baby? Is the Doctor really going to kill Hitler?! And this time tomorrow, I’ll know the answers…

I’ll be tweeting on @ImpossiblePod from the event, so follow us now! I’ll bring you a spoiler-free review as soon as I can after the event – keep your eye on the blog. Steven Moffat and Karen Gillan will also be taking part in a Q and A after the episode, so I should have plenty to report…

Doctor Who will almost certainly be returning to our television screens on Saturday 27th August. The trailer for series 6b is on the BBC website, but here’s something from YouTube that might make you laugh…

Game of Thrones Review – Ep 9: ‘Baelor’

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War. Huh! What is it good for? Reviewer Kieran Mathers finds out, and wonders whether the show will deliver on all its promises. Be warned that there are mild spoilers ahead. And, for those of you not yet up to speed, check out our Game Of Thrones primer.

How to talk about this episode without ruining it? Not mention the end, I suppose. Fans of the book, you know what’s coming and they don’t change it one bit. Those of you who have not read ahead … well, you’ve got such a treat coming. It’s the one moment in this show that I wish I hadn’t known about in advance. It’s brilliant, and one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen from a major TV show. I don’t know if the popularity of this show will continue, but if it fails after the properly commissioned second series; well, at least they have their integrity. Bravo, everyone involved, bravo.

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Book Review – ‘A Dance with Dragons’ – George R.R. Martin

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The latest Game of Thrones sequel has been a long time coming. Can it maintain the momentum of George R.R. Martin’s winning streak? Our reviewer Kieran Mathers, no stranger to the kingdom of Westeros, finds out…

If you’ve not yet read Kieran’s reviews of the Game of Thrones TV series, you can start here. And come back tomorrow, for the latest instalment!

Numerically, this book is very impressive. It weighs 2.5kg and has over a thousand pages. It costs over £25. It is written from the perspective of eighteen characters. It took over six years to write and picks up plot lines over eleven years old. It features voyages of thousands of miles, a cast of hundreds of thousands, deaths by the thousand. It is the defining case when referring to modern epic literature.

And … I don’t think it’s actually that good.

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Torchwood Spoiler-free Preview – Miracle Day 6, ‘The Middle Men’

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Caleb Woodbridge previews ‘The Middle Men’, episode 6 of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Reeling from the the death of one of the team, can the rest of Torchwood escape to let the world know the truth about the overflow camps?

The end of ‘Categories of Life‘ left me desperate to see the next episode, and ‘The Middle Men’ doesn’t disappoint. The first half of the series felt quite episodic, with each week introducing situations and characters that are largely forgotten by the next episode, this is much more of a continuation of last week. It’s effectively the second half of a two-parter, dealing with the fallout from discovering that the modules are ovens for burning the “Category Ones”.
Not that it’s just more of the same: ‘The Middle Men’ begins by introducing us to Stuart Owens, played by Ghostbusters’ Ernie Hudson, giving us a face for the sinister PhiCorp, and to some mysterious goings-on in another part of the world. But as Jack investigates PhiCorp, many of his theories (and those of the audience) begin to unravel, subverting some of the clichés of the ‘evil corporation’ trope.
For the rest of the team, their mission is to escape the overflow camps. Some of the most harrowing scenes are those which depict the complicity of ordinary people, of doctors, nurses and officials, in the terrible scheme to burn the Category Ones. It makes it completely believable, as is Gwen’s disgust. She really gets to shine in this episode as she struggles to save her father.
Oswald Danes and Jilly Kitzinger aren’t in this week’s episode, but it’s strong enough that I didn’t actually notice their absence. Although the episode leaves you with just as many questions as answers, it now has a compelling seriousness of purpose – with a dark sense of humour and some explosions thrown in for good measure, of course. And the end of the episode indicates that some even harder choices are to come…Don’t forget to catch up on our audio commentaries on Torchwood: Miracle Day: episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Torchwood Commentary – Miracle Day 5, ‘Categories of Life’

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Caleb Woodbridge, P.G. Bell and our new American commentator Gwen Williams give our commentary on episode 5, ‘Categories of Life’. (check out our spoiler-free review!)

As the Torchwood team go undercover to uncover the shocking secrets of the overflow camps, has Miracle Day at last hit its stride? Is the shock ending a bold move or big mistake? We discuss disintegrating healthcare systems, British queuing and much more…

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Torchwood Review – Miracle Day 4, ‘Escape to L.A.’

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James Willetts continues his weekly analysis of the Marvel Universe Miracle Day. Don’t forget this week’s podcast commentary, available immediately after the UK broadcast, tomorrow evening!

When I was a student I discovered a series that I instantly fell in love with. It was a genre bending mash up of Raymond Chandler-esque gumshoe investigation and teen drama, in a fresh and vibrant school setting. The first two seasons involved an ongoing plot arc but the third, faced with cancellation and troubled budgeting, featured two shorter mini-arcs – an elegant mix between episode-of-the-week shenanigans and a more involved season arc which meant the producers had a chance to tell two final stories rather than one.

The reason I bring this up is because we’re now four episodes into Torchwood: Miracle Day and nothing has happened since the first ten minutes. Now, this may be the most meta of stories: a plot that shambles on long after it should have died may be a novel way to demonstrate the problems of a world in which death is no more, but somehow, I don’t think so.

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