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

Game of Thrones Review – 1.05: ‘The Wolf and the Lion’

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Swords are finally clashing in Game of Thrones and our reviewer Kieran Mathers is on hand to pick over the aftermath. As always, this review comes with a mild spoiler warning. If you’re new to Game of Thrones, don’t forget to check out our primer!

At last we get some meaty and considerable violence! Headless horses, charging knights, sweeping swords, battering shields and brother-on-brother duelling – this is combat at its most graphic, and all the stronger for it. The violence of G.R.R. Martin’s prose is not lessened, and is all the more horrifying to see. In fact, this episode is all about violence and its consequences. You also get noisy blowjobs, but hey, it’s HBO.

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Torchwood Commentary – Miracle Day 1 ‘The New World’

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Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) protects her baby daughter Anwen from the forces of darkness in Torchwood: Miracle Day

As Torchwood goes trans-Atlantic in Miracle Day, co-produced by Starz and BBC, we dissect the show that just won’t die! But has it maintained the quality of Children of Earth or returned to the depths of Cyberwoman?

Join Caleb Woodbridge, P.G. Bell and Swithun Dobson in our commentary on Episode 1, ‘The New World’, as we discuss John Barrowman’s “acting”, the dangers of immortality, dodgy Welsh geography, the talents of Michael Bay and much more!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:21 — 30.0MB)

What did you think of episode 1? Is Russell T Davies’ latest effort another classic, or has it yet to hit the mark? Is the American/Welsh combo a match made in heaven or a dog’s dinner? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forgot to read our spoiler-free review of The New World! 

Game of Thrones Review – 1.04: ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’

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Reviewer Kieran Mathers, who recently undertook an epic quest of his own when he relocated from Cardiff to Geneva (he now lives within sight of the CERN Large Hadron Collider and will be first into the black hole when things go wrong), returns to give us his assessment of the ongoing saga of Westeros. New to Game of Thrones? Check out our primer!

The opening credits in a Game of Thrones have confused me for a while. Putting geographical exposition within your credit sequence is a great idea, because it removes the need for Kurusawa-esque moments of map-based talking, complete with moving hands.

But what exactly is it about? It looks like a wargaming board, which makes sense when you consider the show’s title, but why is it coming to life using clockwork mechanisms? I know it looks good but it doesn’t make sense considering the level of technology we’ve seen in the show. Something simpler, like a stone chess board, might have been more in keeping with what we’ve already seen of Westeros.

Also, at the end of the sequence, the world curves the wrong way. When we arrive at Vaes Dothrak, city of the Horse Lords, we look back towards Westeros which is now higher in the horizon, curved above us. Does that mean this world is, in fact a Dyson Sphere?

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Torchwood Miracle Day – Spoiler-Free preview/review

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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!

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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…

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Science Fiction & Fantasy in Videogames Discussion

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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?

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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!

Interview: Tolkien and Wales – Dr Carl Phelpstead

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Caleb Woodbridge interviews Dr Carl Phelpstead, author of ‘Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity‘, recently published by the University of Wales Press.

Tolkien once wrote: ‘I love Wales – and especially the Welsh language’. In this episode, we discuss with Dr Phelpstead how Welsh influenced Tolkien’s ideas about language and his fiction, especially The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. We also discuss Tolkien’s place in the university today, and what the future might hold for the academic study of Tolkien.

Dr Phelpstead is a Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. His areas of research include Old Norse and Medieval English literature. Dr Phelpstead has published widely on Norse sagas and other medieval literature and has contributed to The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopaedia and Tolkien Studies.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:15 — 9.7MB)

Are you interested in the myths, legends and cultures that influenced Tolkien’s writing? What light do you think academic scholarship can shine on books like ‘The Lord of the Rings’? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments!