OK Kid, This Is Where It Get's Complicated

Transcript of the Back2theWhoture team livetweeting The Big Bang for inclusion in TTZ10

Flashing black to The Eleventh Hour throws everything left field. What's gonna happen?

Much kudos to the young girl who plays little Amy. Isn't she fantastic?

It's a shame Big Al had to pull out of tonights B2TW. Frances Ashman who plays Amy's therapist is his sister.

This episode is taking a very interesting turn, you never know what's going to happen next and it really drags you along

It's quite Ghost Light with the museum coming to life in Amelia's mind

The Pandorica is Opening again!

Seb wants to know why it opened so quickly this time compared to last episode

RT @SueDavies7of9 @TerribleZodin WD40 I expect.

So who expected THAT?!

Seb notes this is the bit on original broadcast where he just thought all bets are off, anything can happen!

RT @The_Arn @TerribleZodin And you know what's brilliant? It's a diversion from the main arc story. The universe being destroyed is only a side effect

BANG! Go Rory, excellent punch

Rory, the most human human

Is that Nick Briggs as the voice of museum guide?

And then Stone Daleks come to life! This story just twists and turns!

The internal logic of all the time shifts is hanging together well

A DEAD DOCTOR from 12 mins in the future!

Seb speculates future Doc said... "David Tennant wants his job back!"

Future Doc collapsing dead is very Time Travelers Wife (film version) down to the shot of him falling down stairs

Leslie squees for the Guidhall in Swansea!

That is some fearsome technology is a piece of git despite exploding can enact protocols to save people inside it

Swappable head. Now I'm getting images of River bonking Pertwee!

RT @Cloister_Belle @TerribleZodin On the Brigs desk in UNIT

@Cloister_Belle Big Bang 3?

BANG! Doctor exterminated! This is a really exciting story!

Rule One - The Doctor Lies!

TARDIS explodes, destroys universe. TARDIS explodes, saves universe. Moffat! *shakes fist* #barrowman!

We've all been sitting in stunned silence! What's gonna happen next?!

I wanna go to Space Florida!

Ok so hands up all the clever clogs who spotted it was a "future Doctor" in Flesh and Stone?

Ok now we're picking apart the narrative. How can the Doctor be there the night Amelia waited? Hard to condense argument in to 140 chars.

Gist - Doctor didn't return so how can he on the rewind?

All brides are sexy. Discuss.

RT @Sue_Stokes @TerribleZodin Dot Cotton on her wedding day to Jim??

I forgot to mention Aya is wearing a bow tie! #bowtiesarecool

Something Old. Something New. Something Borrowed. Something Blue. GENIUS!

Is that the Doctor dancing or Matt Smith dancing?

YAY! So what did we all think of The Big Bang?

So if the Doctor has been brought back as a figment of Amy's imagination, has he got 13 new lives? *cough* Brain of Morbius *cough*

Dammit, conversations about time travel get very confusing!

Ok we're taking a brief break for nibbles and then we're rewinding back to the Hartnell era for The Time Meddler

The great thing is Time Meddler is BRAND NEW to both Seb and Aya. Imagine!

Unfortunately we've checked TFL for last tube and we're gonna have to defer Time Meddler otherwise Aya won't be able to get home

Dissapointing but it means we've got Time Meddler to look forward to!

Thanks to all who joined us for the livetweeting tonight and hope you enjoyed.

RT @AyaVandenbussch Tonight I realised that Back2TheWhoture is what was missing in my life! I also now want to adapt @TerribleZodin as my Who family.

RT @bromley001 @TerribleZodin I know who River Song is. It's Alex Kingston.

You're Phoning The Time Vortex

Transcript of the Back2theWhoture team livetweeting The Pandorica Opens for inclusion in TTZ10

Shopping for nibbles for tonights B2TW. Considered big soda cups like young Amy at the museum! Jelly babies were a definite

The original B2TW team has reunited for first time in a year as Robert is over from Colombia and we'll be joined by @AyaVandenbussch

RT @AyaVandenbussch Going for a Who evening with The heart and soul of @TerribleZodin will be a perfect ending for this brilliant weekend of geeky glory!

Sadly Big Al has just called and has to drop out of tonight's B2TW :(

Ok well the B2TW gang are assembled, kettles on and we'll be live tweeting shortly on The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang then The Time Meddler

Ok children are you sitting comfortably?... #DoctorWho The Pandorica Opens. Go! #B2TW

From France 1890 - London 1941, we think sweeping epic is on the way

Very interesting use of past episodes to build suspense

"You're phoning the time vortex" Erm... what?

Seb thinks River Song looks like Moll Flanders ho ho!

If this is the 51st Century how old is Liz X?

Although technically 5145 is the FIFTY SECOND century

You gotta admit that River Song has style

EXPLODY TARDIS!

Longest pre-titles sequence every by the way.

Sorry, this story is zipping along so nicely, I'm forgetting to type!

So what do we think is inside the Pandorica?

RT @PatrickAureus @TerribleZodin Rose!

RT @ramble818 @TerribleZodin giant jack-in-a-box?

RT @unamccormack @TerribleZodin Can't be chocolate, someone would have had it open ages ago.

If River and the Doctor are both scanning how come they don't register there's a headless armless Cyberman wondering around?

I'm still sad we don't get to see the Chelonians on screen. Maybe next season?

Yay! It's Matt Kerr as Chief Roman! #PressGang

Matius Kerrix?

Great scene as River describes how the Romans must appear to Barbarians and Matt Kerr gets it!

Another great scene with the Doctor / Amy and the ring

So who do we all think is the mysterious Roman soldier?

RT @WhoBlogLiveFeed @TerribleZodin I have to admit, from the minute they said "you have a volunteer," somehow I knew it was Rory.

It DOES bother Aya that Amy's life doesn't make sense (She's not Amy's biggest fan)

Give the Cyber Arm the ring!

Is this one of the scariest Cyber scenes ever?

RT @ParrotKnight @TerribleZodin Yes, a very scary Cyberscene - brings back the body horror which brains-in-suits didn't quite manage!

Amy Pond almost gives the Cyberman head. #doctorblue

When are we gonna see Cyberman from our universe? (Not that they're any better as the Cybermen are naff)

RT @franzseabrook @TerribleZodin These *are* the Telosian cybermen, albeit not explicitly stated. Just no budget for a re-design in S5. Cyber ships a clue...

@franzseabrook Are they though? Don't they talk about the walls of universes breaking down?

RT @franzseabrook @TerribleZodin Yes, in the context of the TARDIS exploding. And the skull in the head suggest Telosian. And the Mazes game shows the tombs.

IT'S RORY!!!!!!!!!!

The Doctor / Rory reunited is a hoot, especially the blokey inability to talk about anything

Pandorica Easter Eggs? "The tastiest chocolate in the universe!"

The Doctor's speech is slightly undermined by the fact he sounds drunk!

I really really hate this DS9 wormhole rip off thunder bolts & lightening time vortex

Rory asks "Why am I here?". In the context of this story, does the explanation actually make sense?

SILENCE WILL FALL........ Who do we all think is the voice behind the silence?

RT @PatrickAureus @TerribleZodin Prisoner Zero. it sounds so much like him!

@PatrickAureus That's actually who I think it is too!

RT @Lokster71 @TerribleZodin It's the Great Intelligence

Leslie is guessing the Silence Voice is the pre-Hartnell Philip Hinchcliffe Doctor from The Brains of Morbius! #Canonwhatcanon?

"The burrrrn marks, see them?" Whoops, wrong episode!

Seb thinks Matt Kerr looks like Meat Loaf!

Ohhhhh The Pandorica is opening!!!

Daleks! *whispers* I know I'm in a minority but I don't think the iDaleks are so bad

Why are the Judoon in on this deal?

RT @ParrotKnight @TerribleZodin Presumably the Doctor's arrest is mandated by the Shadow Proclamation? He's not their favourite person post-Stolen Earth.

How many people thought Amy was really dead?

RT @flaysomewench @TerribleZodin I don't think anyone fell for that!

Oh look it's all the Doctor's greatest enemies! But where's Koquillion? The Steel Octopus? The Terrible Zodin?

@franzseabrook I think you're right because the Cyber Leader gave an 80s "excellent" hand gesture!

RT @franzseabrook @TerribleZodin Yes, I noticed that too. Very David Banks :)

Eeeep! Silence has fallen. And the whole universe has been destroyed.

RT @WhoBlogLiveFeed @TerribleZodin Or as we say on ihasatardis, "I accidentally the universe."

So what did we all think of The Pandorica Opens? And tweet us your theories on who River Song is

RT @datadivajf @TerribleZodin Amy and Rory's daughter - which makes Amy Doctor's mother-in-law.

Robert thinks this is and I quote "BEST. EPISODE. EVER!". Bear in mind he saw An Unearthly Child on original broadcast, so praise indeed!

Ohh Robert also came up with an interesting theory of who the voice is but it's so good I'm saving it for the article proper

Leslie and Seb think the episode is still as exciting on second viewing as first time

For those who've scurried back to their copies, did we see the book of Romans / Pandora's Box in The Eleventh Hour or Flesh and Stone?

Question - Is the episode any less satisfying knowing what's in the Pandorica?

RT @amarismoon @TerribleZodin No, that episode still freaked me out. I still get chills when the Doctor's talking about the "nameless" evil inside - only coming to find out he was unknowingly talking about himself. Terrifying. Bloody amazing.

We were all quite quiet whilst watching as we found the episode so absorbing.

Leslie didn't really like Rory first time round but in this episode found herself really invested in his return

Seb also wasn't keen on Rory joining the TARDIS crew at first, thinking it would be too Rose/Mickey but when he came back bang all bets off

Group unanimous in praise for Arthur Durvill's comic timing.

Aya was genuinely shocked when it was Rory who killed Amy

Again group is in agreement that we'd have really have liked The Pandorica Opens to have been the season finale and left us on cliffhanger

Seb thinks if Rory had stayed dead it would've been an interesting dynamic for Amy having nobody but the Doctor in her life, no anchor home

Also tell us which crap monster you would've most like to have seen turn up at the Pandorica? My vote is for the Mandrels!

Aya is drawing parrallels with the use of time travel in the show Misfits but none of the rest of us have seen it! Is it good?

We're all quite looking forward to a potential episode when the Doctor meets River for first time from HER point of view

RT @Jeffrey__Scott @TerribleZodin I was hoping to see the Ogri - as seen in Stones of Blood.

So if you're all sitting comfortably... Unpause, we're moving on to The Big Bang. Thanks for all your comments so far.

Try And Be All Nervous And Rubbish And A Bit Shaky

No review of A Christmas Carol here I'm afraid as I'm reviewing it for TTZ10 (Double digits! It looks so odd!)

Those of you who know me in real life will know that alas I was one of those poor unfortunates you saw on the news sleeping on the floor of Heathrow airport because I'd been stranded there by the snow storm and hadn't managed to catch my flight to Florida.

As a result my planned holiday was cut in half but my sister and I did eventually get out there, arriving just before midnight on Christmas Eve so the good news is we did spend Christmas itself with family.

If you've been following my Twitter (Ahem, TTZ's Twitter feed that is) you'll know I kept making jokes about how I was gonna be able to watch the Xmas special as I didn't know if my uncle had cable. On Christmas morn and after we'd had breakfast my 15 year old cousin Adriana switched on the TV. "How many channels you got?" I asked, subtly I thought. My sister however saw straight through it and got straight to the point: "He wants to know if you've got BBC America".

She didn't think she did but carried out a channel search and actually yes they did. She went to it and up popped Nine and Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead. My sister signed at the inevitability of this turning in to another Doctor Who Christmas.

Adriana has never seen Doctor Who before but has heard me talk about it often so she left it on for a few minutes to see what it was about. I voiced the opinion that it was great she'd found the channel but I didn't want to interupt what she was doing but she shushed me because she was already intruiged by the seance. Although it was not my plan at all and surprising though it may seem I wasn't actually up for watching old Doctor Who as my brain was still mushed from jet lag, we ended up taking in The Girl in the Fireplace and The Shakespeare Code. Quite unintentioanlly I've converted my cousin and she asked a million questions afterwards - "Have they even gone back to see the dinosaurs?", "Are there any World War 2 episodes?", "How come he changed his face?"

That evening I sat down to watch A Christmas Carol LIVE! (I mean "as broadcast" of course) on BBC America. I think it's pretty amazing that it was shown a mere few hours after the UK and is a resounding testament to the success of Doctor Who in the States. My sister and Adriana both watched it with me. Unfortunately jet lag was really taking its toll and both Liz and I found it hard to concentrate and whilst I did enjoy the story I did not enjoy the fact that the commercial breaks made it even longer. It was weird full stop having commercials and they are one of my many bugbears and one of the reasons I don't really watch ITV. Although of course the bigger reason for not watching ITV is they've got absolutely bloody nothing on. When was the last time they ever did a decent drama? (Primeval doesn't count). I'm a life long fan of The Bill but I had to stop watching c. 2004 once it turned in to an unrecognisable and ridiculously overblown soap.

I don't know if it was cuz of the holidays or because I was in a different time zone but I was getting way more replies to my #DoctorWho tweets over the week I spent in Florida and really got some interesting conversations going with people.

I love chatting about this show!

The one regret was not having the time to meet Lillibet from Professor Dave's Ark in Space Podcast but maybe this summer if she comes over as planned. Actually I'm really looking forward to the next Flashing Blade get together. At the Winter Warmer one of the guys I met called Marcus did tell me about the regular Tavern meets and I'm tempted to go along. Probably won't be able to get to one till March at the earliest though.

So yeah that was my Doctor Who Christmas. I've not rewatched the episode yet but it does deserve it. I'll need to anyway to review it! Nope, I'm waiting till my Dad comes over from Colombia next week to watch it with him.

I didn't make one "jump the shark" joke either in this entry. Go me!

I Can Decide What Happens to Spike & Lynda!

That Was The Who That Was!

A round up of the Doctor Who that I have been watching, reading, listening to etc etc!

The King's Dragon

This was my first Eleventh Doctor novel. I will freely admit that chosing it as the first was determined by the fact that Leslie has secured an interview with author Una McCormack for TTZ9 but I do also own one of her Deep Space Nine novels (My second fave show after Who) which I've not finished yet but have enjoyed what I read.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Eleventh Doctor in print. Like the Second Doctor so much of his performance is the physical; the shifting eyebrows, the baby giraffe gait, the hands all over the place. However McCormack captures it perfectly as there is the constant sense that not only does her Doctor sound right he moved right, an impressive feat given we're talking about prose. Also well captured are companions Amy Pond (With insight in to her insecurities and abandonment issues from childhood) and Rory (who is also quite a physical character).

The story is simple but not simplistic and echoes the fairytale feel of the Moffat season as we have a storybook town with a castle made of gold and natives in the sort of timeless psuedo medieval garb that they seem to have in such stories. Oh and there's a dragon of course!

I read the book almost in one sitting on a Saturday where very unusually I was working. The reason for that was to do with the beaurocracy of my job so I couldn't help but raise a wry smile at the scenes towards the end of the book where the Doctor leaves the fairytale world below and has to deal with space beaurocrats. Amy makes sure to steal a space pen for Rory.

All in all a great start for my experience of the Eleventh Doctor in print. Whilst I was a bit concerned that the size of the books have grown but the amount of pages seems to have shrunk, implying they're being aimed at an even younger audience still, as with the best children's novels they don't patronise and are thus rewarding for us tie wearing accountants who also wish for a space pen.

State of Decay

Wibbly Stoopid Timey Saywhatnow?!

Phantasmagoria

Leslie and I are very very very slowly working our way through Big Finish's back catalogue. This is only the second release so you can see how slowly!

The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are an interesting combination, they work so much better when the squabblesome Tegan isn't around. I also think that Turlough is a very interesting character who could have been used to greater effect in the series.

This seemed to me very influenced by Blackadder the Third, especially the episode Amy and Amiability. The setting was interesting though and the late Jacobean period isn't one that's been too often visited in Doctor Who.

I personally don't rate David Walliams much as an actor so his voice irritated me throughout as he played a cowardly gentleman but the rest of supporting cast were interesting enough to hold the interest. Peter Davison does sound a lot older than his onscreen incarnation but that's fine, his presence is greater and more Doctorish. I certainly imaged him as the Fifth Doctor from Time Crash rather than from Resurrection of the Daleks.

Conundrum

When the first of the recent tube strike occured I had to plan a route to work that took me southwesterly to Balham and then back north to Shepherd's Bush via national rail, rather than my usual route of north to Canada Wate and then west to White City on the underground. I rather naively thought I'd have time to read and so asked the Twittersphere to recommend two good Who novels for me to take on the commute. Jon Arnold of Shooty Dog Thing was first in with Conundrum and Managra.

Conundrum was always one of my favourite NAs. I first read it on holiday in Portugal six months after it first came out. Although I wasn't planning to I enjoyed rereading it so much that I ended up writing about it for TTZ8 in the New Adventures recommendation article in addition to The Highest Science and The Also People.

The colourful cast of characters is deliberate of course; the local white witch, the kid adventurers, the private dick, the comic book superhero... This is a Doctor Who story that can only work in print and is a worthy successor to The Mind Robber. See my review in TTZ8 for more on that but there's so much else from the scene where Ace gets attacked by flying copies of New Adventure novels to the Doctor playing scrabble in impossible ways, this is just a great book and despite being part of an arc, I think you can read it as a standalone.

Managra

I've not read this book since it first came out and I don't think I was the right age at the time (14) to fully appreciate it. Early this year I read Decalog 5 and enjoyed the two Stephen Marley short stories so was looking forward to rereading this and seeing whether I was not better able to get it, my 14 year old self having labelled the story boring.

Well yes is the short answer, I did enjoy this. The sheer imagination and attention to detail in creating 33rd Century Europa was amazing. I also have a better understanding of history and so could appreciate more the various historical "reprises" like Byron and Casanova, though I'm sure that there are many many more references that went over my head.

My only criticisms of the book are the rushed seeming ending but more importantly the character of the Doctor. He just doesn't sound like Tom Baker, even allowing that in his earlier years like Season 13 (This novel is set between Planet of Evil and Pyramids of Mars) he is a lot more moody and alien, the Doctor in Managra has the odd flash of humour but on the whole is very secretive and overly verbose. The rhythm just seems wrong and I couldn't hear Baker's fruity voice at all.

Given that criticism I would still nonetheless recommend this book, Europa ia a world I'd like to revisit.

As an aside, was it ever mentioned in the TV series that Sarah Jane's parents died or was that an invention of the novels? If the latter is the case then it's been canonised by The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Black Orchid

This was my first time seeing this and I always love watching a "new" Classic Who. This story is short and sweet but more importantly, it's fun! What comes across very strongly is how much potential this TARDIS crew had, which was squandered by endless scenes of them arguing all the live long day. Here they're all relaxed and all getting on with each other and having a whale of a time travelling. Tegan actually laughs and smiles throughout this! Sure Adric does whine but not in an annoying way and Sarah Sutton clearly relished the chance to get out of the confines of the straightlaced Nyssa and has a ball as Ann Talbot.

I loved that for once the Doctor having to prove his innocence for being accused of murder does so by showing the police officers the inside of the TARDIS. I actually really wanted Sgt Markham and PC Cummings to come aboard permanantly as companions. The latter in particular already had a catchphrase which could be used throughout his travels - "Strike me pink!"

The Waters of Mars

I rewatched this as research for my Adric article in TTZ8. The article has been brewing for almost a year because the seeds were born the first time I watched this. The fantastic scene where the Doctor talks about fixed points in time to Adelaide I immedietely wondered if the Doctor had always known that Adric would die.

Opinion on this episode is split here at TTZ Towers. I love it, Leslie hates it. Then again I also love The Fires of Pompeii and she doesn't and I think the two stories have a lot of thematic similarities. I like episodes that are future historicals and that the Doctor can't just save the day because a future fact is every bit as significant as the Great Fire of London.

I was a bit wary of The Time Lord Victorious as the end and you can't help but wonder that if the Doctor was inclined to take this route he'd surely have done it sooner (not letting Rose slip through his fingers for example) but on the whole I think it made sense.

Earthshock

It's been years since I rewatched this and again it's down to the memory of it being quite boring. The memory cheats as it did end up being quite watchable but it was far from a fantastic story.

I think because I had rewatched every Adric story prior to this as background to my article I was really looking for stuff to back up my theory and so a lot of scenes took on greater significance for me, like the argument the Doctor and Adric have in the TARDIS followed by the Doctor seemingly desperate to keep Adric close by at all times.

As ever the Cybermen are pretty rubbish and the crew of the freighter were all pretty poorly acted. I also didn't get why if the Cybermen had already been to Earth and planted a bomb that they didn't therefore plant several bombs in case one failed? I also had cause to wonder just how much uncharted caves there will be left for archeologists to explore in the 26th century...?

I've never been a fan of Adric and think that his only great performance is in Full Circle, though he's not bad in Black Orchid. His death in Earthshock just doesn't have that much of an impact upon me but maybe I'm as cold hearted as the Cybermen.

The Lodger

I don't usually watch the repeats on BBC3 so soon after a series has aired but I was home alone one evening and this was a pretty funny so I sat down for it. I do enjoy Gareth Roberts work (Will he be the next producer after Moffat?) and this was a fun little episode and the perfect calm before the storm of the finale.

I've never seen Gavin and Stacey so only know James Corden as the fat kid from Teachers. I therefore didn't have any preconceptions about him as an actor and thought he nailed the part of Craig perfectly. Matt Smith was at his comedic best with the air kisses and the various faux pas, and yet the Doctor is not so blind that he can't see Craig and Sophie are in love with each other.

When the episode first aired I did have cause to wonder whether the Doctor really would be so clueless about day to day life as a human, even ignoring that it's his favourite planet and he has a preference for travelling with humans, he was exiled to Earth for quite some time in the 1980s (Yes, that's where I sit on the UNIT dating debate). Did the Third Doctor never socialise with his colleagues? Did he never sup a pint with Benton or have a curry with Jo? Surely he didn't lock himself away in his laboratory the whole time?

Of course that's overthinking things and I do think the Doctor works better as an alien than when he seems like just a very smart human.

I can't wait for Meglos to come out on DVD, that's another classic Who I've not seen.

Made of Steel

I know it's fashionable these days for Who fans to bash Terrance Dicks but I have really enjoyed most of the original novels he's written like Timewyrm: Exodus, Blood Harvest, Shakedown and Players. I can see from my rereadings of the novelisations (they're easier to carry on the tube) that they can at times be formulaic but they served their purpose at the time.

However Revenge of the Judoon was one of the worst Who novels I've read and I was thus wary of Made of Steel. I finished it very quickly and whilst it's not terrible, it is very boring.

The plot, such as it is, sees a few surviving Cybermen trying to lure the Doctor in to a trap so he'll reopen the Void and restore the Cyber army. Snooze!

I appreciate and applaude the Quick Reads initiative and love that Doctor Who is a part of that but I don't see that as excuse to just rattle off something quickly. The only other Who quickie that I've read was The Sontaran Games and that was a lot more interesting and whilst not Earth shattering at least felt like a decent if short read. This just seemed rushed, as though Uncle Terry wasn't even trying.

Ace! The Inside Story of the End of an Era

This is a fantastic full colour hardback book by Sophie Aldred with Mike Tucker that forms something of a memoir to the final two and a bit years of the original series of Doctor Who. Aldred covers the anecdotal side of things in a friendly and enthusiastic manner with everything from rehersals to filming and all her co-stars. I remember she used to write semi regularly for DWM with her remanicess of the show and I do remember Ghost Light being a particular favourite (No, not because of the topless bit!). It comes across that she was a young actress who'd finally made her big break and who whilst excited remained very humbled by it and tried not to take it for granted.

Tucker comes from a different angle and is all about the special effects. This is technically interesting and you have to admire his skill in coming up with all these things on Who's microbudget but it can read a little dry in comparison with Aldred.

The main draw of the book though will be the gorgeous photos, many published here and nowhere else, coming as they do from Aldred's personal collection. There's also a few done especially for the book from the great Rememrance-esque cover to Ace in her space bitch gear as seen in the New Adventure novels. Although Aldred looks dang hot, you can appreciate that had the NA's ever been filmed, she would have ended up looking pretty silly in the long run.

Thanks for reading. The next TW3 should be shorter as I'll aim to do these once a week. Next time we'll definitely have a review of Head Games, Silver Nemesis and issue 2 of Fish Fingers & Custard fanzine. I hope to also watch Revenge of the Cybermen and The Five Doctors this weekend and there's been talk of Underworld and Planet of Giants. Oh! I recently watched The Rescue, how could I forget! Ok that'll go in next time, plus I just bought my second Eleventh Doctor novel Night of the Humans.