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.

I've Never Heard Such Bafflegab In All my Lives

Despite the fact I'm crap at updating this blog I have had a fairly decent amount of hits. Most bizarely I have had traffic from Slovenia and Denmark, so big shout out to the Doctor Who fans in those countries!

Hopefully I'll get back on track with updating more frequently so I can have more amusing hits but in the meantime in the first few months of this blog search hits which have brought people here are as follows

whatever power

Chicks Dig Time Lords

"give them a hygiene chamber"

Doctor Who "oh your celtic" [sic]

"Doctor Who" "Short Trips" "How The Doctor Changed My Life"

"Melissa Beattie" "Ianto Jones"

Conclusions? Erm...

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!

This Room's The Greatest Arsenal We Could Have

So apologies once again for the utter infrequency of updates in this blog. Were I the type of person to make new year resolutions I'd aim to do better for 2011. I'm not but nonetheless I will so not only do I have a backlog of reviews I've got other cool stuff to write about such as experiencing watching A Christmas Carol on BBC America and the general day to dayness of being a Who fan.

In the meantime below is the list of Doctor Who books I read in 2010, in the vaguely chronological order in which I read them.

1: The Happiness Patrol

2: The Ambassadors of Death

3: Search for the Doctor

4: Shooty Dog Thing

5: Doctor Who and the Deamons

6: The Pirate Loop (See our interview with Archie the Space Badger in TTZ9, written exclusively for us by Simon Guerrier)

7: Doctor Who and the Giant Robot

8: Full Circle

9: Endgame [The 8th Doctor Graphic Novel not the EDA]

10: Decalog 5: Wonders

11: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Man Diaries

12: Remembrance of the Daleks

13: Time Unincorporated vol 1

14: I, Who

15: A History of the Universe

16: Doctor Who Annual 2006

17: Placebo Effect

18: Players

19: Look Who's Talking

20: The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who (Which features an essay written by Leslie!!)

21: Rift War

22: The Glorious Dead

23: The Completely Useless Doctor Who Encylopedia

24: The World Shapers

25: Chicks Dig Time Lords

26: The Highest Science (See my review of it in TTZ8)

27: Licence Denied

28: Doctor Who - The Making of a Television Series

29: The Quantum Archangel

30: The Caves of Androzani

31: Crisis in Space

32: Counundrum (See my review of it in TTZ8)

33: The Kings Dragon (Reviewed in this blog here. See also our exclusive interview with Una McCormack in TTZ9)

34: Managra (Reviewed in this blog here)

35: Made of Steel (Reviewed in this blog here)

36: I, Who 2

37: Ace!: The Inside Story of the End of an Era (Reviewed in this blog here)

38: Head Games (Reviewed in this blog here)

39: The Only Good Dalek

40: The Infinity Doctors

Meanwhile I often start a book but am unable to finish it. There are various reasons for this and isn't necessarily a reflection on the book. For Doctor Who I attempted but didn't manage to finish the following:

1: The Myth Makers

2: Decalog 4: Re:Generations

3: Peter Davison's Book of Alien Monsters

4: Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation

5: Doctor Who and the Zarbi

6: The Room With No Doors

7: Atom Bomb Blues

8: Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life

9: Cybermen

10: The Diary of a Doctor Who Addict

11: Time Unincorporated vol 2

12: The Night of the Humans

13: The Dominators

Don't worry I do have a life outside Doctor Who and in 2010 I also read (if you're interested!):

The Lovely Bones, Polk, Major, Chamberlain, I Saw You..., Kick-Ass, The Bristol Board Jungle, The Groovy Greeks, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge), The Lodger - Shakespeare on Silver Street, Vote for Who?, The Book of General Ignorance, Epileptic, Blaze of Glory, Doomsday World, Harlequin Valentine, The Completely Useless Star Trek Encylopedia, The 34th Rule, Hitler - My Part in His Downfall, Rommell? Gunner Who?, Monty - His Part in My Victory, Perverting the Course of Justice, The Blair Years, Hotel Babylon and World War Z

Last but by no means least I did recieve Doctor Who books for Christmas and so already on the to read pile in the next few days are:

1: Script Doctor

2: The Dark Path

3: Burning Hearts

4: The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who!

5: Single White Who Fan

Tell me about your fave Doctor Who books and I'll add them to the never ending to read pile!.

Whatever Power Has Taken Hold of the TARDIS Has Taken Your Pen!

Oh my word, we are in a pickle.

I've such a backlog of entries to write it's unbelievable. I knew I wouldn't do that 30 Doctor Who things meme in 30 days!

But anyway I shall start with the present and then catch up; after all if the show messes around with it's chronology on a weekly basis I suppose I can too.

On Saturday Leslie and I went to the Winter Warmer hosted by The Flashing Blade Podcast at The Fitzroy Tavern.

For those who don't know 'The Tav' was something of a Mecca to Doctor Who fans back in the day before t'internet where a huge group of them would meet up regularly. It's tailed off since then though I'm lead to believe a few still attend on the first Thursday of every month. Past regulars were the likes of Steven Moffat and Paul Cornell and as you'll know from Tony Gallichan's Private Lives column in TTZ8 that the first drafts of Timewyrm: Revelation were passed round the Tavern as Mr Cornell worked on them.

Saturday's event was a follow on from The Flashing Blade's hugely successful summer picnic and was of course timed to take place around Doctor Who's anniversary. Leslie and I had had a great time at the first one and it was so wonderful to talk about Doctor Who all day with people who were so passionate about the show.

I've never been to the Tavern before despite living in London all my life (Though to be fair I was still a kid when it was in its heyday of being the hub of fandom) but I had a reasonable idea of where it was. As it turns out I was almost right. I confidentally took Leslie to the Fitzrovia which was just round the corner and it was amusing to walk in and find absolutely nobody in there.

Although the outside temperature was a bracing 1C and thus scarves were of course highly justified, once we finally got to the right place, even if we hadn't of recognised people from last time, the sheer number of very long scarves in one corner of the room would've given the game away. Not to mention that Tony was dressed as the Fourth Doctor circa Season 18 (Though as some wag had it, the Fourth Doctor as in Dimensions in Time!).

People we'd met before were Tony of course, his two co-hosts Robert and Rob (Jo! came towards the end of the evening), Adam (the best dressed man in Fandom) from Staggering Stories, Craig (aka Mister Chinn from the Ministry) and Lee from That 1963 Show Podcast (Wyn joined us later), Tim from Tim's Take On and Martyn from the Bad Wilf Podcast plus other faces that I sort of recognised from last time but hadn't really had a chance to speak to them / been properly introduced.

There's also the weird element that some were people who I later learnt I've spoken to on Twitter like Luke from The Minute Doctor Who Podcast but hadn't made the connection whilst there. A couple of people were still tweeting whilst there and using the #fbwinterwarmer hashtag so I sort of worked out who some people were.

Another Tony turned up, he had seen me tweeting about the event and so as a result of that decided to come down and we chatted for most of the evening. Melissa (also published in The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who) arrived not long after us and would be staying with us for the weekend as we were to have a belated Thanksgiving on the Sunday.

It was nice to be recognised as the team behind The Terrible Zodin and to get positive feedback for the zine. Discussions with other Who fans gave me ideas for future articles and Tony C. is already so passionately defending The Web Planet that he's gonna have a shot at the next No! Not The Mind Probe! And whilst you don't know what that is yet, all I can say is stay tuned for it's debut in TTZ9.

Tony G. had dared Leslie and I to wear our costumes for Halloween which reminds me that I never did post it on here. So that's another entry pending. Ditto I need to write an entry about my Draculasaurus t-shirt but I hope he'll be pleased to note that people did get the joke.

Highlights of the evening for me were:

* A chap called Andrew wearing an authentic Seventh Doctor question mark jumper

* Lots of Doctor Who lego figures

* Fans comparing sonic screwdrivers

* Everybody shouting "HELLO LILIBET!" down the phone to Florida

* Learning that one shouldn't wear a long Doctor Who scarf when on the toilet

* Playing the "first Doctor Who memory" game and having to sheepishly say "Dalek flying up the stairs in Remembrance versus other people's memories of Magnus Greel having his mask ripped off and the giant maggots advancing upon Jo.

* The unfortunate phrase "Daniel Redcliffe pulled off Equus" considering the subject matter of the play

* Shouting "Zarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrbi" across the bar.

* Planning a series of graphic novels of the missing Hartnell and Troughton stories though knowing the purists will try to burn down our publishing empire if we put the colorful Victory Daleks in The Dalek's Masterplan or have Mavic Chen interviewed by the Bad Wolf channel.

* Speculating about who River Song is / What will happen in the next series of Torchwood / What's in store for Season 6

All in all I had a very fun evening and I hope I'm invited to the next one.

PS: Tony you've got till Friday to get that column in for the next issue!

All of Time and Space, Everywhere and Anywhere

Happy 47th Birthday Doctor Who! And Happy 2nd Birthday The Terrible Zodin!

I know I suck at updating this blog. As compensation have a video!

We're Going To The Year One Hundred Trillion!

A few years back during a typical British summer (i.e. it was non stop pouring with rain) my Dad and I thought about doing a Doctor Who marathon to pass the time. He suggested the straightforward option of going from An Unearthly Child through to (at that point) Army of Ghosts but I suggested we approach it in a different manner. I said "Why don't we do it from the beginning to the end.... but from the beginning of the universe through to the end of time!"

In the end we didn't get very far before time being what it is flew by and it was time for him to go back to school and time for me to get off my unemployed arse and find a job. But I always liked the idea (bet you can tell I love Lance Parkins History of the Universe) and so when The Terrible Zodin came along and Leslie solicited my ideas I pitched this voyage through time to her. This was before we started dating so I can say with confidence that the idea was accepted on its merits rather than nepotism towards her boyfriend by giving him his own regular feature!!

It was Leslie I believe who coined the title "Back2theWhoture". It was always the intention that this being a shared experience and so I invited two of my friends Sebby and Big Al to join us. In particular I was keen to have fresh eyes on the show in all its guises as although both were fans of the new show they hadn't seen much of the originals; Sebby had seen a smattering of repeats in the mid 90s starting with The Sea Devils and has since borrowed many of my DVDS, and Al's first experience was Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 one Sunday morning on Channel 4.

Personally I have enjoyed having them on board and without having their brains hardwired full of lists and stats and opinions from absorbing all the Peter Haining and Jean-Marc Lofficier books during The Wilderness Years it has lead to some very enlightening view points. I loved Al's theory when we watched Time Flight that maybe the villain was Adric who'd survived Earthshock and sworn his revenge on the Doctor for abandoning him! It's not something I'd have thought of in a million years and its because I've known the plot to Time Flight, read the novelisation, read countless interviews with the cast and crew nearly 20 years before I finally ever saw the story. But, and it's a big but, because I came with low expectations I actually ended up enjoying the story a lot more than I thought I would which is a bonus.

We're going two stories at a time (more or less) and given that we come out quarterly it'll be a long journey to the end of the universe but I'm looking forward to it.

If you fancy doing your own such marathon you're more than welcome to use the below playlist as a guide. I don't make any claims for it to being definitive and dating stories are subjective in many cases. I did use reference books by Parkin and Lofficier for guidance but the final order was mine and is subject to constant rejigging. It's proved a talking point too, there are some who think I should've started with Terminus, and others who disagree with my placing of The Androids of Tara. And as for the UNIT era....

Once the back issues are up, feel free to peruse the adventures we've had so far, they're printed in TTZ3 onwards. Readers comments are always solicited, there's still time to get in comments for The Keys of Marinus, The Romans and The Fires of Pompeii if you wanna be in TTZ9 (deadline's 20/11/10), otherwise send your comments for The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang and The Time Meddler for TTZ10, the Spring 2011 issue.

Enjoy!

***

Castravalva
Edge of Destruction
Time Flight
Time and the Rani
An Unearthly Child
Genesis of the Daleks
The Time Monster
The Myth Makers
The Horns of Nimon
The Keys of Marinus
The Romans
The Fires of Pompeii
The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
The Time Meddler
The Time Warrior
The Crusade
The Kings Demons
Marco Polo
The Masque of Mandragora
The Aztecs
The Massacre
The Androids of Tara
The Vampires of Venice
The Shakespeare Code
The Visitation
The Smugglers
The Highlanders
The Girl in the Fireplace
The Reign of Terror
The Mark of the Rani
The Next Doctor
Evil of the Daleks
The Unquiet Dead
Tooth and Claw
The Gunfighters
Ghost Light
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Vincent and the Doctor
The Celestial Toymaker
Horror of Fang Rock
Enlightenment
Pyramids of Mars
Human Nature / The Family of Blood
The War Games
Black Orchid
The Unicorn and the Wasp
Carnival of Monsters
Daleks in Manhatten / Evolution of the Daleks
The Abominable Snowman
Victory of the Daleks
The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
The Curse of Fenric
The Idiot’s Lantern
Dreamland
Delta and the Bannermen
Remembrance of the Daleks
Planet of Giants
The War Machines
The Faceless Ones
The Underwater Menace
Fury from the Deep
The Web of Fear
Image of the Fendahl
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood
City of Death
Shada
The Invasion
Spearheads from Space
The Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno
Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
The Deamons
The Sea Devils
The Three Doctors
The Green Death
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Planet of the Spiders
Robot
Terror of the Zygons
The Android Invasion
The Seeds of Doom
The Hand of Fear
Meglos
The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis
Four to Doomsday
Arc of Infinity
Mawdryn Undead
The Awakening
Resurrection of the Daleks
Planet of Fire
Attack of the Cybermen
The Two Doctors
The Tenth Planet
Father’s Day
Silver Nemesis
Survival
The Eleventh Hour
Battlefield
Doctor Who – The Movie
The Mind Robber
Rose
Aliens of London / World War Three
Boom Town
The Christmas Invasion
School Reunion
Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel
Love & Monsters
Army of Ghosts / Doomsday
Blink
Turn Left
The Runaway Bride
Smith and Jones
The Lazarus Experiment
The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords
Time Crash
Voyage of the Damned
Partners in Crime
The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky
The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End
Planet of the Dead
The End of Time
The Lodger
Dalek
Fear Her
Amy’s Choice
The Enemy of the World
The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood
Power of the Daleks
The Waters of Mars
The Moonbase
The Seeds of Death
The Wheel in Space
Warriors of the Deep
Nightmare of Eden
The Space Pirates
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Day of the Daleks
Paradise Towers
The Leisure Hive
Midnight
The Daleks
The Twin Dilemma
The Macra Terror
Vengeance on Varos
Colony in Space
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Happiness Patrol
The Rescue
Earthshock
The Space Museum
The Chase
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
Death to the Daleks
The Sensorites
The Power of Kroll
Revenge of the Cybermen
Kinda
The Mutants
The Ice Warriors
The Beast Below
The Ribos Operation
The Robots of Death
The Caves of Androzani
Galaxy Four
The Brain of Morbius
The Curse of Peladon
The Monster of Peladon
Mission to the Unknown
The Daleks Masterplan
The Infinite Quest
The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
42
Planet of the Ood
Destiny of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks
Snakedance
The Invisible Enemy
Born Anew
Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone
Silence in the Library / The Forest of the Dead
The Doctor’s Daughter
Terminus
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warrior’s Gate
Ark in Space
The Sontaran Experiment
The Face of Evil
The Web Planet
Planet of Evil
The Long Game
Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
The Sun Makers
Timelash
The Dominators
The Deadly Assassin
The Invasion of Time
The Five Doctors
The Trial of a Time Lord
Dragonfire
The Ark
Frontios
The End of the World
New Earth
Gridlock
The Savages
The Krotons
The Creature from the Pit
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
The Armageddon Factor
Underworld
Utopia

Oh, You're Celtic? There's Lovely.

Transcript of the Back2theWhoture team livetweeting The Fires of Pompeii for inclusion in TTZ9

This is Back2theWhotures first foray in to the new series. Hold on to your togas for The Fires of Pompeii

Well ok so the new series has the budget for it, but plunged straight in to the market, it's like The Romans

I think Donna's reasoning about the TARDIs translation device is pretty good actually

Ohhh its Amy Pond!

"That fire had nothing to do with me..." even funnier after watching this off the back of The Romans

Ohh it's Volcano Day!

Ohh it's Frobisher!

Anchoring the tale with your typical Roman family adds to the poignancy of the tale

Donna's growth evident immedietely, her first instinct is to save everybody in Pompeii

"I am Spartacus!" "And so am I!"

I love love the scene with the volcano rumbling in the background as the Doctor and Donna are told the future

"Doctor, she is returning. And you... daughter of London. There is something on your back" - Always sends tingles down my spine

"Ipso facto..." "Look... you?"

I always call it T K Maximus now as a result of this episode.

Haha sorry, I'm enjoying it so much I'm not typing anything

The Doctor armed with a water pistol FTW!

Lucius Pextrus sounds like he said "Summon the C**ts of Vulcan", That along with the Sisterhood chanting "peadophile, peadophile"...

Is this first confirmation that the Doctor percieves reality in 5 dimensions?

I'd forgotten to check this scene out when I wrote my Adric article but it fits my theory that the Doc knew about his death in advance

Donna running around Pompeii. Getting all hot and... glistening. Oh my.

Haha! Al just realised that Pyrovillia was one of the planets stolen by Davros at the end of the season

The most terrible choice...

The Doctor says nothing can survive the explosion, not even them. And yet they do. Ok then!

Donna sharing the Doctor's burden. This scene is amongst the best in Doctor Who

The Fires of Pompeii doesn't let up on the full horror of the explosion. I defy anyone to watch this without feeling the punch

Is the Doctor really going to leave Donna behind?

Although this is one of my fave episodes I kinda wish they'd had the conviction to have the Doctor leave without going back for anyone

Of course it would've been impossible for Donna to continue travelling with The Doctor is that happened.

Why that family though? How could the Doctor change time for them?

Al speculates that Caecellius and go move in to the villa seen in The Romans

When I first saw this I honestly thought Captain Jack would make a cameo at the end, just as Rose did at the end of Partners in Crime!

RT @thanatos_kalos RTD has said that John Frobisher is the distant descendent of Caecilius and his family. Consider your ? in that light..

So what do you all think of The Fires of Pompeii?

That Your Excellency Would Be An Impossibissity!

Transcript of the Back2theWhoture team livetweeting The Romans for inclusion in TTZ9

Right. Togas on folks, doormice and honey for snack food at the ready. We're about to begin our livetweeting on The Romans #doctorwho

The Slave Traders!

Ian lounging in the villa is reminiscent of the fantasy in The Keys of Marinus

Vicki scampering along looks very happy to be in ancient Rome

The design work on the Roman market is fantastic

Ohhh look at that harp playing old geezer, he looks a bit like Hartnell...

Scenes of the TARDIS crew in the villa are so lovely, the crew all getting along fantastically

The First Doctor loves his food doesn't he? nom nom nom

"What do you think I am? A goldfish!"

Haha the Doctor calls Ian "Chesterfield", Barbara corrects with "Chesterton" and the Doc repies "There you are boy Barbara's calling you"!

Ohhhhhhhhhh Ian and Barbara are sooooo in love!

Oh no! Barbara hits Ian!

The Doctor disarms the Roman Centurion with wit and bluster FTW!

"She keeps an eye on all the lyres!" hahahaha

Oh, that ended a bit suddenly!

All Roads Lead to Rome

Hahaha Hartnell kicks ass!!

ROMA! Yeah that doesn't look like a model.

Ok I take it back, the Roman Galleon is impressive!

It's the oldest trick in the book.... and that's why the Roman slave master doesn't fall for it!

Haha I bet the stage hand who got to throw the bucket of water over them had fun!

It's interesting how it plays with the comedic conventions of farce despite the somewhate brutal setting

Hahaha Hartnell and Nero are a hoot together!

"That your excellency would be an impossibissity!" #billyfluffs

Stock footage lion montage as cliffhanger!

Conspiracy!

Boom mic in shot when Nero and Poppea are discussing the banquet

Is that Nero trying to hide his boner?! That's a bit risque for kids TV!

The Doctor naked in a sauna! Alas for the fangirls it's Hartnell not Tennant!

Is the Doctor going to be poisoned? Time for the HARVEY WALLBANGER!

Would Vicki really be so naive as to risk such a massive alteration to the timeline?

Priceless moment at Nero poisons his hapless slave!

So actually Vicki is responsible for Locusta's death?

Fantastic scene as the Doctor plays the lyre for everybody. "He's alright but he's not all that good!"

Now that Ian's seen Barbara he's determined to fight for his freedom but he still has that basic decency that he can't bring himself to kill

Pausing for tea and birthday cake before we go on to Inferno (Ep 4 of the Romans if you're just tuning in, not the Pertwee one)

Right on we go

Huzzah, Ian and Delos both escape!

"I've got a friend who specialises in trouble. He just dives in and usually finds a way"

Ohhh the Doctor has his specs! Didn't realise this was a Hartnell thing

Haha Hartnell is clearly having a whale of a time in this story! "I'll make it a roaring success!"

"I'll have you killed over and over again!"

Did the Doctor set fire to the plans on purpose?

So Tavius was a Christian all along!

Vicki's enjoyment of seeing history come alive is a delight

The Doctor's protestations about interferring with history seems to be a rule he constantly breaks anyway!

So what do you all think of The Romans? #doctorwho

The Editor was expecting it to be hilarious based on reputation and wasn't prepared for the quite strong brutality

Its an interesting juxtoposition between high farce and the darker elements, particularly Ian & Barbara's subplots

Al notes that Doctor Who always has such imagination and the few b&w ones he's seen are just as good as the color

Huzzah for Hartnell!

Right in a few minutes we're going to time travel 15 years in to the future and visit Pompeii in 79AD

RT @m_robertson_UK Without the veneer of comedy, stories of slavery, torture, rape, murder and sadistic violence could never be shown

If You'd Had Your Shoes On My Boy You Could Have Lent Her Hers!

Transcript of the Back2theWhoture team livetweeting The Keys of Marinus for inclusion in TTZ9

The Sea of Death!

#DoctorWho of old seemed to enjoy making buildings out of tobelerone!

Why did the TARDIS land silently?

Haha nice line about the Doctor not having colour television!

Ohhh creepy acid fish thingies, almost proto-type Cybermats.

"Impossible at this temperature. And besides its too warm!" #billyfluffs

Why hasn't Ian changed out of his togs from Marco Polo but the rest of the TARDIS crew have?

RT @perfectchichi Ian kept his Marco Polo clothes on cause Barbara likes them XD #doctorwho

Scuber diver from hell!

Won't Ian's shoes be really stinking if they've been trekking through the Gobi desert for months?

That submarine looks pretty flimsy to travel through acid seas

Who said story arcs were a new invention? Barbara talking about architecture.in Central America forshadows The Aztecs in the next story

Haha all the TARDIS crew falling through revolving walls!

Voord attacks Susan. It's the Radio Times Front Cover!

Why was the Voord with a knife in his back just hanging around waiting to attack someone. Shouldnt he be trying to pull the knife out!

Arbitan looks like Mr Copper! #voyageofthedamned

RT @The_Arn Arbitan's the only actor to appear in Doctor Who and Citizen Kane by the way...

On the other hand isn't Yartek the hero? Everyone on Marinus was under mind control? Are the Voord bad just cuz they're slimey?

RT @m_robertson_UK Strong parallels with The Keeper of Traken. There might be no evil, but does anyone have free will?

Is Ian wearing eyeliner?!

The Velvet Web!

It's the psychedelic city of Morphoton

The incidental music is all very dreamlike...

The First Doctor loves his fruit doesn't he! nom nom nom

Nice little chat between Ian and Barbara about applying their humancentric standards to alien cultures,

Creepy old head - ancestor of the Face of Boe

Kudos for the POV shots between Barbara's perspective and the rest of the TARDIS crew.

The brains in the jar are Bug Eyed Monsters - very anti Sydney Newman

How blind are they not to see Barbara!?

No machine can ever replace the human body. So much for the Cybermen!

"I will explain all in good time" #doctorwho

Hmm they didn't really make it clear what the first key was

The Screaming Jungle!

I thought the Doctor was jumping ahead with Altos?

Creepy creepers!

Ohh Barbara got ass grabbed by the grotesque idol. Clever idol!

It's very Indiana Jones before there was Indiana Jones

PIVOT! #pointlessfriendsreference

Ian just want to be alone with Barbara, he luuuuurves her

Tiime for Ian's ass massage

Ohh very Warrior's Gate with the falling axes

"It's pretty solid" Ian says of a wobbly door

Why doesn't Ian go fetch the axe?

Eww Ian's sex face!

But Arbitan didn't warn them about all the traps. I think he really is the villain

It's like they're in a homicidal B&Q!

Oh no, they've gone from bad to worse! It's the Snows of Terror!

And... we're stopping there for a tea break. DVD paused. Thanks to everyone who's chipped in their comments so far

The Keys of Marinus is a completely new story to me. I'm really enjoying it so far. I'd always been under the impression that it'd be dull

That opinion based on "recieved fan wisdom" but also Philip Hinchcliffe's dire novelisation which I never finished. #doctorwho

Ok and we're back now with The Snows of Terror, episode 4 of The Keys of Marinus

Eeep Wolves!

No wonder Altos is freezing, he's got no pants on!

Yay! Ian kicks ass!

Well that rope bridge wouldn't meet my Health & Safety standards

Hmm Terry Nation is already recycling The Daleks, ravine to jump across? Check!

RT: @ParrotKnight ISTR the story was written in a hurry after Mac Hulke's Hidden Planet fell through - Verity etc. turned up at Terry's house and wouldn't leave until he accepted the commission.

Ice Sword Fighting! Cool! (If you'll excuse the pun)

It seems a bit out of character for Ian to grin as one of the Ice Warriors (No relation) plumments to their death!?

Oh no! Ian boffed on the head by assailant(s) unknown!

During a heist?

Now - The Sentence.... of DEATH!

Probity check. Sounds painful

A character called Tarron. How very Nationesque

Ian's been charged with murder! This episode takes an interesting turn

It's the Doctor! Yay! (Billy's back from holiday then)

Murder Most Rare! would be a good title

#linesthatneverhappened Ian - "What can I do?" Doctor - "Don't go murdering anybody else hmmm?"

"I can't improve..." #billyfluffs

He's a rubbish murderer!

RT @crassuswild is it the first Who instance of the false accusation of murder?

@crassuswild Of a TARDIS crew member? I think yes. In general? No, Za was falsely accused of killing Old Mother in the 1st story!

#Cherchezlafemme So it was her all along!

She's going to brain Susan with a hairdryer?!

I bet the key is inside the mace!

Isn't it mighty convenient that every time they need to use the travel bracelets there's a black curtain to stand in front of?

Ah the old wear a hood over my head and pretend you can't come near cuz I have a deadly disease trick!

If you mean the machine is going to blow up then just say that!!!

What's up with the gyrating Voord in the back ground?!

And that's the end of that! #DoctorWho The Keys of Mariunus

Fiona Walker?! Karla was Lady Peinfort!!! #doctorwho