It seems like a very long time since I wrote a blog post. The last time was during the two-week "Tattie Holidays" when I went to Worcester with our school librarian and guests for an award ceremony.
It was interesting to visit a cathedral city where the medieval past and the present are very much cheek by jowl.
Our colleague didn't win but was in the top three of school librarians in the UK and ROI. We hope to collaborate on an event commemorating Muriel Spark and on a Lads and Dads event around the Black Panther movie next year,
I went to Nairn one sunkissed afternoon -
- and I went to Glasgow, where the only things I really miss perhaps are Shawlands X and the soon-to-close Whole Foods Market. Even the Tardis gets no respect in the Dear Green Place:
In other Time Lord news, the Thirteenth Doctor's new look has, of course, reminded the world and Ian Levine that Chris Chibnall is still "shitting on their childhoods".
I was just talking to an old Method actor pal in Aberdeen last weekend who worked with Jodie Whittaker on Trust Me. He spoke about her meticulous process for playing an operation on the chest prosthesis he was wearing for the shoot.
I can't help feeling the old punk, Doctor Disco, is being taken too soon, like Peter Davison over thirty years ago now. Before the handover at Xmas, however, there are still a couple of audiobooks featuring the outgoing Doctor. I listened to the latest on the way to work in early October.
Death Among The Stars is a BBC Audio original read by Nicola ( Peri) Bryant and written by Steve Lyons, who also wrote a number of DW BBC books, including a grim Salem adventure for the First Doctor, The Witch Hunters and the Eighth Doctor meets Mods and Rockers book, The Space Age.
The brusque Twelfth Doctor picks up a more mature companion in the person of Amber Lewis at Kennedy Space Centre in 2060, during a colony mission to Europa. An alien abductee unleashes some generic "Icemen" monsters on this one-off Tardis crew in an undemanding sci-fi adventure that reminded me a little of the vistas of Jeff Hawke,
70s nostalgia drives the third volume of the Third Doctor Adventures, which comprises two audio plays with small casts: The Conquest of Far by Nick Briggs and Storm of the Horofax by Andrew Smith.
The former is a semi-sequel to Planet of the Daleks as Tim Treloar, impersonating Pertwee and Katy Manning's Jo Grant try to knock out a device which will transform the Earth space fleet personnel into Robomen.
This adventure reminded me of Blake's Seven: it's very much a WWII resistance story in space, told with Daleks and exotically- named collaborators, like Delralis and Elaquon, Yet again, Briggs uses a hyper-gateway, a stargate by any other name, like many of his previous Dalek tales. The Earth fleet's alien allies, the Thruskans, don't appear to be described. There is some suspense as to who the sleeper Roboman agent will be at the climax but in general it's very bland, safe stuff, whipped up like cream on cocoa for Seventies schoolboys.
The second story features Royal Marines pitted against Space ISIS, I suppose: a cult of armoured invaders led by a villainess with time manipulation powers. It's all helicopters, warships and Our Brave Boys from one-time Rutherglen schoolboy prodigy Andrew Smith. Like the Big Finish production of Dan Dare, about which I will finally post sooner or later, it's terribly Brexit to my ears. However, the engaging vivacity of Katy Manning and the guileless performance of Iain Batchelor as countryside ranger Adam, sell the story. Treloar's Third Doctor is a series of mannerisms and catch-phrases and is quite a restrained presence in the stories, politely letting other characters drive the narrative, lest his imposture offend.
A surprisingly less traditional series of vignettes comprises Time In Office, a portmanteau disc for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. Surprising given the writer is Eddie " BBC Scotland aren't misreporting Scotland, honestly. Even though, admittedly, I've never seen any bulletins" Robson.
Lord President Doctor is guided, like Jim Hacker, through a set of political satires by old chum Leela and "current" pal Tegan, to whom he's almost married and who becomes Gallifrey's liaison for planet Earth. The comedy is leavened by a story of time terrorists but it's all very entertaining and one of the best releases this year. Unfortunately, it will henceforth be associated with the stinky feet of the young man in the seat in front on the Aberdeen train about five weeks ago. I don't know why boys gave up socks but it's unhygienic.
Look in the weeks to come for reviews of the Eighth Doctor's Time War exploits and of the second volume of First Doctor Companion Chronicles. If that's not your cup of tea, I am thinking about posts on Quatermass, Children of the Stones and James Blish.
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