Your Third Most Common Month for Madness

I started getting The Fear today. Normally, I go into work a day or two early, to take the sting out of it. Massaging away the pain of the end of living off Own Brand Bailey's and After Eights. I can't face it today, though. I woke up to sabre-rattling and jingoism on Twitter. Neal Adams is frothing about shooting tigers and alligators as the Greatest Nation of the World, led by a demented sex pest in a toupee, provokes another world war. Doubtlessly, the Precious Union will be dragged along by our own racist equivocator and probable Russian asset.

The same illiberal media agenda that led to this right-wing confederacy of dunces is deploring Dr. Jodie's exciting return. Willfully ignoring a fortnight of great television, including A Christmas Carol and the dizzily post-modern Dracula, all lamentation about ratings is simply about putting the SJWs back in their box, so we can "stand alone with are blue passports" as the Gammon Rapture dawns.

I'll talk about Spyfall in more detail after the second episode airs on Sunday. Today, I'm looking at the audios I listened to on my trip back home before Hogmanay. As ever, I can scarcely believe a week has already passed.

 I can't remember why I don't go down after Hogmanay any more. Surely it'd be less frantic.

 I always feel excited to see the lights in Fraser's, even though the carpets are threadbare.

The trains south were pretty busy and I was so distracted by the overcrowding form Perth, I had to listen to this first episode twice.

Blood on Santa's Claw appears to be the latest in Big Finish's occasional range of portmanteau releases. The four seasonally-themed episodes introduce a new companion, Joe Carnaby, a Whoniverse version of Simon Le Bon, and Peri's boyfriend. In a blizzard (ho ho) of Wind in the Willows, Othello and T.Rex references, we discover that nothing is quite as it appears in this set. We are also introduced to the Werelords- a Time Lord secret weapon. This is one of those audios that won't quite have the same impact once its twists are uncovered- like Spyfall, I think- but its deceits were highly entertaining, including the identity of the authors. 5/5 Talmars.

The Sinister Sponge and Other Stories is the third Dr. Who audio annual, featuring stories from the World Distributors annuals of the 60s, 70s and 80s. The first six Doctors are all represented here. Frazer Hines,Louise Jameson and Nicola Bryant all read stories from their respective eras. Jon Culshaw performs astonishing impressions of Hartnell, Pertwee and Peter Davison, as well as Nicholas "Brig" Courtney. Dan Starkey gives  equally adept impressions of Tom Baker and Ian Marter.

The stories are charming nonsense, rarely representing anything from tv. The titular story is from the annuals' mid-Seventies height of derangement and its alien vegetation seems reprised from the first entry, 1966's Terror on Tiro.

Eighties UNIT exploit The Nemertines is probably the dullest story but even it's redeemed by the evocation of the breathless Fifth Doctor. The most successful is probably the fan-written House That Jack Built from 1974- itself possibly a reworking of the b/w Avengers episode of the same name.

 I was criticising nostalgia in all its forms a couple of posts ago and there's still the second Dalek audio annual to come.  (4/5 Talmars)

In the next post, I want to talk a little about Marvel comics at Christmas, in particular the Fireside Spidey book.
 Coming this month: Thanos, Daleks, Batman vs the Wizard and a return to the Village. Be seeing you.

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