John Smith and the Common Men

So today (April 20th) is Record Store Day and wanting to get my Doctor Who themed 'John Smith and the Common Men' 7" I set the alarm to get up early.

Having no idea of the scope of Record Shop Day's draw I decided to just try to get to one of the two participating stores in my home city for opening time and then if needed head to the other one. One store which I won't name opened at 9am so they got my first choice slot. There was already a healthy queue when I arrived but nothing major and someone from the shop was assuring us they would open soon so I was sure I would be in and out in no time... over half an hour later they finally opened and the queue flowed like treacle on a cold day.

As we slowly inched toward the shop a fair few unhappy shoppers were exiting as it appeared the shop had not had deliveries of some of the titles as Universal had let them down but as the Common Men release was on an indie label I wasn't too worried... eventually got into the shop and finally got to the counter and asked for my selection... dumbfounded and slightly rudely I was told they weren't stocking that one before he moved on to the next customer.

To say I was not happy about that would be an understatement but never one to give up I went to where, in hindsight, I should have gone first - the Liverpool institution that is Probe Records... which had a disheartening queue outside the door and down the street by this stage. I'd wager there close to 200 people in front of me but I wasn't going to write the day off so I queued and this time it flowed like treacle on an even colder day!

Credit to Probe though - I was in line for a few hours there but the staff were jolly and even gave out sweets and later biscuits to those still waiting outside to get their grubby little hands on their chosen vinyl! They even confirmed for me that the Common Men release was indeed in the shop and they still had some copies, thus giving me hope and a reason to stay!

My patience paid off (as you may have already assumed by the photos already posted!) and I finally bought myself a copy of the nifty retro-designed numbered vinyl... then I asked for the Reservoir Dogs 20th Anniversary Soundtrack coloured vinyl (which colour you get is a mystery - I was hoping for pink for Steve Buscemi's character but was happy enough with my lurid yellow Michael Madsen version!) which I was also interested in and they'd sold out. This is where I turned a negative into a positive - having wasted that time at the unnamed record shop earlier that day I knew they hadn't had all their deliveries early on and knew they hadn't had Reservoir Dogs when I was there... so I went back to their now empty store and my hunch had paid off as I was able to get a box-fresh copy from the same, still surly despite the lack of a crowd, shopkeeper.

I was hoping the whole day would be an in/out kind of deal but five hours after getting up I had what I had come out for!

"That's the way to do it"

Long time, no blog. And whilst I do intend to update more this year this is not a New Year's resolution kind of thing; the only reason I'm writing this today is that last night as I struggled to get to sleep over the sound of patrons of the pub over the road ringing in their new year by arguing and fighting in the street I got to thinking about Doctor Who.

Specifically my mind was turning over the mystery that is Clara Oswin Oswald and whilst I lay there listening to John's friends telling him it wasn't worth it for the first, but doubtfully not the last, time in 2013 I made a connection about Clara. In an effort not to forget my little revelation I wrote a note for myself on a scrap of paper which I left on my desk as a reminder... "That's the way to do it".

So here's what was was going through my head in the early hours, the episode is littered with examples of the Great Intelligence mimicking the people around it; in fact the episode opens with this when we see Walter Simeon as a child first encountering the Great Intelligence in 1842; the snowman Simeon builds throws his own words back at him in an approximation of conversation, a point which is clarified later when the Doctor confronts Simeon.

The Great Intelligence mimicking what it hears is hammered home later in the episode when the Ice Governess throws back the Doctor's Mr Punch routine and he explains to clara that it is "mirroring, random mirroring"; and it was that which suddenly got me to thinking that either Clara (The Snowmen) or Oswin (Asylum of the Daleks), or possibly both, could be creations of the Great Intelligence. After all one character when creating a false reality to cover the fact she is in fact a Dalek creates a spaceship with a rather homely kitchen where she can cook soufflés and her final words are "run, you clever boy... and remember"; the other when entering the TARDIS doesn't know why but she asks if there is a kitchen as she likes cooking soufflés and her dying words are repeated from Oswin word for word.

Oswin seems the most obvious to be a creation of the Great Intelligence as it seems as if the version of reality she has created for herself is a way of living in denial that she is a Dalek. Could the Great Intelligence have taken over a Dalek and used a human persona not realising it was so strong a persona it would override the Dalek side of things? Another key thing to remember here is the Dalek asylum planet was covered in snow which at the time didn't raise any questions but now seems very likely to be a clue to the Great Intelligence's involvement.

I can't rule out Clara being a creation of the Great Intelligence either though as she acknowledges herself that she doesn't know why she says certain things (she even flat out says "I don't know why I said that") and her dying words (a repeat of Oswin's) seem incongruous to the rest of the deathbed conversation.

After sleeping on it and writing this blog I'm inclined to think both versions of the character we've seen so far are the Great Intelligence experimenting somehow and that the real Clara is the modern day version seen briefly at the end of The Snowmen and who I suspect will be the version to become the real new companion.

The only thing that seems out of place is The Snowmen version of Clara being far in advance of what the Great Intelligence was capable of in 1892 (it would take it another few decades before it could take over robotic Yetis after all) but as always Moffat is tricky though, and I love him all the more for it!

Has Steven Moffat already given us a glimpse at a happy ending for Amy and Rory?

There have been rumours of Amy being killed off as far back as Series 5 and now that it's officially confirmed that both Amy and Rory will be leaving the show for good in the upcoming Series 7 we have been led to believe that we're in for some heartache; with Steven Moffat himself describing their final story as a heartbreaking one and Karen Gillan wanting her departure to be important and to mean something.

Now before I go on I would like to say that yes, the trifecta of Smith, Gillan and Darvill is near perfect in my eyes but I am in no way in denial about Amy and Rory leaving and Moffat being ready to tear out our hearts in the process; this is merely speculation based on something that has been bugging me since rewatching the Series 6 episode Closing Time earlier this year.

You may remember that, from the Doctor's point of view at least, Closing Time is set after he has left Amy and Rory with a new life and we get a sweet moment when the Doctor briefly glimpses them seemingly living that new life as they are out doing some shopping in the Colchester branch of Sanderson & Grainger were the Doctor, for reasons not important here, is currently working.

During their cameo appearance in this episode we learn that Amy is the model for a perfume named "Petrichor" which, given the tagline "for the girl who's tired of waiting", we can also assume might be her own perfume (I'm no expert on the perfume industry but were she just a model I'm sure she wouldn't get to have a say in the marketing of the product let alone be allowed to write the tagline).

The problem with all this is that "Petrichor" is a reference to the Neil Gaiman penned episode, The Doctor's Wife, from earlier in the series but, thanks to some wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimeyness for everyone but the Doctor, Closing Time is set prior to his "death" at Lake Silencio on 22nd April 2011 meaning that for Amy and Rory they have yet to be trapped inside the dead TARDIS by the mysterious House and yet to hear the word "Petrichor" which is used as part of the key to gain access to the back-up control room.

Of course you could argue that they already know the word 'petrichor' but re-watching The Doctor's Wife I get the distinct impression that it is new to both of them and certainly neither Amy nor Rory indicate being familiar with it prior to Idris blurting out the word.

And in case there was any doubt that Closing Time definitely takes place before the Doctor's "death" at Lake Silencio a newspaper seen in the episode clearly establishes that we are in April 2011.

So unless this is just a massive oversight could this be Moffat somehow showing us that for some reason future Amy & Rory end up living slightly in their own past? And if so will the heartache be them leaving the Doctor and not, as we fear, losing each other?

Or is this some other plot waiting to be explored before time is once again rewritten and we lose one, or even both, of the TARDIS' first married couple? I can't help but think back to when we glimpsed a future Amy and Rory from the year 2020 in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and we were reminded by the Doctor that the future is not set in stone.

Whatever happens I suspect it will be brilliant and I fear it will turn out to be as heartbreaking as we're being led to believe but I'm also willing Steven Moffat on to surprise me... either way "In Moffat We Trust"! :)

Quick addendum to this - having just rewatched The Doctor's Wife to double check they don't already know the word "Petrichor" the penultimate scene were Rory wants a bedroom without the bunk beds this time made me remember that the episode was originally meant to be part of Series 5 (and the bit about getting rid of the bunk beds would be the perfect lead in to Amy being pregnant for Series 6)... so could all this just be Moffat and Gaiman not tweaking the episode accordingly after it was bumped to Series 6? Hopefully time will tell!

Addendum 2! The easiest in-show explanation is that when the Doctor drops Amy and Rory off at the end of "The God Complex" he dropped them off pre-April 2011; which would also explain why he gives them a new house as there would already be an Amy & Rory living in Leadworth! But why would the Doctor purposefully leave them in a time zone they already exist in?

Halfway Out of the Dark

 

Paradoxically Christmas both is and isn't a time for Doctor Who; it is a time for sitting with the family and watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special and it is a time to look forward to some Time Lord-related presents under the tree but it's not a time to focus on self-indulgent, time-consuming challenges.

So with that in mind I had a last little push this past week to get as many of my DVDs I'd yet to watch for this challenge ticked off the list so I was free to enjoy the festive period with my family.

So far my calculations just include any Doctor Who related TV shows produced or co-produced by the BBC (so I guess the major omission is the Australian K9 show which I haven't ruled out including yet, just no great desire to watch it at this stage based on the handful episodes I've seen).

Anyway just focusing on the stuff for the challenge I'm now 98 DVDs, 29 Blu-Rays and 12 CDs down (the CDs being the audio recordings of lost TV episodes) and I'm pleased to announce that I'm halfway through the dark having just hit 50.07%!

May not sound a huge amount but this does include all of the extras which 2 Entertain cram onto their releases. So I've listened to every single commentary track (some episodes having multiple ones), read all of the production subtitles, listened to every isolated score track, watched every retrospective documentary, and watched more Blue Peter than I probably watched as a kid!

I am starting to get to the stage where I'll have nothing left on the shelf to go to so next year a big part of the challenge will be regularly picking stuff up to fill gaps in the collection, still I have just under two years to get the other 50% so I'm confident that I can do this thing! :)

Happy 48th Birthday, Doctor Who!

Today marks the 48th anniversary of the first ever broadcast of Doctor Who on what was then simply called BBC tv - considering the show is still on the air and arguably more popular than ever that is a heck of an achievement!

It also means I have exactly two years to finish my challenge to watch every episode of Doctor Who (including all of the DVD extras) by the 50th anniversary. I had been going through the process of posting a picture on Facebook of each thing I watched, listened to (in the case of some of the lost episodes) or read (as I'm easily distracted and am doing extra stuff other than the episodes when the mood takes me) for my challenge but after my PC blew up a little while back that drew to a halt. I have been carrying on my challenge though and as of today I have crossed the 40% mark - so here is a list of what has been crossed off the list so far:

DVDs/BLU-RAYS

Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child (1963)
Doctor Who - The Daleks (1963-1964)
Doctor Who - The Edge of Destruction (1964)
Doctor Who - The Rescue (1965)
Doctor Who - The Romans (1965)
Doctor Who - The War Machines (1966)
Doctor Who - The Dominators (1968)
Doctor Who - The Invasion (1968)
Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970)
Doctor Who - The Sea Devils (1972)
Doctor Who - The Three Doctors (1972-1973)
Doctor Who - The Green Death (1973)
Doctor Who - The Time Warrior (1973-1974)
Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (1975)
Doctor Who - Revenge of the Cybermen (1975)
Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Special Edition) (1977)
Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy (1977)
Doctor Who - The Invasion of Time (1978)
Doctor Who - The Ribos Operation (1978)
Doctor Who - The Pirate Planet (1978)
Doctor Who - The Stones of Blood (1978)
Doctor Who - The Androids of Tara (1978)
Doctor Who - The Power of Kroll (1978-1979)
Doctor Who - The Armageddon Factor (1979)
Doctor Who - City of Death (1979)
Doctor Who - Full Circle (1980)
Doctor Who - State of Decay (1980)
Doctor Who - Warriors' Gate (1981)
Doctor Who - The Keeper of Traken (1981)
Doctor Who - Logopolis (1981)
Doctor Who - Castrovalva (1982)
Doctor Who - Time-Flight (1982)
Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity (1983)
Doctor Who - The Five Doctors (25th Anniversary Edition) (1983)
Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani (Special Edition) (1984)
Doctor Who - The Mark of the Rani (1985)
Doctor Who - The Two Doctors (1985)
Doctor Who - The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet (1986)
Doctor Who - The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp (1986)
Doctor Who - The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids (1986)
Doctor Who - The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe (1986)
Doctor Who - Time and the Rani (1987)
Doctor Who - The Movie (Special Edition) (1996)
Doctor Who - The Complete First Series (2005)
Doctor Who - The Complete Second Series (2005-2006)
Doctor Who - The Complete Third Series (2006-2007)
Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Series (2007-2008)
Doctor Who - The Complete Specials (2008-2010)
Doctor Who - The Complete Fifth Series (2010)


SPIN-OFF DVDs/BLU-RAYS

K9 and Company - A Girl's Best Friend (1981)
Torchwood - The Complete First Series (2006-2007)
The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Complete First Series (2007)
The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Complete Second Series (2008)
The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Complete Third Series (2009)


LOST EPISODE CDs

Doctor Who - Marco Polo (1964)
Doctor Who - The Reign of Terror (1964)
Doctor Who - The Crusade (1965)
Doctor Who - Galaxy 4 (1965)
Doctor Who - The Myth Makers (1965)


AUDIO DRAMAS (BIG FINISH)

Doctor Who - The Sirens of Time (1999)
Doctor Who - Phantasmagoria (1999)
Doctor Who - Whispers of Terror (1999)
Doctor Who - The Land of the Dead (2000)
Doctor Who - The Fearmonger (2000)
Doctor Who - The Marian Conspiracy (2000)
Doctor Who - The Genocide Machine (2000)
Doctor Who - Red Dawn (2000)
Doctor Who - The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (2000)
Doctor Who - Winter for the Adept (2000)
Doctor Who - The Apocalypse Element (2000)
Doctor Who - The Fires of Vulcan (2000)
Doctor Who - The Shadow of the Scourge (2000)
Doctor Who - The Holy Terror (2000)
Doctor Who - The Mutant Phase (2000)
Doctor Who - Last of the Titans (2001)
Doctor Who - Storm Warning (2001)
Doctor Who - Sword of Orion (2001)
Doctor Who - Shada (2003)


SPIN-OFF AUDIO DRAMAS (BIG FINISH)

Jago & Litefoot - Series One (2010)


NOVELS

Doctor Who - Winner Takes All (2005)
Doctor Who - Only Human (2005)
Doctor Who - The Eyeless (2008)
Doctor Who - The Coming of the Terraphiles (2010)


GRAPHIC NOVELS (PANINI PUBLISHING)

Doctor Who - The Iron Legion (1979-1980)
Doctor Who - Dragon's Claw (1980-1982)
Doctor Who - The Tides of Time (1982-1984)
Doctor Who - End Game (1996-1998)


GRAPHIC NOVELS (IDW PUBLISHING)
Doctor Who - Agent Provocateur (2008)
Doctor Who - The Forgotten (2008-2009)
Doctor Who - Through Time and Space (2009)
Doctor Who - Fugitive (2009)
Doctor Who - Tesseract (2010)
Doctor Who - Final Sacrifice (2010)
Doctor Who - The Ripper (2011)



GRAPHIC NOVELS (BBC BOOKS)


Doctor Who - The Only Good Dalek (2010)


SPIN-OFF GRAPHIC NOVELS

Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer (1980-1990)


AUDIO BOOKS

Doctor Who - The Runaway Train (2010)


SOUNDTRACK CDs

Doctor Who - Series 5 (2010)


MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS

Doctor Who - The Official Annual 2011 (2010)
Doctor Who - The Brilliant Book 2011 (2010)
Doctor Who - The Brilliant Book 2012 (2011)


Whilst that may seem a ridiculous amount of stuff I have loved every minute of it and look forward to the next two years of trying to get it all done!

Ginger Nuts

If I worked at the BBC there would be shows like this! :)

Strike a Pose

So I went into the newsagents on the way home today and spent some time looking for a certain magazine, I was already embarrassed slightly so when I saw the staff looking at me suspiciously I of course made it look like I was looking at the row of semi-naked women pouting out from the lurid covers of magazines such as 'Front' and 'Nuts' before spotting my target, taking the final copy to the counter and paying for my copy of Vogue... yes you read that right... I bought a copy of Vogue, but don't judge me - Karen Gillan hypnotised me into buying it... that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

See what I mean? Those eyes are hypnotic!

Anyway it may surprise anyone who hasn't actually met me that I don't know a heck of a lot about the fashion world but apparently 51 years ago a chance meeting in the Vogue offices between photographer David Bailey and model Jean Shrimpton changed the face of fashion photography forever.

Now I am of course aware of David Bailey (miserable bugger from all accounts!) but will admit that I had not heard of Jean Shrimpton until it was announced earlier this year that our very own Ms Gillan would be playing her in a BBC Four biopic called "We'll Take Manhattan".

And that is what this spread is promoting by getting the real-life Bailey to photograph the pair who are re-enacting his formative years. The article itself is kind of slim (six pages in total including the photos) but it's made me want to see the film that much more as in all honesty I didn't really know what it would be about before this (I didn't even know the film was about David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton as every article I read focussed purely on the Gillan/Shrimpton angle).

No idea of an actual date yet but the article does confirm it will be on BBC Four later this year - so something else to look forward to then.