Vigilant Doctor Who news site Blogtor Who have been posting pictures of a forthcoming range of Who Easter Eggs over the last few days, and something instantly struck me about them.  Yes, they’re using the old (pre-resurrection if you want, which you probably don’t) branding.

I realise Easter Eggs are produced and sold well in advance of Easter but excited children gathering around the TV on Easter weekend to (probably) watch the brand new New Who while tucking into eggs plastered with a logo that will be well out of date by then is an odd image.  I know, I know, having Davros and the Daleks next to the New Blue would make no sense but they’re both just as out of date at that horrific taxi logo, anyway.  Why not use The Weeping Angels? Or Stephen Moffat’s beaming face?  Anything to stop those poor confused tykes having something to remind them of the show as it once was when they should be casting off the shackles and getting to know the show all over again.

Join us tomorrow when I’ll probably get unduly upset about something else that doesn’t actually matter.  Unless that rumoured RTD movie starring Tennant is confirmed and then you’ll see me really upset, for much the same reasons only without the delicious chocolate for comfort.

Yesterday, The Daily Telegraph revealed the shocking lefty campaign to ‘infiltrate’ Doctor Who (that most conservative of all British institutions) with vile swipes at our good lady Thatcher.  Of course, the anti-Thatcher themes were well known to almost every single disgusting Doctor Who fan prior to Sunday, but it was about time middle England learned of this chilling plot.

Today, The Telegraph’s resident foetus, Will Heaven, has waded in with his own razor sharp analysis of the situation, making the bold claim that Doctor Who is actually shit, anyway.  Will goes on to boldly challenge Doctor Who‘s status as the BBC’s flagship program, claiming consistently high ratings and critical acclaim don’t count because he’s decided the rest of British TV is shit.  Poor old Will Heaven just doesn’t understand why all these freaky fantasists continue to watch a show which is clearly cheap tat with no appeal to the all mighty WILL HEAVEN.

Just so you’re aware, though, Will Heaven is a cultured man and not a clueless prick.  Oh no.  Tennant is definitely a fantastic actor because Will Heaven has cast his discerning eye over Hamlet and declared it so.  Will Heaven also likes The West Wing and apparently believes its existence (among other “US DVDs” probably including The Wire, the trendy shitbag) completely negates the need to watch Doctor Who.

So, I hope you’ve all had a good long look at yourselves, because Will Heaven thinks you’re a cunt.

Getting a peek ‘behind the curtain’ is something a very specific kind of person enjoys.  DVD commentaries and documentaries are created specifically for the sort of person that loves a certain thing so much they want to gather as much information about said thing as possible, even if that were to mean the illusion of fiction is forever ruined. In some cases this can be fascinating or even exciting (I challenge you to find one Red Dwarf fan sans stiffy whenever a DVD release day rolled round) but in most cases it feels more like Derren Brown describing how he predicted the Lottery numbers; disappointing and full of lies.  Getting into the mind of Russell T Davies is the ultimate act of peeking behind the curtain for any Who fan, and effect this book had on me was a curious one.  I was never bored, never disillusioned and never disappointed.  I was, however, terrified.

Because, now that it’s finished, it seems to have become somewhat fashionable to bash the preceding five years of the show – spotlighting and picking at its flaws (some of which do exist, no question; don’t think us blind apologists) without really giving fair due to all the things that made it… well, five pretty darned excellent (on the whole) years of television that even the most wide-eyed optimist wouldn’t have expected, a decade earlier, ever to see associated with the name of the series again. So in the interests of balance, selected on a random whim and in no particular order, here are some of those things. Feel free to add your own in the comments, and we’ll tell you whether you’re correct or not.

While we promise not to just regurgitate every little story we see on other sites, this is very interesting indeed.  As that article has spoiler tags I’ll do you all the courtesy of continuing this post below the jump.

Venture forth for some of them tasty spoilerinos…

For those of us who didn’t manage to submit something for their “pitch us a Fifth Doctor done-in-one audio drama” thing recently (I had a cracking idea for a claustrophobic thriller, until Julian pointed out that it was basically The Rescue underwater), Big Finish have offered yet another call out to frustrated writers. It’s The Return of Short Trips!

Big Finish are proud to announce a new series of short-story collections starring the Doctor and his companions. Each CD will feature eight brand-new adventures, read by  well-known actors and written by…

… you?

Submissions please!

Exciting stuff. The story needs to be under 2,500 words, can use “any of the first eight Doctors… any of the classic television companions (up to and including Ace) and any of the Big Finish companions”, and needs to be submitted by 29th March. Which isn’t a whole lot of time to write a full story (as opposed to a simple story pitch), but on the other hand, it is only 2500 words. I’ve managed 7% of that just by writing up this blog post.

Hey, I wonder if they’d like a story about an annoying fan of a sci-fi show writing pithy blog updates? It could be Whizz-Kid! Whizz-Kid’s Adventures in the Blogosphere! It’s easy, this writing lark.

Den of Geek have taken time out from writing some things with ascending numbers next to them to interview Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes creator Matthew Graham.  This is what he say:

“I’d love to come back. I went to see Piers Wenger and Steven Moffat last year about doing a two-parter for the series that they’re shooting now. And I contacted them and said, ‘Look, I’ve got this idea for a Doctor Who. Can I talk to you?’ And they were, ‘Yeah, yeah. Brilliant.’ And I just couldn’t make the time work, with going to the States and Ashes gearing up again. But I’d love to go back and do some more.

I want to do one with monsters. They owe me monsters!”

… is only partly because he’s a modern-day master of fantasy storytelling with an uncanny knack for character and a near-unrivalled imagination coupled with a vast knowledge of literary history and traditions. It’s also because he’s already written The Best Doctor That Never Was :

(and yes, Neverwhere is also the reason why many of us were gutted that Paterson Joseph wasn’t the Eleventh Doctor)

Obviously I’m still incredibly excited about series five – the prospect of kicking off with four Moffat episodes, broken up only by a Gatiss/Daleks/WW2 story, is of course seeing to that – but man, I’m starting to get even more excited about series six already. Any chance of bumping Chibnall and quickly shooting Gaiman’s episode instead? No? Bugger.

I’m not sure I entirely trust the veracity of this Popbitch story (if there had been any plans to bring back Sally for series four, wouldn’t we have known about it from The Writer’s Tale?), but it’s still amusing :

Carey Mulligan was offered the role of Dr Who assistant,
which eventually went to Catherine Tate. She apparently
said no because Dr Who fans are too mentally obsessive.

You’ve got to admit, she’s got a handle on us there.

Well, now. This looks lovely.

Fanzines are, of course, something of a dying breed, rendered largely (though not entirely) irrelevant by the internet; and if this were just another showcase for people writing lengthy articles and opinion pieces, you’d have to wonder what would set it apart from (a) all the other fanzines and (b) all the countless websites (hello!) But this does have something that sets it apart, focusing as it does on the comic strip and magazine history of Doctor Who. And that fact alone is enough to justify it coming out in print format, rather than online, as it’s a far better medium to appreciate the doubtless tonnes of archive (and new) artwork and the like contained within. It also has a pretty damned impressive array of contributors – everyone from Dez Skinn to Dave Gibbons, Roger Langridge to Andrew Pixley. And look at that cover!

£5.99 (plus a quid postage) seems a little much for 80 pages, but given that it looks to be more akin to the quality of an actual newsstand magazine – and given that it’s a not-for-profit venture that presumably could do with recouping as much of its production costs as possible – it still looks very worth getting. Limited to 1000 copies, though, so get in there quickly!