No Taste For Carrot Juice: Why The BBC Programmed Whovians To Hate The Sixth Doctor

 by Shannon Lush

The 'Doctor Who' actor whose television tenure was, to use his own words, 'thwarted in it's progression', has in recent years been given renewed life and a character re-appraisal with Big Finish Audio...but why do so many Whovians continue to disdain this incarnation? Let's explore the possibilities...

Big Finish Strikes Back: The 'Doctor Who' Audio Trilogy Inspired By Star Wars

by Shannon Lush

Big Finish Productions, the audio play specialists who create dazzling new adventures for classic Doctors, have for many years now squeezed every last penny out of their licensing agreement with BBC, cranking out excellent stories that rival, and in many ways surpass, the current television series. Taking full advantage of the 'Doctor Who' actors under contract to them, they have produced so many stories for the Eighth Doctor that it makes a mockery of the fact that incarnation has only appeared on screen twice in almost twenty years. The much-maligned Sixth Doctor has, under Big Finish's careful guidance and with the benefit of simply superior scripting, become a jewel in their audio range crown. Fans who have worn out their copies of multi-Doctor team-up stories have been given the gift of stories featuring several Doctors together, and in the case of the recent release of 'The Light At The End', all classic Doctors together. Simply put, Big Finish produces material that demonstrates what love and passion for 'Doctor Who' can, when focused and determined, accomplish.

Time lords And Time for the Lord: Religion In Doctor Who

By Shannon Lush

The relationship between religion and science fiction has always been one of mutual exclusivity. The very nature of popular science fiction, with its usual reliance on scientific technology and principals, seems to preclude the presence of real-world religious belief. Certainly, the three most popular science fiction television and film franchises, namely 'Doctor Who', 'Star Wars', and 'Star Trek' ,have all seemed to decide that, in their fictional universes, religious belief, specifically the Judeo-Christian concept of God, is simply not a concept worth exploring in great detail, if at all. Each franchise was created from the ground up by hundreds, if not thousands, of contributors from all walks of life. It is safe to assume that, somewhere along the way, by intentional design on the part of the initial creators of each franchise, an unwritten rule was put in place to avoid the topic of real-world religion altogether where and when possible.

The Anniversary Of Destiny: 11 Doctors, 11 audio stories!

By Shannon Lush

Big Finish Productions, keepers of the flame of the original series, have consistently produced unique audio play content that expands and builds upon the Whoniverse as originally presented in the classic TV series. From ‘what if’ speculative adventures in their ‘Doctor Who Unbound’ range to seasons of adventures featuring Romana II on Gallifrey, Big Finish have produced material that cannot fail to delight and entertain dedicated Whovians. Breathing new life into old characters and providing adventures for classic Doctors undreamed of in their televised tenure has become a company hallmark.

The single limitation, if one could call it that, of Big Finish has been, until recently, their license to produce ‘Doctor Who’ content only as it pertained to the classic series. Due to the nature of television licensing, content featuring the New Series could not be produced…until now. Partnering with fellow audio licensee Audio Go, Big Finish have, in addition to their excellent multi-Doctor story ‘The Light At The End’, produced an eleven-part series of stories entitled ‘Destiny Of The Doctor’, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary.

Diamonds Are Forever: Review Of Big Finish Audio Episode ‘Grand Theft Cosmos’

By Shannon Lush

Doctor: Eighth (Paul McGann)

Companion(s): Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith)

Writer (s):  Eddie Robson

Director: Barnaby Edwards

Producer: Nicholas Briggs

Duration: 1 episode, 60 minutes.

Following on from the problematic ‘Skull Of Sobek’ which I reviewed in the previous entry, the next release in production order, ‘Grand Theft Cosmos’, is, quite simply, refreshing.  The story is simple;  in 19^th  century Sweden, The Doctor and Lucie are traveling on a miracle of the ages, an electric train. While Lucie grumbles over being forbidden to bring her iPod for fear of cultural contamination, The Doctor engages in conversation with an expert in the works of the artist Claudio Tardelli. Turns out Tardelli is more than he seems;  he’s an alien and his work contains dangerous by-products that can and do harm the  fabric of the universe. The Doctor has been attempting to suppress the man’s work across time and space, going so far as to ensure that is continually discredited. But now his work is being snapped up by the King of Sweden. The expert, Simonsson, has been charged by His Majesty to hunt for Tardelli’s little-known and rare work. The Doctor realizes that he is responsible for creating a collector’s market for Tardelli’s work, given the man disappeared in the 17^th century.

Canon And Crocodiles: Review of Big Finish Audio ‘The Skull Of Sobek’

Doctor: Eighth (Paul McGann)
Companion(s): Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith)
Writer(s): Marc Platt
Director: Barnaby Edwards
Producer: Nicholas Briggs
Duration:  1 episode,  60 minutes.

Paul McGann was the first ‘new’ Doctor of my early Whovian days. In 1994, having completely caught up to the past 31 years of televised adventures (with the assistance of the telesnap archives printed in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ to fill in the missing stories, and a full devotion to the Target novelizations to fill in the rest), I eagerly followed along with each item of news regarding what would eventually become the FOX Television Movie. Many Whovians malign that movie; they appeared to have missed the entire point of its existence as a ‘backdoor pilot’ in hopes of launching a new series. I didn't mind the oh-so-shocking kiss between The Doctor and his companion Grace;  it was a wonderful, innocent moment of two people expressing joy. I didn't mind the reference to the chameleon circuit as a ‘cloaking device’, to liberally borrow a term from ‘Star Trek’. After all, the Borg certainly had much in common with the Cybermen, so turnabout is fair play. In fact, both myself and Steve Lake, the other host of ‘The Whostorian’ podcast, will point to this single movie as the best place for people not familiar in the least with ‘Doctor Who’ to obtain a crash course. Call it selfish on my part, but one of the reasons I do so is the hope that the old adage of ‘you always remember your first Doctor’ for Whovians will ring true, and we can mint new fans of Paul McGann’s wonderful Eighth Doctor close to twenty years after the character’s first appearance.

Torchwood: Children Of Mirth

By Shannon Lush

This particular entry will be delving into (it’s fair to admit, obsessing over), Torchwood, the ill-fated spinoff series of Doctor Who. Before I ascend too far up the ladder of vitriol, reigning down buckets of Whovian spittle all the way, a few admissions…

First, I never particularly liked anything to do with this series.  When the project was revealed, I felt the concept of a secretive, alien-fighting’ band of government agents was served quite well by UNIT and any newly-created group of like-minded characters were nothing more than watered-down versions. For over thirty years in Doctor Who and just as long within spinoff media, it was well established that UNIT were the world’s foremost defenders from the threat of alien incursion. If any organization was deserving of a televised spinoff from Doctor Who, it is UNIT. Indeed, Big Finish Audio has created excellent spin-off adventures featuring established and new characters. One such adventure even provided David Tennant his first Doctor Who credit, years before he gulped a cup of tea and discovered his fighting hand.

We'll Rant And We'll Roar

by Shannon Lush

This particular entry of the blog is going to be a little different, primarily as it will basically detail my response to a recent review of The Whostorian Podcast found on iTunes. The reviewer quite nicely provided our humble little podcast with a 4 out of 5 star review, which is not only appreciated it's definitely a big help to us, as every comment and review on iTunes (and, indeed, everywhere else we are found online) helps us stand out and gain listeners. So, to this reviewer and to all who have sampled our show and associated media output such as this blog, a hearty 'thank you'. Both Steve and myself continue to perform the podcast as a labour of pure love to both 'Doctor Who' the franchise and to fellow Whovians, and feedback, even if it's negative, is greatly appreciated. 

'Who And Me': Former producer Barry Letts's audiobook review

by Shannon Lush

As an old-school Whovian, I am well accustomed to searching high and low for 'Doctor Who' goodies. Pulling tatty copies of  'Doctor Who' comic books from dusty boxes at comic shops, finding a battered and weather-beaten Mel action figure from a garage sale, and traveling on two buses across two cities in order to track down Target novelizations are all escapades I've endured, and enjoyed, to build a humble collection of merchandise. Canada in the 1980s and 1990s was not a country overflowing with 'Doctor Who' merchandise, and Whovians worth their salt hunted like Slitheens high and low for whatever they could unearth.

'World (Re)Shaping With Grant Morrison

by Shannon Lush

As promised a very long time ago now (sorry readers, been awhile since I've been able to sit down and compose a proper blog entry review for this page, I'll try and be more prolific now that we all are impatiently waiting for the 50th Anniversary episode), it's time to delve into 'Doctor Who' comics review. We'll begin with tales from the current rights holder of the property for comics, IDW Comics, who in addition to publishing an on-going series featuring the current Matt Smith Doctor (I've been catching up on some of them, so expect a review soon), also produce special issues such as the recent 'Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who' crossover story 'Assimilation Squared' which Steve (rightly) slagged to pieces on 'The Whostorian' podcast. To add to this creative output, they also print a title, 'Doctor Who Classic Comics', that exclusively presents material reprinted from 'Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine' ongoing comic strip, and it is an issue of that series we will be reviewing this time around.

An Interview with Colin Baker

By Shannon Lush

From the archives of The Whostorian Quarterly, the original fanzine that evolved into the Podcast we have today, we present, an until now unpublished interview with Colin Baker.

Colin Baker portrayed the sixth incarnation of The Doctor on the classic BBC 'Doctor Who' series, from 1984 to 1986. Here he is interviewed by one of his biggest fans!

Mastermind Review

By Shannon Lush

Long before the BBC took matters into their own corporate hands to provide fans of the good Doctor with fresh material, a small yet exuberant group from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, created the next best thing; their own adventures.