Category Archives: Christmas

Toradora! Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Roger Pocock

Christmas episodes of anime series tend to be disposable affairs that lean towards slice-of-life, but not so with Toradora! There is a run of three episodes that focus on Christmas celebrations, and they build up to a pivotal moment in … Continue reading →

Posted in Anime, Christmas, Entertainment, Reviews, Television | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Box of Delights Episode 6

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“Leave us not Little, nor yet Dark” After an absence of three episodes, it’s great to have Patrick Troughton back as Cole Hawlings. He was chosen for the role because the director was a fan of his Second Doctor Who, … Continue reading →

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The Box of Delights Episode 5

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“Beware of Yesterday” Beware of yesterday, especially when yesterday is achieved with Colour Separation Overlay. Kay goes back into the past in search of Arnold of Todi, the original owner of the Box of Delights. He seems to think that … Continue reading →

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The Box of Delights Episode 4

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“The Spider in the Web” The “spider” of the title presumably refers to Abner, but what flies has he caught, and what will he do with them? There is a theme of capture and escape this week. We get confirmation … Continue reading →

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The Box of Delights Episode 3

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“In Darkest Cellars Underneath” If you thought there was a weak cliffhanger to the end of the previous episode, it does at least lead to a very important scene at the beginning of the third. There are a couple of … Continue reading →

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The Box of Delights Episode 2

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“Where shall the ‘nighted Snowman go?“ We start this episode with Kay slicing at some wolves with a sword and stabbing one to death. OK, we never see the blade make contact with anything, but it’s still pushing things a … Continue reading →

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The Box of Delights Episode 1

Posted on November 14, 2021 by Roger Pocock

“When the Wolves were Running” A wolf. Mr Punch. A rat. A mouse. A Roman soldier. Herne the Hunter. Abner Brown. Cole Hawlings. The Box of Delights. In a sequence that haunted my dreams as a child, these are the … Continue reading →

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The Wonder Years: Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Roger Pocock

The Wonder Years was a series that meant a lot to me as a child. I was about the same age as Kevin when I watched it, and it explored a lot of the issues of growing up that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Entertainment, Reviews, Television | Tagged | 1 Comment

Abroad for Christmas #3

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Roger Pocock

Alfred Basil Lubbock was a maritime author who fought in the Boer War, and wrote about his experiences in Round the Horn Before the Mast, published in 1902.  However, before being sent to the war, his ship was heading to … Continue reading →

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Abroad for Christmas #2

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Roger Pocock

The following quote is from Travels in Greece and Russia by the frankly magnificent author Bayard Taylor, published in 1859.  This man certainly knew how to live his life, and spent one Christmas Day in Lapland, travelling 40 miles across the … Continue reading →

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Abroad for Christmas

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Roger Pocock

American Quaker William Savery (1750-1804) was a notable abolitionist who travelled through Europe between 1796 and 1799.  His journal of travels was published posthumously, as A Journal of the Life, Travels, and Religious Labors of William Savery.  He spent one … Continue reading →

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The Alternate Dr. Who Family

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Roger Pocock

Companion Tropes Extra 11 Last Christmas… I gave you my heart. No, sorry, let’s try that again. It’s hard to start a sentence with those words, a bit like “who you gonna call”. Some words in the English language now … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Comics, Companion Tropes, Doctor Who, Entertainment, Science Fiction, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas Lost

Posted on December 1, 2019 by Roger Pocock

Looking back through some old Bioscope magazines, covering the early days of cinema, there are plenty of references to films that were made to pull in the punters at Christmas.  The following quote is from the 5th November 1914 issue: … Continue reading →

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Hogfather (Terry Pratchett)

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Roger Pocock

LET’S GO SLEIGH THEM! Terry Pratchett was truly one of the greatest authors who ever lived.  So many fantasy authors over the years have produced tedious escapism, far removed from the real world, but Pratchett took a different approach.  He … Continue reading →

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Santa’s TARDIS

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Once upon a time there was a magical time machine that travelled through space.  It was disguised as an ordinary Earth object, and it was bigger on the inside than the outside.  It could travel great distances in the blink … Continue reading →

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Doctor Who Christmas Lexicon

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Sycorax is the mother of Caliban in The Tempest, and a moon of Uranus. Runaway Bride is a 1999 film starring Julia Roberts. HC Clements was an art connoisseur who purchased a portrait of Shakespeare in c.1840. Huon is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Lexicon, Entertainment, Random Chatter, Science Fiction, Television | 1 Comment

Doctor Who Christmas Songs

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Roger Pocock

We all love a good festive pop song don’t we.  So why not mash up our favourite television series with the Christmas spirit?  Well, it has been tried once, in it’s purest form, so let’s start with the obvious, the … Continue reading →

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The Dalek Book

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Roger Pocock

54 years ago some lucky children found a very exciting annual in their Christmas stockings: The Dalek Book, subtitled “astounding stories of the outer space robot people of television’s ‘Dr. Who’”.  It was published by Panther Books Ltd in association … Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas Mr Bean

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The three Doctor Who-less years on television between Survival in 1989 and Dimensions in Time in 1993 seemed like an eternity, let alone the seven-year gap between the end of the Classic Series and the Movie in 1996, or the … Continue reading →

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Festive Beards in Doctor Who

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Roger Pocock

What do you associate with Christmas?  What are those truly iconic things we think of when we think of Christmas?  Turkey?  Stockings?  Christmas Trees?  Pudding? Forget all those.  There is nothing more festive than a big beard.  Ask Santa Claus.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Doctor Who, Entertainment, Random Chatter, Television | Tagged , | 3 Comments