Tag Archives: Romana

Romana the Distaff Counterpart

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Roger Pocock

Companion Tropes 4 Supergirl, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Batwoman, She-Ra, Little Miss Chatterbox, Mrs Potato Head, Romana. OK, not quite the same thing, but on a fundamental level these are all distaff counterparts. The term refers to a particular kind of female … Continue reading →

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Doctor Who Annual 1981

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Roger Pocock

The amount of stories was reduced again for the 1981 Doctor Who Annual, with just one comic strip and five short stories.  However, the child of 1980 had no reason to feel hard-done-by, because the stories are actually all of … Continue reading →

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Doctor Who Annual 1980

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Roger Pocock

The 1980 Doctor Who Annual offers slim pickings once again to fans of Doctor Who fiction, with only five stories and two comic strips.  On the plus side, it’s the first annual for many years to feature recognisable artwork for … Continue reading →

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Shada

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Oh I do love the spring.  All the leaves, the colours. Cambridge is an amazing place.  When I was a teenager I stayed in one of the colleges for a few days, one summer, with a view to possibly studying … Continue reading →

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City of Death

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The appreciation of art can easily be extended to film and television.  It is not a giant leap to interpret Doctor Who as art, and more than once a story has actually taken a work of art as the starting … Continue reading →

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Destiny of the Daleks

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Roger Pocock

I’ll turn Davros and his life-support system into scrap metal. Now spack off! It’s not often we hear the Doctor swear.  I suppose that must be some kind of Time Lord insult.  All joking aside, the situation at that point … Continue reading →

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Nightmare of Eden

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Season 17 has been big on ideas, and following on from a story that was a mashup of issues of capitalism and Greek mythology we have an anti-drugs parable where worlds collide. To tackle drug addiction in Doctor Who in … Continue reading →

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The Creature from the Pit

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Me only cruel immortality Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms, Here at the quiet limit of the world… Oh dear, look at that monster.  It’s shaped like… well, that’s unfortunate.  How did nobody notice before it went in front … Continue reading →

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The Armageddon Factor

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Roger Pocock

A big climax to a 26 episode story arc needs to be epic, and that’s exactly what The Armageddon Factor shoots for.  It has a mixed reputation and maybe I’m just a sucker for the tricks the story plays, but … Continue reading →

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The Power of Kroll

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The Power of Kroll is one of those Doctor Who stories where people sometimes struggle to see past the special effects.  They would have been a lot better, were it not for a couple of mistakes: only the bottom half … Continue reading →

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The Androids of Tara

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The first thing that always gets said about The Androids of Tara is that it was based on The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope.  I suspect that might feel like an obscure reference nowadays for any new fans discovering … Continue reading →

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The Stones of Blood

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The problem with The Stones of Blood is you can’t see the birthday cake.  It was there, and it informs the whole story, but it never made it to screen.  You see, this was the 100th Doctor Who story, and … Continue reading →

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The Pirate Planet

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Most television series would be incredibly lucky to get even one creative genius contributing scripts.  Doctor Who has had several, and the most notable is Douglas Adams, one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century.  This is his debut … Continue reading →

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The Ribos Operation

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Well, this is something very different.  The closest we have come to a season arc before was the Master appearing in every story in Season Eight, unless you count six out of the seven Season Five stories having the same … Continue reading →

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Warriors’ Gate

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Roger Pocock

So here it is, the most incorrectly apostrophized story on websites of them all (yes, there is more than one warrior!).  It’s also one of the biggest missed opportunities of them all, because it chickens out on an idea that … Continue reading →

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State of Decay

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Welcome back Terrance Dicks.  Watching this in the original broadcast order it seems like an eternity since Doctor Who has done something like this, and it only happened because new script editor Christopher H Bidmead was in a pretty dire … Continue reading →

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Full Circle

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Roger Pocock

So here begins the E-Space Trilogy, a run of three stories set in a different universe.  If this were done again, it would be described in terms of the TARDIS passing through a “rift”, or a “crack in the universe”, … Continue reading →

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Meglos

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Roger Pocock

As monsters go, Meglos is a really odd one, a mad and bad shapeshifter who also happens to be a cactus.  As threats go, this is delightfully strange.  He also works well as a way to tell a story about … Continue reading →

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The Leisure Hive

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Look!  We’ve been completely reinvented.  This is now a totally new blog, a complete departure from what it was last week, and nothing will ever be the same again… because the writing is BLUE! Sometimes a change is not as … Continue reading →

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The Horns of Nimon

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Roger Pocock

How many Nimons have you seen today? Poor Soldeed’s marbles have gone astray. There are many flavours of Doctor Who, And Tomfoolery fun should not be taboo. When Doctor Who started getting released on VHS tapes, the first choices were … Continue reading →

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