Downtime Downtime I’m not generally a big fan of the ‘expanded media’ when it comes to Doctor Who. My take tends to be that the televised stuff is canonical and everything else is there to take or leave as you see fit. I don’t tend to listen to many of the…

Dimensions in Time Dimensions in Time Ooh, not a lot makes Doctor Who fans cross like Dimensions in Time. I have to admit I’ve always had a soft spot for it, but then I suppose for me it’s never been anything all that important. On broadcast it had been almost four years since…

Survival Parts Two and Three Survival — Part Two Okay, so the cheetahs look far more cuddly than they do scary and that is one of the problems with this story. I know they’re supposed to be playful by nature, but you can’t get away from the fact that they’re that bit too cute…

Ghost Light Part Three and Survival Part One Ghost Light — Part Three After all that stuff about this one being confusing, I actually think this final episode makes perfect sense. As with the others it’s all about theme more than anything else. Everything smokes down to control. Not the character Control, the concept of…

Ghost Light Parts One and Two Ghost Light — Part One Ah, Ghost Light. The ‘complicated’ Doctor Who story. I’ll confess that I was just as baffled by this story on first viewing as everyone seems to be, although part of that was down to my not understanding the format. When I first saw this…

Battlefield Parts Three and Four Battlefield — Part Three The big thing that’s bothering me about this story is that there’s loads of action and excitement, but it’s all being directed quite poorly, which robs these moments of the impact they should have. Take the shootout between the knights and Bambera , for example…

Battlefield Parts One and Two Battlefield — Part One I know they decided to open the season with the return of the Brigadier, but kicking off the new run of adventures with a shot of a couple doing some shopping in a garden centre isn’t the most thrilling thing Doctor Who has ever done…

The Curse of Fenric Parts Three and Four The Curse of Fenric — Part Three Well it’s no wonder I was expecting ‘We play the game again… Time Lord’ to be a cliffhanger, because it is! Hah! It’s just an episode later than I was expecting. I’ll tell you what, though, it’s one of the very best…

The Curse of Fenric Parts One and Two Stop! Don’t panic! Put down your copies of The Programme Guide. No, you’ve not missed a couple of days. No, I’m not skipping some stories. The last two McCoy seasons were both swapped around before broadcast, resulting in them being screened in…