Week seven of the Doctor Who lockdown brought three Doctors, a Zygon invasion, and more treats from the Time Space Visualiser, G’Day of the Doctor and more…
Here we are the end of week seven of lockdown! That’s almost a year in dog’s years! Many countries around the world begin a long, slow process back towards normality. But even now Doctor Who and its fandom continues to provide an outlet for millions of people around the world. Though with every nation charting its own path, and different restrictions being lifted at different rates, or not at all, for the foreseeable future, it’s still unclear how long how many of us will be in lockdown together. A confusion Nardole actor Matt Lucas embodied in a Tweet on Sunday night.
— realmattlucas (@RealMattLucas) May 10, 2020
Stolen Goods from Big Finish – a steal at £0
Big Finish continued their strand of free Lockdownload adventures with an outing for Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter. The story Stolen Goods, by Matt Fritton, features a Jenny who is fresh and inexperienced. She’s determined to carve out her own place in the universe. But the galaxy is a big, dark place. How much can she trust the new friends she comes across?
Staying in the TARDIS
This was week two of the official site’s raiding of the cupboards for free content to keep those in quarantine occupied. This time they’re encouraging fans of all ages to send in photos of their best Doctor Who inspired cooking efforts. And to get you started a recipe for Adipose Pavolva from the Doctor Who Cookbook is free to download. There’s also a fresh sent of printables, with a Join-the-dots page (originally from Doctor Who: Dot-to-Dot), a TARDIS word search (originally from Titan Comics’ The Thirteenth Doctor). And finally a colouring page featuring the brilliant art of fan favourite artist Rachael Stott (also from Titan’s The Thirteenth Doctor)
These can all be found at the official Staying in the TARDIS page.
#TruthOrConsequences
The popular strand of Doctor Who live tweet rewatches organized by DWM’s Emily Cook continued with the Zygon Invasion/Inversion two-parter. A dark, labyrinthine exploration of identity, the politics of radicalization and big blobby orange shapeshifters, it’s routinely cited as one of the truly great stories of the past decade. Writer Peter Harness and star Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) were on hand with their anecdotes and insights into the production too. With the Zygon story arguably one of those which changed the most from first draft to final screen version, there was a lot of fascinating information to be shared.
The Zygon Isolation
We were spoiled again by yet more brand new content from the WhoLockdown team. The Zygon Isolation is written by Peter Harness and stars Ingrid Oliver as the Osgoods as they stay safe together, apart. As always with the Osgoods it makes a heartfelt point in a fun and light way – and also reveals a new expansion of Osgood’s cosplay wardrobe to include a new Doctor…
#DandyAndTheClown
Some old school Doctor Who also got love with the #DandyAndTheClown live tweet of 1973’s The Three Doctors. Organized by Ellie Collins, aka the amazing TardisMonkey, it reached #4 in the UK Trending chart as dozens of fans celebrated an adventure simultaneously thrilling and silly, dramatic and silly. In short, possibly one of the most Doctor Who Doctor Who stories ever.
The Quiz of Rassilon
The Quiz of Rassilon continued being the biggest, baddest, and certainly maddest gathering of Doctor Who fans in one place this side of the galaxy. This week included Josh Snares’ fabulously fiendish (and fiendishly fabulous) entry test for the Nyssa Appreciation Society. more ribald interrogation from Gav Rimyll, and Kezia Newson’s costume conundrums. There were also two rounds from celebrated novelist, comics writer and TV scriptwriter Paul Cornell, one looking at both TV and book versions of Human Nature, and the other at the history of Doctor Who comics. Plus Blogtor Who came sixth out of a field of forty-one, so that was pretty nice too.
Peter Capaldi hosts an afternoon in aid of the House of St. Barnabas
Another event the day before the Quiz of Rassilon took many at surprise. The House of St. Barnabas held a ticketed fundraiser quiz on Saturday. But they waited until figuratively the last minute to announce their celebrity quizmaster – Peter Capaldi! Yes, it was none other than the Twelfth Doctor himself both asking the questions, and answering a few himself about his life and career. With rounds on Doctor Who and The Thick of It, and Capaldi himself on sparkling form, it provided a couple of hours of laughter and wit just when it was least expected.
Time Space Visualiser: Girl Power
This week’s Time Space Visualiser, from the splendid folk at Fantom Films, provided another virtual convention and a whopping five hours of informative interviews, fun and distraction. Panels included
- Battlefield: Sophie Aldred (Ace) and Angela Bruce (Brigadier Bambera)
- Survival: Writer Runo Munro, Lisa Bowerman (Karra) and Sakuntala Ramanee (Shreela)
- The Pirate Planet: Rosalind Lloyd (Nurse/Queen Xanxia), and Primi Townsend (Mula)
Plus new interviews with
- April Walker, the original Sarah Jane Smith!
- Sadie Miller, daughter of Elisabeth Sladen, soon to be heard as Sarah Jane in Big Finish’s Return of the Cybermen
Janet Ellis (The Horns of Nimon) - Felicity Gibson (The Dominators)
- Judith Paris (The Hand of Fear)
- Frances White (The Myth Makers)
- Sophia Myles (The Girl in the Fireplace)
The complete event is still available on their official YouTube channel too!
G’Day of the Doctor: Lockdownunder!
Meanwhile, one event that couldn’t go ahead this week in its originally planed form was G’Day of the Doctor. Conceived as a convention in aid of helping alleviate the suffering of people and wildlife in the Australian bush fires it’s had to put off to a later date. But the team have put together a special one hour view treat, filmed by the guests in isolation – G’Day of the Doctor: Lockdownunder. Access to the film, featuring Doctor Who polymath Mark Gatiss, Katy Manning (Jo), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Nicola Bryant (Peri), the puppetry of Avenue Who and much more can be accessed for a donation of just £5 or with a ticket to the origin.
With everything that’s happened since it’s easy for the bush fires to feel like they happened as long ago as a Christmas on Trenzalore, but the suffering in Australia is still very present and very real. So please support this very worthy cause if you at all can.
https://www.outsavvy.com/event/4419/gday-of-the-doctor-tickets
Next week
More staying in the TARDIS, live tweets of The Fires of Pompeii and An Adventure in Time and Space, and much more.
