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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Doctor WhoRyan Sinclair is nonplussed by the bicycle his grandmother, Grace, and her husband, Graham, have gotten for him; he suffers from a coordination disorder that makes riding it difficult, though he finds it easy – in a fit of anger – to throw it off a hill. As he’s retrieving it, Ryan sees a three-dimensional geometric shape form in the air; when he touches it, it disappears, replaced by a large blue pod. He calls the police, and is reunited with childhood friend Yasmin Khan, now a police officer in training, when she responds to his call.

Ryan, Grace and Graham are riding the train back into town when the train crashes into something, killing the driver. An undulating mass of electrical wires corners the passengers when a woman crashes through the ceiling of the train and immediately wards off the wires, as if that’s her first instinct. Unfortunately, while she immediately takes charge of the situation, she has no idea who she is, though she claims that she was a Scotsman mere minutes ago, confusing the already-terrified people in her vicinity. After this initial burst of activity, she collapses in Grace and Graham’s home, awakening to find that something has emerged from the pod seen by Ryan. A being called Tzim-Sha is hunting for a designated target on Earth, as part of a ritualistic hunt that determines the status of his race, the Stenza. What he doesn’t know is that he is now up against the Doctor – even if she’s not sure of who she is yet – who is pledged to protect Earth and its people.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sharon D. Clarke (Grace O’Brien), Samuel Oatley (Tim Shaw), Jonny Dixon (Karl), Amit Shah (Rahul), Asha Kingsley (Sonia), Janine Mellor (Janey), Asif Khan (Ramesh Sunder), James Thackeray (Andy), Philip Abiodun (Dean), Stephen MacKenna (Dennis), Everal A. Walsh (Gabriel)

Chris Noth as Robertson in Doctor WhoNotes: After 12 years of the Doctor’s adventures being scored by Murray Gold, this is the first change of music composer in the revived Doctor Who series; ironically, it’s also the first episode in Doctor Who’s 55-year history to completely omit an opening title sequence, so Segun Akinola’s new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music wouldn’t debut until the following episode, The Ghost Monument. Bradley Walsh had previously appeared as Odd Bob in the Russell T. Davies-era Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures (Day Of The Clown parts 1 and 2), as well as the 2001 comedy Hotel!, where he shared screen time with once and future Doctors Paul McGann and Peter Capaldi. The episode’s title is a reference to the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie. The teeth are a dead giveaway that Tim Shaw is no relation to Liz Shaw.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Ghost Monument

Doctor WhoThe Doctor’s attempt to teleport to the last location of the TARDIS goes wrong…badly. Not only does the process deposit the Doctor in the airless void of space, but it also leaves Graham, Yaz and Ryan there as well. Ryan and Graham awaken on a spacecraft whose captain accuses them of slowing her down. The Doctor and Yaz have been rescued by a ship whose captain makes the same accusation, and whose ship is falling apart. The Doctor manages to help that pilot, Epzo, pull off a survivable crash landing by ditching the aft section of his ship. The planet where the time travelers are reunited, known only as the Desolation, is the site of the Rally of the Twelve Galaxies – a race to survive to the finish line where the winner takes all and the loser loses it all, though the contestants are forbidden from killing one another. The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz are unable to claim the prize, but are likely to be killed by the planet’s harsh desert environment before anyone reaches the goal – a blue, box-shaped apparition known to the contestants as the Ghost Monument. But the Doctor knows this box as the TARDIS, and so the deadly race holds very high stakes indeed for the time travelers.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Mark Tonderai
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Doctor WhoTosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Susan Lynch (Angstrom), Shaun Dooley (Epzo), Art Malik (Ilin), Ian Gelder (voice of the Remnants)

Notes: The thirteenth Doctor’s title sequence (and a new arrangement of the theme tune by Segun Akinola) makes its debut at the beginning of this episode. The Desolation is revealed to have been desolated by the Stenza, the species from which the previous episode’s alien enemy hails.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

Rosa

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands in Montgomery, Alabama mere days before December 1st, 1955, the night on which Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. It’s only after Ryan innocently tries to return a dropped item to a white couple that the time travelers crash into the brutal reality of the racism in this era of American history – and meet Rosa Parks herself. Soon afterward, the Doctor becomes aware that another time traveler is in Montgomery at the same time, something that can’t possibly be a coincidence, and finds herself confronting a man whose preference for a racially-segregated future has led him to try to change history. Ryan attends a meeting at Parks’ home and gets to meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while the Doctor, Graham and Yaz put a plan into motion to keep history on the right track to advance the American civil rights movement…but to do that, not only must they derail the scheme of their rival time traveler, they must remain still, and seemingly indifferent to the reality of race in 1955 in America, as they occupy seats about the same bus on the night of Rosa Parks’ arrest.

Order the DVDwritten by Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall
directed by Mark Tonderai
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Vinette Robinson (Rosa Parks), Joshua Bowman (Krasko), Trevor White (James Blake), Richard Lothian (Mr. Steele), Jessica Claire Preddy (Waitress), Gareth Marks (Police Officer Mason), David Rubin (Raymond Parks), Ray Sesay (Martin Luther King), Aki Omoshaybi (Fred Gray), David Dukas (Elias Griffin Jr.), Morgan Deare (Arthur)

Doctor WhoNotes: Vinette Robinson had made a prior appearance in Doctor Who, in the 2007 episode 42 opposite David Tennant’s Doctor; she has also appeared in Black Mirror (Hated In The Nation) and Sherlock. Joshua Bowman has some time travel experience of his own, as Jack the Ripper in the short-lived 2017 TV adaptation of the movie Time After Time. American-born actor Morgan Deare previously appeared opposite Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor in the 1987 three-parter Delta And The Bannerman, and in the 2001 Big Finish audio story Minuet In Hell, starring Paul McGann’s Doctor. He has also appeared in Star Cops (another BBC science fiction series produced in 1987) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Doctor WhoAs unlikely a topic as Rosa Parks’ arrest might seem for a British science fiction series, the reality is that this historical event had ripples that reached England as well, in particular a boycott of bus service in Bristol, inspired by the boycott following Parks’ 1955 arrest, and arising from the bus company’s refusal to hire non-caucasian drivers or other employees. Unlike the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, the Bristol boycott organized by Paul Stephenson lasted only two months in 1963, and was resolved by the bus company’s hire of its first non-white bus conductor a mere three months before Doctor Who premiered. (This also partly explains Ryan and Yaz’ degree of familiarity with Parks’ role in American history.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

Arachnids In The UK

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS somewhat unexpectedly deposits the Doctor, Ryan, Yaz and Graham not just in the present day, but within a short walk of Yaz’s apartment, and the Doctor is crestfallen when her companions seem all too ready to part ways with her. An impromptu invitation to have dinner with Yaz’s family softens the blow. For Graham, however, nothing softens the blow of going home to an empty house filled with cobwebs.

Too many cobwebs, though – and it’s not isolated to Graham’s home. As Yaz goes to pick her mother up from work, the Doctor and Ryan are asked by a neighbor to help perform a welfare check on a woman who hasn’t been seen leaving her apartment for days… only to find that she’s dead, cocooned in a thick web woven by a frighteningly oversized spider. The neighbor – a research scientist studying spiders – admits that there have been similar incidents in and around Sheffield. All the activity points toward a hotel, owned by American business magnate (and presidential hopeful) Jack Robertson, mere days away from opening. Robertson has discovered that the rooms of his hotel are also infested with giant spiders…and his bodyguard has just been dragged away by the largest one. It turns out that his hotel business builds on toxic sites operated by his waste disposal business, which, while cheap, now threatens to turn Earth into a planet of the spiders… and threatens to turn the human race into dinner unless the Doctor can find a way to stop the spiders’ spread. But her ideas and Robertson’s are vastly different, since his solution is to go in shooting.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Sallie Aprahamian
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Chris Noth (Robertson), Sharon D. Clarke (Grace O’Brien), Shobna Gulati (Najia Khan), Tanya Fear (Dr. Jade McIntyre), Ravin J. Ganatra (Hakim Khan), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya Khan), Jaleh Alp (Frankie Ellish), William Meredith (Kevin)

Chris Noth as Robertson in Doctor WhoNotes: Actor Chris Noth is no stranger to American audiences, having been a regular on such series as Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Sex And The City, The Good Wife, Gone, and Tyrant. But alongside his mainstream successes, he’s also done some voice work, in Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (as Lex Luthor, no less) and the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s big-screen anime From Up On Poppy Hill. Shobna Gulati has had two long-running stints on UK soap Coronation Street as Sunita Alahan, as well as Doctors, Casualty, and River City. Tanya Fear has appeared in the series Spotless and the movie Kick-Ass 2. Guest roles on Coronation Street and Doctors also appear on Ravin J. Ganatra’s resume, along with the movie Entrapment, and a prior appearance in the Doctor Who universe (as a different character) in the Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts. The episode’s other American character is played by American-born William Meredith, who has appeared in Band Of Brothers and Outlander, but has also done voice acting for the Battlefield video game franchise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Tsuranga Conundrum

Doctor WhoA visit to a salvage planet in the Seffilun 27 galaxy goes wrong when Graham happens upon a sonic mine, which detonates seconds later. The time travelers awaken aboard an automated hospital ship, staffed by only two medics, which makes routine runs between the planets Tsuranga and Resus One, near the planet where the TARDIS team tripped the mine. Only now they don’t have the TARDIS, and they do have a problem: a life form capable of surviving the vacuum of space manages to sneak aboard and begans literally chewing its way through the ship’s systems, starting with the life pods. Other patients aboard the hospital ship have useful skills in this crisis, but are suffering from their own conditions and weaknesses. The Doctor, still recovering from the point-blank sonic mine detonation, tries to rally everyone aboard to deal with the alien creature and keep themselves alive.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jennifer Perrott
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Brett Goldstein (Astos), Lois Chimimba (Mabli), Suzanne Packer (General Eve Cicero), Ben Bailey-Smith (Durkas Cicero), David Shields (Ronan), Jack Shalloo (Yoss)

Chris Noth as Robertson in Doctor WhoNotes: Brett Goldstein co-starred with David Hasselhoff in the surreal UK reality show Hoff The Record, and has appeared on Derek, Undercover, Drunk History UK, Drifters, and Uncle. Lois Chimimba is no stranger to hospital dramas, having appeared in Trust Me and Holby City, and the same can certainly be said of Suzanne Packer, who starred as Tess on Casualty. Ben Bailey-Smith has voiced characters on the 21st century revival Thunderbirds Are Go, while David Shields appeared in episodes of The Crown alongside former Doctor Who star Matt Smith. Ironically, given Graham’s Call The Midwife addiction (except for the squeamish bits), guest star Jack Shalloo had just appeared on that show’s 2018 Christmas special.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

Demons Of The Punjab

Doctor WhoYaz returns home for her grandmother’s birthday, and finds herself receiving a gift rather than giving one: a broken watch which is said to have belonged to her grandfather, whom she never met, though Yaz is disappointed when her grandmother refuses to explain why the watch has never been repaired. But Yaz has something that most family researchers don’t – access to a time machine – and convinces the Doctor to journey back to the events surrounding the breaking of the watch. But since Yaz has no idea what events transpired, she’s unwittingly bringing the TARDIS and her fellow time travelers into danger: her grandmother was married on the day that British-ruled India was divided into sovereign India and Pakistan, with tensions between soon-to-be-displaced Hindus and Muslims about to explode into widespread violence. Two aliens, whom the Doctor assumes to be assassins interfering in the timeline, appear repeatedly, though not for the reason that the Doctor expects. The grandfather Yaz never met will die on this day, and if Yaz is too careless with her own intervention in her family’s history, she could cease to exist as well.

Order the DVDwritten by Vinay Patel
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Leena Dhingra (Nani Umbreen), Amita Suran (Umbreen), Shane Zaza (Prem), Hamza Jeetooa (Manish), Shaheen Khan (Hasna), Shobna Gulati (Najia), Ravin J. Ganatra Doctor Who: Demons Of The Punjab(Hakim), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya), Emma Fielding (voice of Kisar), Nathalie Cuzner (performance of Kisar), Isobel Middleton (voice of Almak), Barbara Fadden (performance of Almak)

Notes: In additional to appearances on Coronation Street and EastEnders, Leena Dhingra has a prior Doctor Who appearance (as Miss Chandrakala in 2008’s The Unicorn And The Wasp). Shane Zaza appears in TNT’s Will, and appeared in the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror, while Hamza Jeetooa appeared in two episodes of the original BBC version of Being Human.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

Kerblam!

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS is boarded by a robot delivery man from Kerblam, the largest mail-order retailer in the galaxy, with a package that the Doctor ordered some time back. But while the Doctor is delighted to once again have a fez, the packing slip is even more important – bearing the words “help me” on the back. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS to Kerblam headquarters, where the time travelers go undercover as new hires in a warehouse populated by 90% robots and 10% people (in accordance with local law). Workers have been disappearing from Kerblam, and the Doctor immediately suspects the company’s small management staff, especially when Slade, the warehouse manager, is revealed to have known about the disappearances without telling anyone. But the Doctor soon discovers that Kerblam itself sent out the distress call…and that one of the “organics” on the premises is planning to start a planet-wide spree of death and destruction with super saver shipping.

Order the DVDwritten by Pete McTighe
directed by Jennifer Perrott
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Julie Hesmondhalgh (Judy Maddox), Lee Mack (Dan Cooper), Callum Dixon (Jarva Slade), Claudia Jessie (Kira Arlo), Leo Flanagan (Charlie Duffy), Matthew Gravelle (voice of Kerblam)

Doctor WhoNotes: Odds are good that the eleventh Doctor purchased the fez, a piece of headwear whose coolness he was fond of declaring (though it could have been the seventh Doctor, who had some affection for fezzes, as seen in 1988’s Silver Nemesis). This episode also isn’t the first time that mail has been delivered directly into the TARDIS, as a similar special delivery initiated the seventh Doctor’s investigation of the Psychic Circus in 1988’s The Greatest Show In The Galaxy.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Witchfinders

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS goes a bit off course, depositing the time travelers in 17th century English village of Bilehurst Cragg, ruled over by Becka Savage, the widow of the local landowner… just as Becka is about to have an accused witch drowned before the entire assembled population of the village. The Doctor interferes, but is too late to save the woman accused of witchcraft. When Becka Savage promises to try the time travelers as witches themselves, the Doctor (with a little help from the psychic paper) tries to take control of the situation by assuming the guise of the “Witchfinder General”, only to be upstaged when King James himself shows up. He promises to help Becka Savage drive Satan (and anyone she thinks might be a witch) from Bilehurst Cragg. Yaz helps the granddaughter of the executed woman bury her body, only to see tentacle-like appendages emerge from the grave. When she tells the Doctor, the hunt is on for whatever alien influence is causing even the King himself to suspect that witches are widespread among the villagers…as well as the hunt for the answer of why there’s no historical record of Bilehurst Cragg.

Order the DVDwritten by Joy Wilkinson
directed by Sallie Aprahamian
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Alan Cumming (King James), Siobhan Finneran (Becka Savage), Tilly Steele (Willa Twiston), Tricia Kelly (Old Mother Twiston), Arthur Kay (Smithy), Stavros Demetraki (Alfonso)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

It Takes You Away

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands in Norway, 2018, near a cabin that seems to be abandoned; when Ryan catches a fleeting glimpse of someone inside the house, they decide to investigate, finding a blind girl hiding in a wardrobe. Her father is missing, and she lives in fear of creatures that she hears lurking outside. Those same sounds drive the time travelers into the house for shelter, and they discover a mirror that isn’t what it seems to be, but is instead a portal to another dimension. The Doctor, Graham and Yaz go through the portal to investigate, leaving Ryan to watch over the girl at the house. Soon, he discovers that she’s not exactly helpless, and the howling sounds coming from outside aren’t coming from vicious creatures. The Doctor, Yaz and Graham find themselves in a near-exact copy of the house they just left, complete with the girl’s missing father – and the mother who she said was dead. The Doctor can say nothing to convince him to leave this dimension, not even for the sake of his own daughter…and worse yet, Grace appears to Graham, trying to convince him to stay as well.

Order the DVDwritten by Ed Hime
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sharon D. Clarke (Grace), Eleanor Wallwork (Hanne), Kevin Eldon (Ribbons), Christian Rubeck (Erik), Lisa Stokke (Trine)

Doctor WhoNotes: Kevin Eldon is an old hand at Doctor Who and science fiction in general, though his prior Doctor Who role wasn’t on television: he starred as the seventh Doctor’s robotic companion Antimony in the animated audio drama Death Comes To Time in 2001, a production that – in the absence of new television episodes – sought to rewrite some of the ground rules of the series (including killing off the Doctor!), causing some controversy in fandom. He was one of the stars of the BBC2 sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive, guest starred in an episode of the 21st century revival of Red Dwarf, and has more recently been the voice of Penfold in the revived Danger Mouse series and appeared as Camello in Game Of Thrones.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS receives a number of distress calls from one place and time: the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos, over 3,000 years in the future of the Doctor’s companions. When the Doctor and friends arrive there, they’re only able to set foot outside the TARDIS if they’re wearing neural stabilizers to fend off a constant psychic attack. They find a fellow traveler, wandering in a daze, discovering that his crew is being held hostage because he stole an oddly-shaped container holding a violently vibrating sphere from their captor: Tzim-Sha, the assassin whose hunt on Earth the Doctor interrupted. As he was also responsible for the death of Grace, Graham decides he has a score to settle, even if doing so violates everything he’s learned from his travels in the TARDIS. As Graham and Ryan go to recover Paltraki’s captured crew, the Doctor and Yaz discover that Ranskoor Av Kolos’ native residents, the powerfully telepathic Ux, have been enslaved by Tzim-Sha, using their incredible powers to “steal” planets from across space and time, trapping them in the containers. Tzim-Sha’s next target is decided when the Doctor’s arrival reminds him of where he was last defeated: Earth.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Phyllis Logan (Andinio), Mark Addy (Paltraki), Percelle Ascott (Delph), Samuel Oatley (Tzim-Sha), Jan Le (Umsang)

Notes: Tzim-Sha (a.k.a. “Tim Shaw”) was last encountered in the season premiere, The Woman Who Fell To Earth. The Doctor refers to the TARDIS as a ghost monument, also a reference to earlier in the season (The Ghost Monument). This isn’t the first time that the Doctor has dealt with someone stealing planets out of their rightful place in time and space, nor is it even the first time that Earth has been targeted; Davros ripped Earth and numerous other planets out of their respective orbits in The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End (2008), Doctor Whoand before that, had to recover the planet Calufrax (The Pirate Planet, 1978). Percelle Ascott was one of the stars of the Russell T. Davies series Wizards vs. Aliens, a show which was created in part to ensure continued work for the BBC crew assembled to produce The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Doctor Who spinoff which had ceased production due to the death of Elisabeth Sladen in 2011.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

Resolution

Doctor WhoTwo archaeologists unearth a find beneath Sheffield City Hall on New Years’ Day, 2019, including human remains and something else, which is promptly placed under UV light for sterilization…and then promptly comes to life. The TARDIS arrives just as one of the archaeologists discovers a large, squid-like creature clinging to a wall, but before the Doctor can get a look at it, it’s gone missing again. The TARDIS followed the signature of a spatial shift to the dig site, technology that has no place on Earth in 2019. The Doctor collects a sample of the creature’s slimy trail from the dig site and has the TARDIS analyze its DNA…a process which reveals that the trail of slime was left by an unarmored Dalek. It’s now obvious that the archaeologist who spotted the creature on the wall has been taken over by it, and is doing its bidding, including breaking into a top secret facility to steal a Dalek weapon. The Dalek intends to build itself a new casing and signal its location to the Dalek fleet so the conquest of Earth can begin. The Doctor intends to stop it. And with an unexpected knock at the door, Ryan’s father intends to abruptly walk back into his son’s life, unaware that his son now travels through time and space…and unaware that he’s just walked into the most dangerous situation he could possibly imagine, one that could take Ryan’s father away from him forever.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Wayne Yip
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Charlotte Ritchie (Lin), Nikesh Patel (Mitch), Daniel Adegboyega (Aaron), Darryl Clark (Police Officer Will), Connor Calland (Security Guard Richard), James Lewis (Farmer Dinkle), Sophie Duval (Mum), Callum McDonald (Teen 1), Harry Vallance (Teen 2), Laura Evelyn (Call Centre Polly), Michael Ballard (Sargeant), Nick Briggs (Dalek voices)

Doctor WhoNotes: The Doctor attempts to call UNIT, but it is strongly implied that UNIT has been forced to stand down due to Brexit-related funding issues. The idea that recon Daleks are more advanced than the average Dalek creates a handy loophole for the significantly more mobile and destructive capabilities of the lone Dalek encountered in 2005’s Dalek. If the supernova to which the Doctor delivers the Dalek is in the same position as the now-extinct Dalek fleet, this may be be the destruction of Skaro’s sun engineered by the seventh Doctor with the Hand of Omega in Remembrance Of The Daleks (1988).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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2022-2023 Specials Doctor Who New Series Season 13 (Flux)

The Power Of The Doctor

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Yaz, and Dan intercept a Cybermaster attack force as it launches an assault on a hyperspace train. The Cybermasters are targeting a container holding a Gallifreyan girl. During the battle, Dan barely survives a breach of his spacesuit helmet, and decides to leave the TARDIS and resume a life that, while it may be less exciting, is also far less dangerous. On Earth, former time travelers Ace and Tegan now work for UNIT, each of them chasing down different unusual events: Tegan is trying to retrace the steps of seismologists who have gone missing, while Ace is investigating a series of paintings that have been abruptly removed from public display. The Doctor receives a warning from a Dalek of an imminent attack on Earth, and, surprisingly, an offer of information to prevent that attack. But the message ends before any useful information can be conveyed, and the Doctor’s attention returns to tracking down the Gallifreyan child… and the fact that there’s suddenly an extra planet near Earth’s orbit in the year 1916 – the same year in which the Master is posing as Rasputin in Russia.

The Doctor and Yaz visit the extraneous planet, finding that the Gallifreyan child is simply a disguise employed by a Qurunx, a powerful sentient energy being chained to a Cyber-conversion planet by the Master and the Cybermen. But before the Doctor can unravel that mystery, the TARDIS is summoned to UNIT HQ in 2022, where Kate Lethbridge-Stewart needs the Doctor’s expertise on the parallel mysteries of the missing paintings and missing seismologists, which seem like a distraction from the events in 1916…until the Master’s hand is detected in the disappearances as well. The Doctor is briefly, awkwardly reunited with Ace and Tegan, but soon resumes the chase, tracking down the Master in Naples, and discovering he is responsible for killing the missing seismologists. UNIT takes the Master into custody, but this is exactly what he wants, as this allows him to bring an entire Cyber invasion force directly into UNIT HQ. The Doctor and Yaz, however, have already left again, once again following a lead from the Dalek’s message, leaving Ace and Tegan to try to help fend off the Cyberman attack. As Yaz anticipates, the Dalek message proves to be a trap. The Doctor is taken back to 1916 Russia, where the Master instigates a forced regeneration during which his consciousness is forced into the Doctor’s body, as Yaz is helpless to watch.

But the Doctor’s friends and allies, past and present, are legion. Yaz, with help from Vinder, Ace, and Graham, and with some helpful advice from a hologram of the Doctor, reverses the forced regeneration and thwarts the Daleks’ plan, and arrive just in time to see Tegan and Kate Stewart end the attempted Cyberman invasion. Even the Qurunx is freed. As the Doctor’s former companions return to their normal lives, Yaz prepares to return to hers, as the Doctor’s body, as a result of the trauma caused by the forced regeneration, is once more wearing a bit thin.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor Who: The Power Of The DoctorCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), John Bishop (Dan Lewis), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), David Bradley (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Paul McGann (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Jo Martin (The Doctor), David Tennant (The Doctor), Sacha Dhawan (The Master), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Patrick O’Kane (Ashad), Joe Sims (Deputy Marshal Arnhost), Sanchia McCormack (Train Marshal Halaz), Danielle Bjelic (Curator), Anna Andresen (Alexandra), Richard Dempsey (Nicholas), Jos Slovick (Messenger), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices / Cybermen voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek), Simon Carew (Cyberman), Jon Davey (Cyberman), Chester Durrant (Cyberman), Mickey Lewis (Cyberman), Felix Young (Cyberman), Richard Price (Cyberman), Andrew Cross (Cyberman), Matt Doman (Cyberman), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Katy Manning (Jo Jones), William Russell (Ian Chesterton)

Doctor Who: The Power Of The DoctorNotes: This marks the first televised appearance of Tegan and Ace since their final TV appearances, in Resurrection Of The Daleks (1984) and Survival (1989), respectively. Dialogue for both characters seems to contradict adventures chronicled in other media. Ace says the last time she saw the Master, he was “half cat” (which would seem to indicate she hasn’t seen him since Survival, contradicting the New Adventures novel First Frontier); Tegan hasn’t seen the Doctor in 38 years, contradicting the Big Finish audio story The Gathering, which reunited an older Tegan with the fifth Doctor in 2006. However, the Master’s description of Ace’s eventual falling-out with the seventh Doctor lines up well with both the 1992 New Adventures novel Love And War and the later Big Finish audio adaptation of that novel, so perhaps this is something to blame on the wibbly-wobbliness of time. Tegan and Ace aren’t the only companions making their first appearances in a very long time; Melanie was last seen in Dragonfire (1987), and Ian Chesterton was last seen in The Chase (1966), winning William Russell the official Guinness World Record for the longest time between television appearances as the same character (56 years). Jo Jones (formerly Jo Grant), on the other hand, had made a relatively recent appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures (The Death Of The Doctor, 2011). All of these actors, however, have been reprising their roles for Big Finish audio productions for many years. The Doctor says the Master couldn’t “corral Daleks and Cybermen” (see also: Frontier In Space and The Five Doctors, respectively). The Master also tried to forcibly steal the Doctor’s body in the 1996 TV movie, though in that instance the process was interrupted. Other than being the finale for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and Chris Chibnall as showrunner, The Power Of The Doctor was also intended to celebrate 100 years of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green