Hello again, I hope you’re doing alright and are looking forward to Christmas.
During the last couple of months, my mother has been recovering well from her fractured wrist, both physically and mentally, thanks to all the support she’s received from the NHS and social services. There still are, and always will be, times when she gets anxious or finds things difficult of course. But having melatonin to help her sleep at night, and a wheelchair to help her get out and about more, has given her a real boost, along with various other forms of help she’s had. And at the very end of November I was even able to go out for a long walk and explore the shops by myself like I used to do, because she felt able to cope on her own.
You can find out more about all of that in my journal posts as usual, including some recovery of my own after I had a wisdom tooth extracted. You can also hear an interview I recorded in October for RNIB Connect Radio about my caring role, which was featured in their Good Company show and then released independently as a podcast.
All that aside, I’ve naturally been enjoying plenty of entertainment as well including Doctor Who, comedies, podcasts and audiobooks. So that’s what I’m going to focus on here, and I hope you enjoy this latest roundup!
Contents
Doctor Who
There’s been a lot of Doctor Who activity lately, with another of my reviews and some interesting announcements, including a few surprises. So I’m quickly going to mention them in series order.
Series 2 Special
Out of nowhere, and to the delight of Doctor Who fans everywhere, the Born Again special was officially posted on Youtube on November 18 to mark its 20th anniversary.
This is the Children In Need special that marks David Tennant’s first appearance as the Doctor as he adapts to his regeneration, while companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) tries to come to terms with the fact that he’s changed. It’s a fun little scene.
What makes this particularly significant, however, is that it’s the correct version as originally broadcast, with the proper music and sound effects intact. An early rough cut had been included on the DVD & Blu-ray releases in error, with a temporary score and missing sound effects, so for many people it’s been the only version they’ve ever known, or it’s made it difficult to remember the original version after all these years. Some fans have naturally tried to do their own restorations, but it’s never been quite right.
The fact that it’s been called Born Again on screen is also notable, because up until now it had never had an official name. Born Again had been adopted by fans after Doctor Who Adventures magazine and the 2013 Who-ology used it to refer to the special, so it’s nice that it’s become canon after all this time.
As I understand it, the correct version was first made available in the Series 1-4 & specials box set released in 2023 (though still untitled at that stage). But like many fans I didn’t buy that, as I wasn’t going to fork out for a box set when I already had the individual releases. So it’s wonderful to have the proper version online at last, and hopefully it will be included on any future re-releases instead of the rough cut.
Series 6 Review
I’ve been continuing with my reviews of the modern era of Doctor Who by working my way through Series 6, with Matt Smith returning as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor. So I’ve really enjoyed that as always, because it has lots of variety, action and humour, along with some impressive guest stars and massive plot twists. You can check out my in-depth review post for my thoughts on it all.
On a related note, it’s also been announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill (who played companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams alongside Matt Smith) have reunited to record a special ‘Pondcast’, where they look back at their time on the show. They’ve already recorded some episodes, one of which has Steven Moffat as a guest, but it’s not yet known when it will be released. So that should be fun.
Likewise, fans of the Classic era will be interested to know (and probably already know) that Sophie Aldred, who played companion Ace, has just launched a podcast of her own called Ace Odyssey, and will feature several big names from the series including Sylvester McCoy. So I’m not bothered about that one myself, but I guess if I ever explore the Classic era properly I might check it out then.
Series 10 Soundtrack
It’s been a delight to learn that the soundtrack for Series 10 is finally being released on December 12, 8 years after it was originally broadcast in 2017. It was the only soundtrack from Series 1-13 not to get an album, so us fans have been asking about it for a long time, keen to fill the gaping hole in our collections. So I’ll be getting that, obviously, and will review it when I eventually get around to Series 10 in my ongoing rewatch of the modern era. But the Glimpse Of Freedom track that’s been released as a preview is beautiful.
Albums for the more recent 60th anniversary specials and Ncuti Gatwa’s seasons are also believed to be in the pipeline, now that Murray Gold’s had time to work on them, so I’m looking forward to those too.
Season 2 Deleted Scenes
Just like they did last year, the Doctor Who team waited until Doctor Who Day to release a bunch of deleted scenes from the most recent series. And as before, they hadn’t been released on the Blu-ray, which is a great shame. A few of them are rather pointless, but some are quite interesting, as I’ve noted in my Season 2 review to bring that post up to date.
UNIT Spin-Off
While we’re not getting another Christmas special of Doctor Who until next year, we do have the spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea to look forward to this December, about the military organisation UNIT defending Earth from the Sea Devils.
It will launch with a double bill on December 7 on BBC One and iPlayer (alongside a feature-length edit of the Classic era story The Sea Devils), followed by another double-bill on the 14th and the final episode on the 21st. It will then drop on Disney+ in 2026, marking the final part of the Disney deal.
Before all that, the soundtrack will be released digitally on December 5, with a physical release to follow next year. It’s composed by the magnificent Lorne Balfe, who also scored last year’s excellent Wallace & Gromit adventure, Vengeance Most Fowl, among countless other things he’s done. He’s already unveiled one of the tracks, called Barclay’s Theme, which bodes well for the rest. And it’ll conclude with a cover of Heroes, the famous David Bowie song, by Alison Goldfrapp, so I’m curious to see how she’s interpreted such a classic.
All in all, therefore, it does look very interesting, so I’ll certainly be watching and reviewing it.
The Future
After much speculation, it’s been confirmed that Doctor Who will continue, but without Disney’s involvement, which comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody. You could sense Disney’s heart was never fully in it really, given the relative lack of promotion they gave it compared to the BBC, and their involvement isn’t essential.
We just need to wait a little while, as the next episode will be a Christmas special in 2026, so that Russell T Davies can sort out the emergency cliffhanger they had to scramble to film at the end of Season 2, getting in Billie Piper at the last minute because of Ncuti Gatwa’s unexpectedly early departure, which meant they had to scrap the original ending.
Beyond that, we don’t yet know whether Russell will still be involved, who the next Doctor will be, when the next series will air, or where the show will be distributed internationally. But none of that really matters, as a fresh start would probably be a good thing. As brilliant as Russell is, and as good as it was to have him back, his second era hasn’t been as good as his first so far. That’s partly because of Disney’s interference, a reduced number of episodes per season and Ncuti’s early exit making things difficult, but I don’t think the writing’s been quite as good sometimes either. It’s still been a lot of fun, there have been some amazing moments, and there’s been no harm in experimenting with things like the fantasy elements, but it’s not always hit the mark. That said, if Russell does stay on and has more freedom to do what he wants, I’ll be happy enough for him to continue.
But we’ll see what happens. It’s reassuring to know that the BBC are still committed to the show at least, and I think they’ll have learned lessons from the Disney deal that they’ll hopefully take on board for their future arrangements. So it will be interesting for sure, whatever happens next.
Sitcom Tributes
Tributes were paid to a couple of classic sitcoms in October, for very different reasons. I haven’t gone through and watched all of the episodes again to review them in depth, like I did with Fawlty Towers recently, but I have seen them a lot anyway, because I always enjoy them.
Keeping Up Appearances
Early in October, Dame Patricia Routledge sadly died at the age of 96, and she was of course most loved for playing the snobbish Hyacinth Bucket – pronounced ‘bouquet’ – in this 90s sitcom. But she had an extensive career well beyond that. So I’ve paid tribute to her by writing a special post about the classic comedy series if you want to read that.
The Good Life
This is a gentle and hilarious sitcom from the 70s about Tom & Barbara Good (Richard Briers & Felicity Kendal) as they embark on a life of self-sufficiency, using the back garden of their suburban house to grow food and look after animals, much to the bewilderment of their upmarket neighbours Margo & Jerry Leadbetter (Penelope Keith & Paul Eddington). It was brilliantly written by John Esmonde & Bob Larbey, and the interplay between the perfectly cast characters was wonderful.
So to mark its 50th anniversary, U&Gold broadcast a new documentary called The Good Life: Inside Out. There weren’t any major revelations, it was just a nice tribute to a classic show. It was led by Penelope who, as well as being interviewed, got to explore a highly detailed recreation of Margo’s living room, revisited the actual garden used for location filming, was reunited with some of Margo’s dresses, and had special access to the documentation for the royal special that was filmed in front of the Queen (where it was interesting to see who was originally approached to play the bank manager, before George Cole was offered the part). Their Christmas special is my favourite episode of all though.
There were of course interviews with the rest of the cast and writers as well (most of it from the archives as only Felicity and Penelope are still alive now), along with several behind the scenes photos and even a couple of brief outtakes. So altogether it was a nice look back at the show.
Other Comedy
Chris McCausland
Blind comedian Chris McCausland, who I really enjoyed seeing live a few years ago, has made a couple of very interesting appearances on TV and radio recently:
- Seeing Into The Future (BBC2) – This is a very cool 45-minute documentary, produced in conjunction with the Open University, about some of the current and developing technology that is, or could be, of real benefit to people with sight loss and other disabilities. As well as demonstrating how the iPhone has already transformed his life with its built-in accessibility features, Chris also explores the world of AI by trying out the Meta Glasses and self-driving cars, both of which I’d love to have a go at one day too. Plus he gets to experiment with robotic leg attachments that enhance movement, and he learns about astonishing nanotechnology that has the very real potential to eradicate cancerous tumours and restore sight. Compared to what it was like for me growing up 40 years ago, in the days when computers had floppy disks, rudimentary graphics and no internet, technology has developed enormously since then, so one can only wonder what the next 40 years and beyond will bring. It’s quite exciting in many ways.
- Ready To Talk (BBC Podcast) – This is an extensive, frank, interesting, sometimes funny and occasionally moving interview, during which Chris talks to Emma Barnett about masking his visual impairment from others during his childhood, the importance of getting a job in a call centre, how he got into stand-up comedy and met his partner, what it was like becoming a parent, and the huge impact of appearing on Strictly Come Dancing. It’s well worth a listen. While it runs for 50 minutes, the interview is only around 40 minutes long, as Emma reflects on her chat with Chris and looks at comments relating to the previous podcast for the remainder of the episode.
You can learn much more about his life in his new autobiography, Keep Laughing, and I’ve downloaded the audiobook, which he narrates himself. So my mother and I have started listening to that, and I’ll give a review in my Christmas Favourites. It’s already resonating with us though, including an anecdote he shares in the introduction that has an unexpected twist we can closely relate to.
Taskmaster
Taskmaster was back on form for its 20th series, with a strong line-up of guests. I loved seeing Maisie Adam on there, as she’s one of my favourite comedians who I’ve been lucky enough to see live, and it was particularly funny when she misunderstood the tasks or got a bit angry about them. The podcast after her victory is very funny as well. Meanwhile Reece Shearsmith demonstrated that he’s a very talented artist, and Sanjeev Bhaskar was amusingly laid back about the whole thing. And even though I’d never heard of them before, Phil Ellis came up with some wonderfully surreal ideas, and Ania Magliano was very creative and amusing.
The whole group, along with hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne, gelled very well together, so much so that they’ve posted a whopping 74 minutes of outtakes online already (parts 1, 2 & 3)! And there’s a great behind the scenes feature introduced by Alex as well, marking the last time the series has been filmed at Pinewood Studios.
And there’s still plenty to look forward to, as coming soon over Christmas we have the next edition of Champion of Champions for the winners of Series 16-20, and the New Year Treat will have 2 episodes for the first time. Then we’ll get Series 21 next year, and they’re even planning a live tour as well.
Audiobooks
WWW: Watch & Wonder
In September I reviewed WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer, the audiobook of which I had been very kindly gifted for my birthday. So in the last couple of months I’ve listened to the other two books in the trilogy, called WWW: Watch & WWW: Wonder.
They continue the story of a teenage girl called Caitlin, whose sight in one eye has been restored thanks to a special implant. But the implant also allows her to see a unique view of the structure of the internet, and through that she’s formed a close connection with an emerging consciousness, which she’s nicknamed Webmind and assigned a male voice.
Webmind is very keen to learn as much as he can, and wants to help the world’s population in any way possible. So Caitlin does her best to help him as he evolves, getting her parents and her Japanese professor friend involved as well. Along the way there are moral and ethical issues of course, both in terms of how Webmind reacts to certain scenarios and about the existence of a conscious AI in general. But he’s a very fast learner and adapts well, he presents solutions to some of life’s biggest problems, and he becomes popular with a lot of online users.
Caitlin is therefore convinced that Webmind won’t do anyone any harm, but some other people aren’t so sure, especially the secret government agency called WATCH, who have been covertly spying on her communications and are actively looking for a way to terminate Webmind. Caitlin and co become aware of this and have to decide how to respond when government officials come calling and when Webmind comes under attack. She even defends him in interviews with the media.
Alongside all of that, it’s really interesting to see how Caitlin is still adjusting to having her sight restored. It shows both knowledge and well-considered logic on the author’s part, along with his nicely descriptive writing, that her progress feels realistic.
What’s more, she also has a love interest with a boy from school, and there’s the usual awkwardness you’d expect from a couple of teenagers trying to figure things out between them. And elsewhere, there’s also the ongoing subplot about Hobo, the intelligent chimp, who eventually plays an important role in the main story.
Ultimately, it all comes to a head when Webmind attempts to pull off an extremely ambitious plan that he’s been developing surreptitiously, catching the world completely by surprise. But is it with good or bad intentions, and will it work? Could an emergent AI really benefit humanity, or will it ultimately have its own selfish interests at heart?
It’s a fascinating subject that’s explored really well in this trilogy. The first novel takes a little while to really get going, because of all the setup that has to take place, but that means these second and third stories are each able to dive right in from where the previous instalment left off, with just a few reminders of key points early on to ease you back in.
There’s plenty of intrigue along the way, and the pacing is very good throughout, with just occasional moments where it feels a bit slow and padded out. The story grows in scale as well, as Webmind’s presence becomes global, with all the seemingly disparate elements nicely tied together by the end. The narration style also remains the same, with different people telling different aspects of the story, which is really helpful and effective.
So I can recommend checking the trilogy out, because it is very good and gives plenty of food for thought. And considering the books were published between 2008 and 2011, they feel especially relevant today given the huge rise in the use of AI.
Music
Queen
To mark the 50th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody, the BBC has featured the band in their Eras podcast, by dedicating 5 episodes to them. Presented by comedian and huge Queen fan Bill Bailey, they’re nicely compiled and scripted, giving a good overview of their career from the early beginnings to the present day. It’s a whistle-stop tour that cannot possibly include every aspect of their career, but it addresses a lot of the key points.
The first 4 episodes feature lots of interviews, both new and from the archives, with the band members as well as people who worked with them and knew them. The 5th episode is then a brand new interview by Bill with Brian May and Roger Taylor, which is also available to watch on iPlayer.
So it’s a great set of episodes. Most of the details of their career I’ve already heard before of course, but there are still lots of nice recollections and nuggets of trivia, and it’s lovely to hear interviews with people who haven’t been featured in big Queen documentaries before. Hearing Brian and Roger giving their own thoughts is always nice too, they’re very down to earth.
There are also a few short features marking the anniversary on Queen’s Youtube channel, containing more new reflections from Brian and Roger, along with an interactive 360-degree video for Bohemian Rhapsody where you can move around to see additional footage and archive photographs alongside the original video. So they’re fun to check out as well.
Incidentally, and to bring this post full circle, kudos to RNIB Connect Radio for using the Queen song Good Company as the theme tune for their show of the same name. Made it feel all the more apt to appear on it!
Conclusion
So that’s it for this past couple of months, I hope you enjoyed that as always.
In December, my mother and I are hoping to relax and enjoy Christmas more than we were able to last time, to celebrate the fact that we’ve got through this very difficult year. And I’ve already arranged to meet up with a couple of friends of mine to celebrate the festive season, which will be nice. Hopefully I’ll be able to take Mum out too, as well as exploring some of the Christmas sights in the city by myself. And then there’s lots of entertainment I’m looking forward to watching and listening to as well, some of which I’ve mentioned above, along with Stranger Things, stand-up comedy specials and much more.
So I’m not going to be bored, and there will be plenty to mention in my next roundup. I might even split it into two parts like I did the last couple of years, but we’ll see how it goes.
In any case, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas whatever you’re getting up too, and I’ll see you for more posts in due course!
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