Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds
Hardcover | Kindle
by Stephen Nicholas and Mike Tucker
Harper Design | Dey Street Books | HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: October 27, 2015

Attics can be wonderful, beautiful things. Sometimes they are repositories of worthless junk, but more often they have such wonderful stories to tell. They are full of boxes. Some contain toys from childhood. Others hold certificates, pictures, and correspondence. Still others contain mementos and heirlooms of events both obscure and infamous. There are such stories to be learned, if one can only gain entry and do some research.

That is how it could be for Doctor Who. With 52 years now passed since the show began production, what stories can its artifacts and ephemera tell us? We know the exoteric truths of the show’s production from its primary artifacts — the episodes produced by and shown on the BBC. Surely, there must be more than that. What were the stories, the images, the ideas that never made it onto those tapes? What did time or budget make impossible? What was merely deemed to be poor creative choice?

These are the motivating themes of a new book, Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds by Stephen Nicholas and Mike Tucker. It proposes to take us into the Doctor Who production design department to show how the core ideas of the series transformed from imagination to television drama for over 50 years. In this, it succeeds more than it fails and provides the reader with some rich visual insight into the history of Doctor Who.

Following WonderCon 2011, we are launching not one, but TWO episodes of TARDISblend this week! The promotions and publicity for Doctor Who Series 6 is moving full speed ahead, with many revelations, news items, rumors, spoilers, and other stuff abound. Co-host Tom Cheredar was on assignment for Geeks of Doom at WonderCon this year and got to catch up with both Toby Haynes and Neil Gaiman.

For episode 21 of the TARDISblend podcast, we focus on Tom’s interview with living legend Neil Gaiman, as he discusses his writing of the fourth episode of Doctor Who Series 6, enigmatically titled The Doctor’s Wife. While Gaiman remains mostly elusive about specific details about his episode, he does discuss a lot about his experience in working with Steven Moffat. Following the interview, Greg and Tom discuss the rumors and spoilers surrounding The Doctor’s Wife, including the footage shown at WonderCon involving an Ood and… Time Lords?

In addition, we take a look at the developments in the world of Torchwood: Miracle Day, which is scheduled to premiere in July. We examine the teasers and promo material being published and pushed out currently by BBC Worldwide and Starz USA, and discuss how things come to pass to set up the scene for Miracle Day. What happens to Jack Harkness? How and why does he return to Earth?