Doctor Who: The Time Lord Letters
Hardcover | Kindle
by Justin Richards
Harper Design | HarperCollins Publishers
Release date: September 29, 2015

Ahhh, what would it mean to know the mind of a Time Lord? It must be something to know what a Time Lord saw. There must be wit! There must be wisdom! There must be an ambivalence, a humor about the mundane moments. There must be perspective that comes from the understanding of time and history as a sometimes malleable thing. So, we are presented with a book called Doctor Who: The Time Lord Letters. What does it tell us?

In the end, it doesn’t tell us much. It tries to create a narrative of Doctor Who history that is approachable for younger television viewers. The actual history of the show is far more complex than that, due to reasons that have little to do with good storytelling. The full-color hardcover title does little to weave together all the historical threads of the Doctor’s lives. Instead, the book’s best appeal is to provide both older and younger viewers with an excellent photo collage of the entire history of Doctor Who. That, I think, is what will keep readers coming back to this book.

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 2 “Into The Dalek”
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Written by Phil Ford, Steven Moffat
Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson
BBC America
Air date: Saturday, August 30, 2014, 9pm

Here we go again, indeed. This week on Doctor Who, we engage in a revisit of a foundational myth. Some critics have said that the show is at its greatest when it is willing to retcon its very beginnings. Here we see the attempt, yet again. William Hartnell’s second serial was called “The Daleks” and completed the definition of the four key elements of the show: the Doctor, the TARDIS, the companions, and the monsters. The Daleks are the first true monsters of the series and we learned what Doctor Who was about in 1963. Now, Phil Ford and Steven Moffat attempt to let a single Dalek show us what the series and a new actor playing the Doctor are about in 2014.

There was a lot of speculation leading up to the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, as to which of the former Doctors would appear in it. As it turns out, some of the actors who’ve played the Doctor throughout its 50-year history were wondering the same thing.

Former Doctor Peter Davison put together something special for the occasion, writing and directing a short, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, which he stars in with other former Doctors Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker in a quest for the actors to be included in the 50th anniversary special.

Here below, watch the very cool, humorous 31-minute short, which stars several other famous faces, including some big ones from outside the Who universe.

The countdown is on to the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special – but before we enter The Day of the Doctor, Paul McGann makes his triumphant return as the Eighth Doctor in the Steven Moffat-penned minisode, The Night of The Doctor.

During TARDISblend 69, we discuss our thoughts as we review the prequel to the 50th anniversary special – and also to give you a round up on the rumors and news surrounding the upcoming special, highlighting what to expect, and what may be yet to come!

We also look deeper into the future – into 2014 and beyond – as to what we can expect from the new Peter Capaldi Doctor in Series 8. All this and more on the latest TARDISblend!

Yesterday saw the online release of The Night of the Doctor, a mini-episode prequel to the upcoming Doctor Who special The Day of the Doctor. There was a lot of secrecy surrounding this minisode, so we left out any spoiler-talk regarding it when the video was released. But, today’s a new day, and the news and photos from the mini-episode have littered the internet, so it’s time to take off your blindfolds. There’s been enough time now for every Whovian to have seen the 7-minute video (and if you’re not a Whovian, the “surprise” will be lost on you anyway). So, if you haven’t watch it yet, I’ve included the video here below for your viewing pleasure.

With that, it’s time to talk more about what we saw in The Night of the Doctor, and more importantly, who we saw in it and what they’re doing there!

Doctor Who showrunner and writer Steven Moffat recently spoke to the BBC about The Night of the Doctor, and BBC America’s Anglophenia blog has posted a “Making Sense of The Night of the Doctor” feature, which goes into detail about the prequel.