Doctor Who Social Club

For a good while now the official Doctor Who youtube channel has had an around the clock "live" feed of TARDIS ASMR-ish soundscapes and lingering shots of the interior, console levers and knobs, etc.

Apparently, in the week leading up to May 24th, the lighting has gone into red alert, and the cloister bells are tolling... Although, with a hint of sarcasm, the video thumbnail still says "Chill TARDIS ambience".

You have to admire their dedication to the show's obsession with next episode's air date!

For no reason whatsoever, I decided to look at "The Mark of the Rani" this weekend. As a fan whose Classic Who experience is...limited, to say the least, here are side things that came to mind.

• Really great location work, I found the mining village very convincing.

• Peri is an endearing companion, despite the dodgy accent and her ranking for the "I need my medication" gambit.

• Including the Master in the story was a good choice - seeing the Rani's child, detached mad scientist play off the Master's revenge-obsessed impatience helped to solidify her character quickly.

• The Rani's TARDIS is rad.

All in all, it's a decent little story, and as a two-parter, it's easy to get through, and doesn't feel padded.

One of the Doctor's deadliest foes has returned after hiding in plain sight on the show.

It was Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor, who summed up the Rani perfectly. "Don't underestimate her," he said in the episode Time and the Rani. "She's a brilliant but sterile mind. There's not one spark of decency in her."

Her main interest is science, but she is willing to hurt and kill for her research.

In an interview with the BBC, actor Kate O'Mara described the character as someone who attended university with the Doctor, "studying science. And then it went completely to her head, and she wanted to govern the whole universe."

Steffan Powell will host special edition of Doctor Who: Unleashed celebrating the last twenty years since Doctor Who returned.

Powell will be joined by a host of cast and creatives that have played a part in bringing the show back, including past Doctors David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker, former companions Billie Piper, Pearl Mackie, and Mandip Gill, ex-showrunners Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, the current Doctor Ncuti Gatwa alongside his newest companion Varada Sethu, as well as the current showrunner and the man who brought the show back in 2005, Russell T Davies.

On Thursday, the BBC tweeted:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.

Instead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be calling out the UK's points.

According to Scottish newspaper The national,

The BBC's announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel's entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.

We haven't even had the Interstellar song contest yet, but CultBox has already assembled details for the episode after that. Synopsis, cast as well as a smattering of rumours and speculation.

There are certain tells that this week's episode will lead straight into the two-part finale, so I'll just park this here for those who might want to fuel their excitement as soon as they watched tomorrow's show.

Spoilers! </River Song voice>

The Great Day is coming, the most important date in history — 24 May 2025. The clock is ticking and everyone is preparing for a joyous tomorrow, when the whole world will change forever.

Welcome to a strange new world in which the old saying “There’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip” is gaining a terrifying new power. Even when a good outcome seems certain, things can still go wrong.

What are the Bone Beasts? Why is Mrs Flood hiding in the sky? What secrets do the Dispossessed keep? And why is a mysterious message echoing across time and space, saying, “Tables don’t do that”?

Traps are sprung and old enemies unite as the Doctor and Belinda finally arrive home to find a very different world. Can the Doctor see the truth before midnight arrives?

[Oh, Midnight again? So soon?]

• Space Baby Poppy returns after a brief appearance in The Story & The Engine
• Millie Gibson returns as Season One companion Ruby Sunday
• Bonnie Langford reprises her role as former companion and UNIT operative Melanie Bush
• Susan Triad, the tech mogul who offered service to UNIT, is back
• Conrad Clark, having been released from prison by Mrs Flood, is back to foment his version of reality
• Lakshmi Chandra is possibly a relative of Belinda, perhaps her mother
• Not only are there Bone Beasts but there is also a Bone Palace
• Archie Panjabi, heavily rumoured to play a villain in the series, is not on the cast list

[I would also add that we have two characters in the cast list called Otto and Violett Zufall. "Zufall" is German for "coincidence", and... not actually used as a last name. I'll just put it out here that the goblins in "Church on Ruby Road" fed on coincidence, and let you all run with that]

Doctor Who meets Eurovision in this high-octane episode

This is another BBC media package where everybody interviewed is gushing over everything else. Interviewees are guest stars ~~Mark~~ Rylan Clark and Freddie Fox, plus writer Juno Dawson and director Ben A Williams (no relation to Rory, presumably).

A few things stand out from the enthusiastic politeness, though. The following are things I hadn't gleaned from trailers.

Freddie Fox:

Kid is a charismatic, devious, revolutionary leader of a group. They are trying to get justice for wrongs that he wants to tell the galaxy and the universe about.

What you're saying then is, Israel is still part of this 900 years later? 😬 I'm slightly worried where the show's sympathies would fall on this, but it would be a gutsy move either way.

Juno Dawson:

Russell initially pitched the bare bones concept of Eurovision meets Die Hard, which were two things I knew really well. […] What would happen if an enemy faction planned an attack on the Eurovision Song Contest in space?

I think people are certainly going to expect it to be … let’s just say camp. I mean of course it is, it’s the Interstellar Song Contest. But also, it’s action-packed. It doesn’t let up for a second. It’s a really high-octane episode.

In places it’s quite harrowing. I think the best science fiction and fantasy should always have something to say about the world.

And finally, something for the Murray Gold fans out there:

Ben A Williams:

Murray (Gold) has created a song that is weapons-grade catchy. I played it once to my 2-year-old. He hasn’t stopped singing it since.

So, in a nutshell — hitting that shared target segment between Eurovision and Doctor Who 🤣 Plus potentially controversial terrorism. Should be fun!

Edit: got Rylan Clark's name really wrong because I'm not really big on British ESC traditions.

Random fact I just realised about this episode — the "spooky kid" Belinda saw in the alley as she was running through Lagos? She's played by Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps, who was Captain Poppy in "Space babies". The character is even credited as "Poppy" in "The story & the engine".

Please don't @ me about your great intense love (or otherwise) for "Space babies"... but let's just sit for a second with what a deep, weird cut this is. I have no idea how or if it's going to tie in with anything, ever.

Some different looks at the making of "The story & the engine" than you may have seen in DW unleashed (and a couple of repeats).

There are some nice behind the scenes footage, especially of the camaraderie between the barbershop actors; an art department interview, and short sitdowns with Gatwa, Sethu, and Martin.

Stick around for another cheeky cameo in the "don't forget to click and subscribe" part, too 🙂

Written by: Inua Ellams

Directed by: Makalla McPherson