Great Doctor Who Quotes #9

"And that's how I finally met the Doctor... and realised the truth... this isn't my whole life. It's not all spaceships and stuff. Cos I'm into all sorts of things. I like football. I like a drink. I like Spain. And if there's one thing I really, really love, then it's Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. Cos you can't beat a bit of ELO!"

- Elton Pope, Love & Monsters (June 17th 2006)
Written by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who: Christmas Special 2011 Preview

The BBC today released details of this year's festive special, currently under production in Wales. Again written by Steven Moffat, the story's cast includes actors already featured in my Versus blogs: Claire Skinner, here playing Madge Arwell (see Vs. A Murder Is Announced); Bill Bailey
(another star of Hot Fuzz,
see here); Alexander Armstrong (see Vs. Murder Rooms); and Arabella Weir (see Vs. Randall & Hopkirk).

This new Christmas adventure (already being compared to the Narnia saga) sees the Doctor posing as the caretaker of an old house in wartime Dorset, where evacuees Lily and Cyril now live with mum, Madge. See the official site for more info:
bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin.
New executive producer Caroline Skinner begins her tenure on Doctor Who with this story, which will be directed by another newcomer, Farren Blackburn.

The History of Pop Music

Michael Putland's studio portrait of Dusty & the Pet Shop Boys, dressed as 1960's journalists. The shoot was for the cover of the Nothing Has Been Proved single, recorded for the British film, Scandal (December 1988).

I've only just found this article, originally published in The Guardian on June 11th this year. Caroline Sullivan's series on the Top 50 key moments in pop history, places the Pet Shop Boys at No. 33. On August 10, 1987, they resurrected Dusty Springfield's career:

"The Smiths were the first to collaborate with an iconic 60s female singer – Sandie Shaw – but the Pet Shop Boys struck gold by hooking up with arguably the most revered vocalist of her generation – Dusty Springfield. Their single together, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, was a win-win situation: the band got kudos for enticing Springfield into recording what was the classiest record the PSB ever made, her career got a new lease of life, and it reached No 2."

Great Doctor Who Quotes #8

The Doctor: "If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?"

Sarah Jane: "We're talking about the Daleks. The most evil creatures ever invented. You must destroy them. You must complete your mission for the Time Lords!"

The Doctor : "Do I have the right? Simply touch one wire against the other and that's it. The Daleks cease to exist. Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations can live without fear... in peace, and never even know the word 'Dalek'."

Sarah Jane: "Then why wait? If it was a disease or some sort of bacteria you were destroying, you wouldn't hesitate."

The Doctor : "But if I...wipe out a whole intelligent life form, then I become like them. I'd be no better than the Daleks."

- Genesis of the Daleks, Part 6 (April 12th 1975)
Written by Terry Nation

Great Doctor Who Quotes #7

"My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don’t quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we’re too small to realize its final pattern. Therefore don’t try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe.

Steven… Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they’re all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and…Chesterton - they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can’t… I can’t…"

- The Doctor, The Massacre, Episode 4 (26/2/1966)

Written by Donald Tosh & John Lucarotti

Tartan Noir: Glasgow

The latest part of The A-Z of Crime on ITV3 represented the letter G with 'Glasgow'. Author Denise Mina, herself a Glaswegian, said that "Glasgow is the perfect city to write crime fiction for. It's small, there's a lot of crime.. a lot of poverty, and there's so many different textures.. Everybody knows everybody else.. people talk to each other.. what could be better really?" Her book, The Field of Blood (2004) is set in the city, and was recently adapted by BBC Scotland.

The "king of Tartan Noir" Ian Rankin, also remarked that Glasgow has "got a history of gang culture, and murder, grim death.. sectarian violence.. it's a fascinating city." The programme then states that the city was put on the crime map by long-running ITV series, Taggart (1983-2011). Glasgow is described here as a character in it's own right in Glenn Chandler's stories, and is still the murder capital of Europe.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #6

“You know when, sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later, they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, and you meet them and you think, ‘Not bad; they’re okay.’ And then you get to know them, and their face sort of becomes them, like their personality is written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful. Rory’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.”

- Amy Pond, The Girl Who Waited

(10/9/2011)

Written by Tom MacRae

Great Doctor Who Quotes #5

"Do you know, like we were saying, about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because it looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're travelling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... that's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."

- The Doctor, Rose (26/3/2005)

Written by Russell T Davies

Great Doctor Who Quotes #4

"Believe me child, your future lies with David and not with a silly old duffer like me... One day I shall come back. Yes. I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."

- The Doctor, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode 6 (26/12/1964)

Written by Terry Nation

(this speech also formed the pre-credit sequence to The Five Doctors, and William Hartnell was thereby credited with an appearance)

Great Doctor Who Quotes #3

"Homo sapiens! What an inventive, invincible species. It's only a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine, and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now, here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to out-sit eternity. They're indomitable!"

- The Doctor, The Ark in Space, Part 1 (25/1/1975)

Written by Robert Holmes

Great Doctor Who Quotes #2

"In all my travelling throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core... Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen? They're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power. That's what it takes to be really corrupt."

- The Doctor, The Trial of a TimeLord, Part 13
(November 29th 1986)

Written by Robert Holmes

Doctor Who On This Day #302

1976 - The Masque of Mandragora, Part 1 first broadcast
2005 - Father's Day repeated on BBC3

2007 - Gridlock repeated on BBC3

2011 - Night Terrors repeated on BBC3
2012 - Turn Left, The Stolen Earth, and Vincent
and the Doctor all repeated on Watch