Who Tube

Some days we discover amazing things. Some days we forget them. And some days we blog. The above comes from 'Science, Reason and Critical Thinking - Waving a Shitty Stick at Irrational Nonsense', and is, I think, explained far better by its original designer than I could ever attempt. Visit here.

I like tube maps. I recently saw that some bright spark developed an updated tube map which showed the realtive distances between stops. Good bit of self-advertising for someone's graphic design talents I thought to myself. If only I could find it now to share with you all. Did a quick Google and all I can find is a load of waffle about pocket maps, zones and some guy called Boris. Who the heck is he?!

PS I think the owner of 'Science, Reason and Critical Thinking - Waving a Shitty Stick at Irrational Nonsense' should get his shitty stick ready, cause there's more irrational nonsense here that you can shake a pointy thing at...

Timey Wimey Waffle

You may, or more probably may not, have noticed I've a bad habit of back-posting items. Readers of my bits of waffle will know that I spend alot of time out of the country, with limited internet connection, and whilst I'll continue the blog whenever I can, there are going to be big gaps. Now when I'm back, like now, I get to wade through months of blog postings to catch up with stuff, and, as anyone with any basic time travel knowledge knows, it's very important that everything is left in its right place in the time line and all that. So when I find something related to a specific date, I'm back-posting it around that time so that it sits in the time continum correctly. It's mostly New Season stuff like merchanside releases, Radio Times coverage, interviews and the like. In between all this I'll post all the usual padding and waffle which I know you all love so much.


Daleks board the 207 bus without knowing that round the next corner...

Now one danger of doing this is I might say or post something that will make me look like I knew it before anyone else. One such example is a reference to the News of the World hacking scandal, which I've just made in a post about Matt Smith falling over and needing stiches (see '"Drunken giraffe" bangs head, and knocks over coffee, alot' here). Now to any police investigation looking at my blog it may look like I had inside knowledge of such said scandal at a time when no-one else did, and that I may, therefore, be implicated by this knowledge. Well I'm not, and I don't, and I didn't and I never have. So there.

Just to prove this I plan to back-post a whole load of Radio Rimes cuttings from the very early days of Who soon (time is relative, don't forget), and most of these I'm gonna back date to their publication dates, which will be before I was born. Proof, therefore, that either I am a down-right dirty blog back-poster or time-traveller with amazing internet access abilities. Take your pick.


...a troop of cybermen are waiting patentily for their bus. Tune in next week for the next episode of 'Doctor Who and the Bus' a really exciting new/old adventure.

Now you may wonder what all this has to do this the photographs accompanying this post. Well, I had to make it interesting somehow. Perhaps it's a clue that I really am a time traveller and I snapped these on a recent visit back to the past... no, I pinched them from WhoFix!

Note to self: Defence if Police enquire as to knowledge of News of the World hacking scandal...

1. I'm a down right dirty blog back-poster.
2. I'm a time traveller
3. I'm of unsound mental disposition (probably dillusional) and should be left alone to live out my sad and pathetic life in whatever way I want.

The biggest, baddest Doctor Who monster...

Doctor Who BBC Worldwide's biggest-selling TV show internationally
The Guardian
Tuesday 12 July 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/12/doctor-who-bbc-worldwide

Along with brands including Top Gear, Lonely Planet and BBC Earth, Dr Who helps commercial arm earn £308m in revenue

Doctor Who was BBC Worldwide's biggest-selling TV show internationally last year and, along with brands including Top Gear, Lonely Planet, the international version of Strictly Come Dancing and BBC Earth, helped earn more than £300m in revenue.

The exploitation of everything from TV programmes to live events, DVDs and magazines for the five BBC power brands raked in £308.1m in revenue for BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, in the year to the end of March.

This represented a 12.6% year-on-year revenue increase for the elite group of brands, which will be soon be joined by Walking with Dinosaurs. These brands accounted for 27% of the total £1.16bn revenues BBC Worldwide made last year. BBC Worldwide said that 45% of its total sales now come from just 12 brands.

The top five individual TV series sold internationally by BBC Worldwide in the year to the end of March were Doctor Who series five, the debut series of Sherlock, the 15th and 16th series of Top Gear, and Human Planet.

The Doctor Who franchise made the biggest value leap last year with revenue climbing 49%, thanks to significant growth in the US. BBC Worldwide has seen a 45% increase in DVD and download-to-own sales, with Doctor Who the third-biggest seller in the US iTunes chart behind Mad Men and Glee.

Sales also increased in Europe, moving the revenue mix to 50% from outside the UK. In the previous year 70% of revenues had come from sales of Doctor Who DVDs and merchandise in its home market.

Source

Pond on Pond

No Dalek in sight but no reason why we can't have legs without daleks... what is he on about you wonder. What is he on would be a better question.

Pic from WhoFix, who have a much better caption than my waffle...

Doctor and nurses

Get it? Doctor and nurses? Rather than Doctors and nurses? I mean, who wants to play that! From Who Fix, which is very sadly closing down, after only a year... mmm, not sure if we like that, was a great site and source of old unusual photos, but at least I have nine months of back plundering to do.

Too hot to not...

...post


You all know I have a weakness for the lovely Nicola. Well we had to focus on something during those Colin Baker years.


With thanks from WhoFix. Boy we're gonna miss you guys.

More Daleks with legs...

Yep, its just another excuse for a pic of Kylie. Do we love Kylie or what. I think it's a different photo to last time, but who cares if it's not.

No padding in Padders

Another new photo I hadn't seen before, with thanks and appreciation to WhoFix.

Princess Amy

I tend to ignore fan based stuff on this blog (OK, with the exception of 'Daleks with legs' and a few other obsessions) and stick to the offical Who stuff, but this one's just too good to ignore...

Image by by Tryblue. Original source here, and the now standard nod to Combom here.

More Nearly Who

Following our little series of posts a while ack on actors in the running to become new Who's, here's a liitle bit on the favorites to replace Tennant in the new series, before what's his name obviously got the nod.

From July, 1, 2007...

Robert Carlyle Tipped For Next Doctor Who

Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle is set to take over from David Tennant as the TV time traveller Doctor Who.

Fans of the Doctor are speculating that Tennant will quit the cult BBC show before filming of the fifth series begins in 2009.

Bookmaker William Hill is offering 2-1 odds that fellow scott Carlyle will become the 11th Time Lord when The Doctor next regenerates.

Speaking to the Telegraph a spokesman for William Hill said: "We get lots of calls from Dr Who enthusiasts who want to put bets on the next Time Lord. Robert Carlyle is currently the favourite but it changes all the time."

Other hot tips to play the Doctor include Jason Stracham, Alan Davies and James Nesbitt.

Although Tennant has refused to confirm whether he will be quitting his role as the Time Lord, tough guy Carlyle hasn't ruled out stepping into his place. He says, "Would I do it? Possibly."

More Mad Merchandising

Underground Toys Doctor Who Talking Plush Figures (Source)


July 1st 2011 "Underground Toys is pleased to announce the release of an exciting selection of talking plush products for the worldwide hit TV series, Doctor Who. Underground Toys has captured the characters as talking soft toys for the first time! Series 1 will include Medium TARDIS (with a flashing lamp and sound) and Medium Talking Daleks – they stand approximately 9” tall and ship in branded gift boxes. The cute mini talking plush assortment also includes the Cyberman – they stand 4” tall and have plastic clips on so they can be attached to keys, bags etc! Phrases include the TARDIS Materialisation, “Exterminate, Exterminate!” and many more".

... what more can I say... apart from cheers Combom, once again - I'll try and find some original stuff for the blog soon, promise, but as I'm travelling back through time and catching up with stuff it's all gonna be second-hand for a while... and there's so much to catch up on... including a drunk (and naked!) Karen Gillan lost in a hotel... come on, it's got to be true!

Flogging a dead Dalek

Well, we're back in the home of Who, after nearly a year out of the country, having missed the first half of season 6 and now frantically trying to catch up with what's been going on! As ever, I'll be drawing from the past, pulling from the present and blindly ignoring the future.

Anyway, let's start the ball rolling with our still-yet-to-grow-on-me new Dalek design merchandise, and a mention of Christmas (I know, only half way through the year, so obviously time to start thinking about those xmas pressies... not). I really can't get excited about these new daleks and am treating them like the old film versions - to be ignored. Me, I'm gonna pretend they don't exist... easy to do if you are slightly delusional like me.

From the Evening Standard.



'With six months to go, a £200 sit-in Dalek and an "iPad for toddlers" are set to become this year's must-have Christmas gifts, according to experts at Hamleys.

One of the more expensive toys tipped for Christmas is the £200 Dalek, which children can drive around while it utters classic quotes from Doctor Who's oldest enemy, who threatens to "exterminate" the Time Lord.

"The sit-in Dalek is absolutely superb - the only problem is that it doesn't come in adult sizes," said Mr Wheatley.

"The build-it-yourself sonic screwdriver is also very impressive, and its going to be another big year for Doctor Who."'

What can we read from this? After their very brief appearance last season, perhaps we can expect a re-appearance later this year, or perhaps it's just the BBC licensing guys cashing in... whilst I love collecting old stuff, I must say I hate this capitalistic consumersitic society we'e created... there's just so much stuff! But who knows, these could become the most collectable Who item of all item - we've just got to pray for a factory fire to destroy all the stock, as with the original Dalek palysuits back in the days of Dalekmania.

But it is the stuff aimed at kiddies and which gets buggered up easily which becomes rare, so it might just be a good investment... but if I had £200 quid to my name I can think of 200 things I'd rather spend it on first...

Cheers to Combom for picking this up.