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Tag: Doctor Who

Posts related to BBC’s Doctor Who and all related materials.

Ghost Games

Ghost Games

BETTER DREAD THAN DEAD: D. Bethel shares some initial thoughts on the newest 2D Metroid game, Metroid 5 aka Metroid Dread.

EMULATE YOU WANT IT, THAT’S THE WAY YOU NEED IT: Kotaku got in a bit of heat when they reported a story about how people were able to get Metroid Dread up and running on emulators in a smooth 60 frames per second at 4K resolution. The problem is that, in the original story, readers felt that Kotaku was, in fact, recommending people pirate Dread instead of buying it because of the emulator’s stronger performance. This lead to another round of discussion about emulation, piracy, and game preservation. Andrew and D. Bethel do their best to weigh in on these issues.

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  • The Eye of Agamemnon” (18 November 2016): Where D. Bethel and Andrew discuss the storied history of old episodes of Doctor Who erased from existence by the BBC.
  • River City Rampage” (17 August 2018): Where Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the value and importance (and danger) of video game emulation.
  • I Am the State” (26 February 2021): Where D. Bethel and Andrew discuss whether the Metroid series is being neglected by Nintendo.

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Halloween Still

Halloween Still

RTD2: With the next series of Doctor Who wrapping up the tenures of both the star, Jodie Whittaker, and its showrunner, Chris Chibnall, it was announced that the 2023 series will herald the return of the showrunner who brought the show back from the wilderness in 2005, Russell T Davies. Our hosts discuss the possibilities––and drawbacks––of this announcement.

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  • Teasing the Difference” (05 June 2015): Where D. Bethel discusses playing The Last of Us, the game that came with his purchase of this Playstation 4.

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Fashion Blasters

Fashion Blasters

BLOOD AND THUNDER DAYS: To celebrate D. Bethel’s birthday this week, our hosts take a look at another story from the classic run of Doctor Who. In fact, it’s another story from the same season as “Survival.” In fact, it’s the first story from the season that “Survival” brought to a close. Andrew and D. Bethel dive into the pool of Arthurian legend, militarism, and timey-wimey shenagigans found in “Battlefield.”

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  • Spaceship Mall” (20 August 2021): Where we celebrate Andrew’s birthday by watching and discussing the last story from Doctor Who‘s final season (of its classic run), “Survival.”

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  • Catch D. Bethel on Brunch with Ben & Friends on Sunday, September 5, at 10:30am PST by tuning into the YouTube channel for Ben’s comic shop, Empire’s Comics Vault.

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  • Additional audio from Doctor Who “Battlefield”, episode 4.
Spaceship Mall

Spaceship Mall

To celebrate Andrew’s birthday today, he and D. Bethel talk about thing they both love a lot: classic Doctor Who.

SURVIVAL OF THE WHO-IEST: “Survival” is an interesting story for a variety of reasons in classic Doctor Who, not the least of which being that it was the last story to air before the show was cancelled in 1989. Beyond that, though, and beyond the questionable production design and special effects, is a real clever story that says as much about the culture it was made in (and today!) as it does about its characters. Though it’s a capstone on a series that was, perhaps, past its prime, its a more endearing and impressive capstone on the era of the Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, and Ace, played by Sophie Aldred. Andrew and Dan take a few minutes to walk through all the impressive––and mildly less impressive––aspects of this story.

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  • Additional audio taken from Doctor Who, “Survival”, Episode 3.
FIrst-Person Whip

FIrst-Person Whip

RECYCLING OF THE DALEKS: This year’s Doctor Who New Year’s special, “Revolution of the Daleks”, continues the cliffhanger ending of series 12 and says goodbye to some companions while welcoming back Captain Jack Harkness to the show. Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the special while also discuss some of the important changes made to the series lore at the end of series 12.

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  • The Worst Canoe” (27 November 2020): Where Andrew and D. discuss the news that Captain Jack Harkness was returning to Doctor Who for “Revolution of the Daleks” New Year’s special.
  • Rhythms of the Algo” (17 January 2020): Where D. Bethel and Andrew discuss the opening episodes of series 12 of Doctor Who.
  • Shortcast 77 – Smash Talk” (14 December 2018): Where Andrew and D. Bethel talk about Doctor Who series 11.
  • Episode 68 – The Foobelize” (16 October 2015): Where D. Bethel and Andrew discuss multimodal continuities, this time spurred on by The Transformers.

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The Worst Canoe

The Worst Canoe

I’VE MISSED THAT SOUND: It was announced that, after his all too brief appearance near the end of Series 13 of Doctor Who left fans wanting more, John Barrowman will return as Captain Jack Harkness in “Revolution of the Daleks,” this year’s holiday special of Doctor Who. Being fans of the character, Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the character of Captain Jack Harkness, what he could bring to the current iteration of the show.

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Rhythms of the Algo

Rhythms of the Algo

NEW WHO: Series 12 of Doctor Who started up on New Year’s Day. With three weeks gone and now three episodes in, our Who-loving hosts sit down to talk about it (mostly just the first two episodes SPOILER WARNING for “Spyfall, Part 1” and “Spyfall, Part 2”).

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Robot Monsters From the Future

Robot Monsters From the Future

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: As 2019 hurries to a close, our hosts kick up their feet and just chat about the things they’re doing to occupy their time until the new year rolls around. They talk about everything from the winter Steam sale, to finishing Outer Wilds (no spoilers!), to Lovecraftian tabletop games (Fate of Cthulhu), video games (The Sinking City), and novels (Winter Tide), to developing for web browsers, to––of course––Doctor Who and Star Wars.

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  • Weird World News“––a module for Fate Core by friend-of-the-show, André La Roche.
  • La Roche, André. “Spotlight: The Joke’s On Us.” A Website [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes, 27 October 2019––André’s critical look at one of the most divisive movies of the year.
  • Wildfire––the game by Ryan Kubik.

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  • Shortcast 03 – Interview with André La Roche” (31 December 2014): When we actually had friend-of-the-show, André La Roche, on to talk about writing for tabletop games, thus becoming a friend-of-the-show.
  • Episode 89 – High-Five Forever” (25 March 2016): Where D. Bethel talked about the revisionist Lovecraftian story, The Ballad of Black Tom.
  • Shortcast 21 – Love the Stank” (30 December 2016): Where Andrew first talked about playing Stardew Valley.
  • Shortcast 77 – Smash Talk” (14 December 2018): Where our hosts talk about Series 11 of Doctor Who, which introduced the world to Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.
  • End-Of-Year-Cast #001 – #WIN” (28 December 2018): Where our hosts go over the things that defined 2018 for them.
  • Plants Having Sex” (05 April 2019): Where Andrew first talks about playing No Man’s Sky.
  • Threadnaught” (13 September 2019): Where Andrew talks about the big No Man’s Sky update, No Man’s Sky Beyond.
  • Tile Pile” (22 November 2019): Where D. Bethel discussed his first impressions of Outer Wilds.
  • “Universe of Nonsense” (06 December 2019): Where the trailer (and release date) for Series 12 of Doctor Who was discussed.

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Universe of Nonsense

Universe of Nonsense

TRAILER SEASON: With the year coming to an end, it’s all about looking forward for nerdy and geeky entertainment. Lately, it seems a lot of trailers for new movies and television events have been dropping that are getting people talking. This week, Andrew and D. Bethel talk about the new trailers for Black Widow, No Time to Die, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Doctor Who: Series 12.

The teaser trailer for Black Widow. Source: Marvel Studios/YouTube
The trailer for No Time to Die. Source: Universal/Paramount/YouTube
Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover trailer. Source: DC/CW/YouTube
Trailer for series 12 of Doctor Who. Source: BBC/YouTube

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Dicksisms

Dicksisms

LAST OF THE TIME LORDS: At the end of August 2019, the world lost a writer who is probably the most important figure to the BBC hit, Doctor Who, in Terrance Dicks. A prominent writer for the show in the late sixties through the eighties, he also served as the script editor (what we would call now a showrunner) for six years (1969-1974), supervising the transitioning in of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and revitalizing the show’s popularity as it transitioned from black and white into color.

In addition introducing things like the Time Lords and Gallifrey into the continuity, he’s probably most well-known for writing a voluminous amount of the show’s novelizations. In light of his death, Andrew and D. Bethel spend some time talking up one the most important figures in a show they both hold so very dear.

ANDY AND THE PAX WEST OF 2019: Last weekend held the four-day gaming extravaganza called PAX West, which Andrew attended (as well as an associated indie-focused show called Seattle Indie Expo). He goes over the experience of attending the show yet again and how his attitudes about the show have changed over time.

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