The writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin were major contributors to the 1970s golden age of classic-series Doctor Who, yet they’ve never been embraced by the show’s fans as enthusiastically as contemporaries like Robert Holmes or Terrance Dicks. There’s a stereotype of them as ideas men, good at […]
Doctor Who
Outside the Blue Box: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
It’s tough to look around in any media these days without the concept of a reboot being thrust in front of your unsuspecting face. ‘Don’t you remember how much you LOVED this film/TV show/game/song? Don’t you want to see it AGAIN? But this time slightly DIFFERENT?’ It’s always struck me […]
Outside the Blue Box: Last Night in Soho (2021)
All you need to see is the recent viral clip of Matt Smith expressing amazement that Keanu Reeves was watching Morbius on a flight, and you’ll realise that the former Eleventh Doctor’s film career has been spotty to say the least. From the bizarre experiments (Lost River), to the aborted […]
Outside the Blue Box: Virtual Murder – A Torch for Silverado (1992)
2026 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Jon Pertwee. As such, it seems only fair that we shine a light on an example of his work, specifically a relatively overlooked example of his work at the twilight of his days. The early 90s BBC telefantasy crime series Virtual […]
Doctor Who A-Z #129: The Five Doctors (1983)
When I’ve told fellow Doctor Who fans that the next story I’m reviewing is The Five Doctors, there’s generally been a knowing laugh. Not, to be clear, a mocking laugh – nothing like the “ha ha, you poor sod” response I got when it was The Underwater Menace. No, it’s […]
Outside the Blue Box: The Legend of Hell House (1973)
This article contains spoilers for the bizarre twist ending to The Legend of Hell House (1973). If you have not yet seen the film and wish to remain unspoiled, please watch it before reading further. What is the first thing you think of when you hear the name Doctor Who? […]
Doctor Who A-Z #128: The King’s Demons (1983)
You could argue that The King’s Demons is the last ordinary story of the classic series. Over the course of the ’80s, as the show becomes a bizarrely early victim of the streaming-era curse of shortened seasons with no filler episodes, the middle ground of Doctor Who falls away; everything […]
Doctor Who A-Z #127: Enlightenment (1983)
By the end of Peter Davison’s second season there is an unbridgeable gap between what the show does well and what the production team and the fans both want it to do. What it does well – and what it’s been doing a lot of recently – is produce cerebral […]
Doctor Who A-Z #126: Terminus (1983)
Terminus is, at the very least, trying to do some distinctive things – and if you think that’s an unpromising introduction to a review, well, you’re right, but let’s take stock of the positive things first. It’s the middle story in a linked run of three adventures, which isn’t unprecedented […]
Doctor Who A-Z #125: Mawdryn Undead (1983)
Following on from Snakedance‘s exploration of the Fifth Doctor’s character and particular brand of heroism, here’s another road not wholly taken. The problem the Fifth Doctor keeps running into isn’t that Peter Davison is a bad actor – he may be second only to Patrick Troughton as the most technically […]