News

Happy Birthday, Jamie & Rose!

Please join us today in wishing a very happy 67th birthday to Frazer Hines, who played Jamie McCrimmon against Patrick Trouton’s 2nd Doctor.  

And a happy 29th Birthday to Billie Piper, who was of course, Rose Tyler opposite both Christopher Eccleston’s 9th and David Tennant’s 10th Doctors.

The Key To Scheduling

* Spoilers below if you dont want to see episode titles from the new series!

Home work assignments for those of you following along, the next several weeks will find us deeply entrenched in Tom Baker and Matt Smith, as the continuation of Series Six starts this week with six new episodes, and our Friday Night Who’s will be the six segments of the Key To Time.  The show’s review schedule shakes down like this:

On 8/26 Friday Night Who kicks off with the first story of The Key To Time with “The Ribos Operation”.

Traveling The Vortex #35 will see us reviewing “The Ribos Operation” and S6x08,  “Let’s Kill Hitler”.

Friday Night Who 9/2 is “The Pirate Planet”

Episode #36 covers “The Pirate Planet” and “Night Terrors” (S6x09).

Then on 9/9, one of my favorite episodes, “The Stones Of Blood”.

TTV #37 will be our reviews of “The Stones Of Blood” and S6x10, “The Girl Who Waited”

The week of 9/16 Friday Night Who is “The Androids Of Tara”

And then we’ll review “The Androids Of Tara” and the Star Trek sounding “The God Complex” (S6x11) on episdode #38.

FNW 9/23 – is the penultimate (see Keith, I DO listen to you!) Key To Time story, “The Power Of Kroll”

Episode #39 of the podcast is “The Power Of Kroll” and “Closing Time” (S6x12)

And finally we wrap up the Key To Time saga on 9/30 Friday Night Who with “The Armageddon Factor”

Traveling The Vortex episode #40 (40?!? Seriously?!?  WOW!) will be our reviews of “The Armageddon Factor” and the final episode of series six, “The Wedding Of River Song” (S6x13)

And then a special treat.  It occures to us that our novice Keith will have watched the LAST episode of Doctor Who ever made (or at least the most current), we should go back and bookend it with the FIRST episode of Doctor Who ever made.  So, for Friday Night Who on 10/7, we’ll be watching “An Unearthly Child” with William Hartnell.

Our review for that week (episode #41) will cover The Begningings DVD box set, with “An Unearthly Child” and “Edge Of Destruction” (although I imagine we’ll gloss over or ignore “The Daleks” since we’ve already reviewed that monster story!)

And speaking of Monsters, while I have a tenetive plan mapped out for where we go after this, does anybody want to do some Halloween themed Friday Night Whos at that time?  Sound off!

Happy Belated Birthdays…

As mentioned on this week’s podcast, August 20th is a real Nexus point for real world Doctor Who birthdays.

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy (68),

Companion Sophie Aldred (49)

and

Master Anthony Ainley

(who would have been 79 this year).

Apologies for not getting this up sooner, the Film Festival shooting threw a monkey wrench in my plans, but non-the-less, a very happy birthday to them all.

Happy Birthday Keith & John Nathan-Turner!

Today would have been JNTs 64th Birthday (he passed in May of 2002).  The longest running producer in Doctor Who history, he guided the show from Tom Baker’s “The Leisure Hive” up through the final classic episode “Survival” and the “Dimensions In Time” Children In Need Special.

Today also happens to be our very own Keith’s Birthday.  Wish him a happy one via @vortexKeith on twitter, or Keith@travelingthevortex.com although he is moving today (becoming @vortexshaun’s roommate of all things!) so he may not get a chance to reply.

Happy Birthday Keith!

Loose Threads: Around The Vortex

Welcome to “Loose Threads”, where like the 4th Doctor’s scarf, I hope to combine bits of factoidal information to present a fun if chaotic picture of the Whoniverse at any given moment.

50th Anniversary Plans, Big Finish Comes To Gally and The Waters Of Mars

* TV line talks with Stephen Moffat about the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who in 2013, and he promises emphatically, “it will be huge”.  Moffat wouldn’t be pinned down on weather the anniversary extravaganza would involve stand alone specials, an extra memorable season or other fun stuff.  “It won’t be just one thing…. We’ll be doing lots of stuff,” is all Moffat would concede.  “The plans are quite extensive and changing all the time.  Oh my God, we will hit that year very, very hard indeed.”  The BBC execs “are full committed” to his vision.  “There’s lot of decisions we’re making that are about making all that possible.  It’ll be amazing.”

With all the talk of a multi Doctor story featuring some or all of the combinations—Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccelston and David Tennant—reuniting, is it true?  And might other familiar faces from the past return as well?  “Possibly…. It’s so far in the future, it’s only a set of notions,” Moffat replies, adding that he’s still got this year’s Christmas special to focus on before he gets to locking in plans for the big 50.

* GallifreyOne just updated their guest list for next year.  The list now includes a quartet of Big Finish folk: Nicholas Briggs, executive producer for Big Finish Productions as well as the voice of the Daleks for the past six years; Barnaby Edwards the principal Dalek operator, director, actor, and writer for Big Finish; Beth Chalmers, new 7th Doctor companion Raine Creevey; and Lisa Greenwood, 6th Doctor companion Philippa “Flip” Jackson.  Also on the guest list are new series directors Toby Haynes and Richard Senior, between the two of them responsible for some of the more impresive Matt Smith episodes, including; “The Impossible Astronaut”, “Day Of The Moon”, “The Pandorica Opens”, “The Big Bang”, “Time”, “Space” and the upcoming “Let’s Kill Hitler”. 

And working on a full house for the 1996 TV Movie reunion (Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso are already signed to appear), Philip Segal, executive producer of the TV Movie and the man who championed to get Doctor Who back on the air.  It is the 15th anniversary of the Movie, is it possible that The Master himself, Eric Roberts could be making an appearance?  Stay tuned…

* And finally in a bit of science reality, NASA has announced the Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered evidence of flowing water on Mars.  Water on Mars is no news and has been reported on before of course, but flowing water on the surface is a big deal.  Just ask the Doctor, he could tell you.  For the full report, click here. <>

Show Schedule…

As we build up and count down to the return of Doctor Who to our screens with the release of the second half of series 6 on August 27, here’s some of the goodies you can enjoy with us in the mean time…

TTV #30 – Adversary Archive: The Master – Claws Of Axos, The Deadly Assassin, Survival, Scream Of The Shalka

7/29 – It all starts with this week’s Friday Night Who, in which we are watching “The Infinite Quest” staring the voices of tenth Doctor David Tennant and Freema Agyeman as Martha.  If you’ve not seen this animated adventure and you consider yourself a fan, you owe it to yourself to check it out!  Follow @travelvortex, @vortexkeith, @vortexglenn and @vortexshaun for the Tweet-a-long, and look for the #FridayNightWho and #InfiniteQuest hashtags.

Our next podcast will cover our reviews of “The Infinite Quest”, as well as finishing off series three:  “Utopia”, “The Sound Of Drums,” and “The Last Of The Time Lords”.  (Can’t wait to get to Keith’s reactions to these!)  Then we’ll take a slight break from the new series…

8/5 – Our next Friday Night Who outting is the classic, “The Three Doctors” starring the first three; William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee.  It’ll be Keith’s first experience with a multi doctor story, so dont miss out!

Traveling The Vortex podcast #32 will see us take a break from WHO to bring you Keith’s thoughts and our comprhensive reviews of Torchwood, Season 1.

8/12 – This is the big one, Friday Night Who reviews “The Five Doctors” featuring William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Peter Davison!  You know you want to join in for this classic!

TTV #33 – Taking our time and giving “The Five Doctors” it’s due, a complete review all to itself!

On 8/19 we complete the mulit-doctor stories on Friday Night Who with “The Two Doctors” featuring Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker.

Our 34th episode of Traveling The Vortex will be our reviews of “The Three Doctors”, “The Two Doctors” and the Children in Need special “Time Crash”.

And then it’s time for the return of Matt Smith in series six.  I’d love to give you a hint as to what Friday Night Who will entail during that TIME, but that would spoil the surprise.  But if you pay attention, you might find a KEY that unlocks that mystery.  As always, a giganitc thank you TO our listeners old and new for putting up with our nonsense.

Gally Update 7/11/11

The official Gallifrey One site is announcing that hotel rooms for next February’s event have sold out (though there are other hotels in the area).

Also a big update on guests (which we botched a bit on the podcast this week, sorry for not doing our research).  Now scheduled to appear:

Tony Curran – Van Gogh “Vincent And The Doctor”

Fraizer Hines – Jamie McCrimmon 2nd Doctor companion

Virginia Hey – Farscape

and a bevy of other behind the scenes Who folk.  Check out thier site here.

Happy Birthday Jon Pertwee!

Happy birthday to 3rd Doctor Jon Pertwee, he would have celebrated his 92 birthday this year.  To celebrate, join us TONIGHT for a special Thursday Edition of Friday Night Who as we watch “ClawsOfAxos”.  Details to come, and happy birthday Jon!

Friday Night Who 7/1/11

Artwork by Andy Lambert

What better way to celebrate the Fourth Of July Weekend than with “Genesis Of The Daleks” for Firday Night Who this week?  Join us at Midnight, CDT for this iconic masterpiece from the Fourth Doctor’s era, staring Tom Baker.  Follow the Tweet-A-long on Twitter with @travelvortex, @vortexglenn, @vortexshaun and @vortexkeith, and look for the #FridayNightWho and #GenesisOfTheDaleks hashtags!

We promise to have an updated FNW schedule soon, we’re working out a few logistical questions, but we can hint that upcoming FNW episodes will include “The Deadly Assassin”, a whole army of Sontarans, and the classic series swansong, “Survival” (but not nessecarily in that order!)

NO Full Series In 2012?

The following comes directly from Anglotopia.net:
June 14, 2011 By jonathan

There were rumors last week that Doctor Who would not be returning in 2012 for a full series and would probably have a series of specials as they did with David Tennant.  That rumor was quickly quashed by the BBC who immediately announced that they had renewed Doctor Who for 14 episodes (a full season and a Christmas Special).

Well, today the plot thickened.

According to many sources now – the BBC’s Danny Cohen stated that there won’t be a full series airing in 2012 but that they’d be saving some episodes for a special run in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.  We’re not really sure what to make of this news yet – the BBC really needs to release more details on what they’re planning here. They made a big deal about renewing for 14 episodes but won’t be in any particular hurry to air them.

My speculation is that we have the rest of series 6 this fall, followed by a Christmas special. Then I bet we’ll get an Easter special and series 7 will start in fall 2012 and then finish off in Spring 2013.

Whatever happens, we should cherish our new episodes of Doctor Who as they’re going to get increasingly sparse after this year.

Missing Episodes From ‘Reign of Terror’ to be Animated

From The Doctor Who News Page:

2|Entertain have announced that the missing episodes four and five of the William Hartnell adventure The Reign of Terror are to be animated as part of the forthcoming DVD, which the company previously reported would provisionally be released late 2012.

The animators for the project have been named as Big Finish – long-term Doctor Who audio producers, and whose Real Time and Shada adventures were animated for the BBC Doctor Who website – and animation company Theta Sigma, whose Thetamation is described as “a totally new style of animation, a hybrid of the classic anime styles of the 80s and high-technology”.

The story is one of the remaining to have its surviving episodes released on DVD, leaving only those of the incomplete The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors still to be scheduled. Prior to this, The Invasion received a similar treatment in 2006 when its missing episodes one and four were re-created by award-winning animators Cosgrove Hall.