Tag Archive: Lost In Time

Episode 560 – Hired by a Ghost

The clock continues to click down on Doom’s Day as she tries to escape Death and find the Doctor.

This week we review ‘Doom’s Day: Extraction Point‘, a novel written by M.G. Harris and published by BBC Books.

Then it’s back to the Lost in Time mobile game for Doom’s second adventure there. This time it’s Doom’s Day Part II – Wrong Place at the Right Time.

And we discussed the recent Series 1 – 4 Blu-Ray remastered set.

Enjoy!

Episode 557 – Incarcerated in a Dalek Amusement Park

In this episode, we continue our reviews of materials that are celebrating the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who.

First, it’s the third release in Big Finish’s ‘Once and Future’ series, A Genius for War featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor.

Then it’s more of Doom’s Day. We review hours 6 through 9 with the two comics from Titan, A Doctor In the House? Part 1 & 2.

And then we discuss the Doctor Who: Lost in Time mobile game event, “AI am the Doctor” from East End Games, which wraps up Doom’s hour 10.

Enjoy!

Episode 540 – We’ve Come to Get Our Ball Back

This week we look at the animated version of The Abominable Snowmen which was released with both a Black & White and Color version of the story in the UK in September 2022 and in North America in December 2022. This is our second go-around with the story. We reviewed the reconstruction by Loose Cannon back in Episode 175 – An Intelligent Design.

Plus in our ‘Something New, 2 Minute Review” – Keith gives us a look at the new Doctor Who mobile game, Lost in Time.

And we do get into a spoiler discussion of The Mandalorian Chapter 17: The Apostate. You can skip forward to 00:14:45 to avoid getting spoiled on the episode.

Enjoy!

 

 

Scheduling Masters

Cpt 8

“The Land of Fiction?” Arissa repeated after a moment. Her tone was disbelieving, little more than a whisper, and she hated herself for it as it implied weakness, and weakness was something you couldn’t express if you wanted to survive the Master.

Showing weakness in a room full of them? Well, that was just inviting trouble.

To be fair as her eyes scanned the room, Arissa actually felt fairly confident that she could take them on. Not all at once of course, but one on one. Well, all but Missy, as that version was like a bag full of cats. You could smell the crazy on her. She was unpredictable enough to be the real threat and also seemed to be REALLY excited about the idea of doing great harm to our intrepid heroine.

“The Land of Fiction,” Missy repeated, her eyes boring into her as she smiled a toothless smile that somehow still implied fangs were involved.

Arissa stared back, determined not to break eye contact first. “I’ve been there once. It wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences.” She said, discreetly tightening the grip on the sword hilt.

“Well if you’re familiar with it there’s no point in explaining is there?” The purple-clad Master quipped.

“Indulge me.” Said Arissa, still staring down Missy.

The original Master (but again, who was to really know) stepped forward and gently laid a hand on Missy’s sword, lowering the blade. She glared at him, but allowed it to happen, giving Arissa a golden moment to blink when she whirled away and sheathed the sword inside her umbrella. “It seems, my dear, that several cosmic coincidences have taken place at once. It started with this ridiculous crusade of the Doctor’s and his journey into THE DARK TIMES.”

The Master in the black crushed velvet began to laugh ruefully. “Who would have ever thought the destruction of the universe could be laid at his feet and not our own?”

“Sickening, isn’t it?” Asked blondie.

The original Master continued, unabated, “The first event was not the paradoxes, but the very act of traveling back. It ripped the fabric of space-time asunder and weakened the dimensional barriers that keep reality together. The paradoxes created in THE DARK TIMES echoed forward throughout the continuum, creating tears of their own.”

“By the time of your own excursion into THE DARK TIMES, the universe was in pretty rough shape.” Came the low voice of the leather jacket, sunglass-wearing Master, who somehow had snuck up behind her. He moved to her other ear. “You didn’t help.”

The crispy, sunburnt Master picked up the thread. “By the time we became aware of the Doctor’s meddling, all of time had begun to unravel. Catastrophic, cataclysmic damage done to the time vortex.”

“Bleedthrough was inevitable.” The original Master said.

“And one of those points of bleed-through was from The Land of Fiction,” Arissa confirmed.

The original Master nodded. “Precisely. Threads of that pocket universe snaked out and infected our own, manipulating reality and blending it with fiction.”

Missy sipped at a cup of tea and continued. “At the same time, a small podcast from Kansas gets the bright idea to suddenly change their schedule listings into a fictional story, featuring a fictional character who is self-aware. Coincidence?”

“The author is being influenced by the Land of Fiction,” Arissa said, realization dawning.

“Got it in one.” Missy purred.

“Here’s where it gets interesting.” The purple-clad Master intoned. “Because of that influence, their schedule quickly became the template for the real world. History was re-written into a new… UNBOUND universe.”

“Didn’t care for that.” Blondie injected.

“As their schedule became more and more prominent in the real world, more and more of reality became tethered to it. This podcast was suddenly the most important thing in the cosmos.”

“Speaking of, Transmitting now.” The crispy Master interrupted.

497 – The First Doctor Adventures 1.1 “The Destination Wars” (Big Finish Audio), Doctor Who: Missy comic issues #2, #3.

498 – The Ninth Doctor Adventures Ravagers Box Set – 1. “Sphere of Freedom”, 2. “Cataclysm”, 3. “Food Fight” (Big Finish Audio)

499 – Lost in Time: The Space Pirates (Retcon & Novelization)

500 – Whosical the Musical – (Rocking revue of the Music inspired by Who)

501 – Lethbridge-Stewart The Laughing Gnome: Rise of the Dominator by Robert Mammone (Novel)

502 – The Eighth Doctor Adventures 4.3 “Nevermore”, 4.4 “The Book of Kells” (Big Finish Audio)

“And that’s when we began seeking you out, my dear. You continued to transmit the schedule for them, even as the walls of reality were breaking down. Your dedication simultaneously kept the cosmos from imploding and allowed the Land of Fiction to further infiltrate reality.”

“Things have inverted,” Arissa said. “The author is no longer in control; he only thinks he is.”

“Indeed. But as a construct of the author, you are the essential bridge to solving this problem.”

She looked around the room at the various faces of the Master looking expectantly (or in Missy’s case, predatorily) at her. “Whey do I get the feeling this is going to end badly?”

“Because it will, Poppet.” Missy’s toothless grin widened.

Scheduling Victorious

Dawn.

The sun’s rays have just begun to crest the horizon, illuminating a towering pyramid that looms over the desolate cityscape below. ‘Scenes from an apocalypse’ might be one way to describe the city. If it were a boxer, it would be beaten, bruised, and bloodied. The sprawling metropolis certainly had seen better days, but it was the people who still cowered in it that should be the focus. They too were broken and haunted, mere shadowy reflections of their former selves, for their eyes had seen horrors.

And yet they survived.

Atop the pyramid, a cloaked figure appears, gliding up to a stone podium that stands near the edge. Soft robes billow about her form as she lifts her hands aloft. The silence, which in reality was merely quiet, now becomes an eerie sound vacuum in anticipation of the words to follow. Breaths are held in that pause for attention, and she certainly has it.  Time stretches out into a thin stream of nothing in that heartbeat before she begins to orate, leaning into the strange device that can only be a microphone sending her voice booming into the valley below:

“Is this thing on?”

The cacophony of sudden noise startles her, and the bombastic feedback of her words causes a crumbling tower to finally give up its fight against gravity and collapse to the earth.

“Right. Here we go…

BEHOLD MORTALS:

A NEW DAY DAWNS.

A NEW FORMAT BEGINS.

TRAVELING THE VORTEX RETURNS.”

She pauses, looking thoughtful.

“Really? Is that it? Isn’t this an awful lot of pomp and circumstance just to announce your silly little podcast is coming back? I mean, I get it, you’ve been doing this pretty much non-stop, week after week for YEARS.” She draws out the word, adding more syllables to it than should be phonetically possible. “And then you take a little hiatus for a breather and suddenly that turns into a long hiatus because of a pandemic and…”

The author stares hard at her, projecting his will onto the flashing words that form on the screen. The meaning is clear.

“Oh fine, I’ll get on with it,” She mutters, not at all convinced the author wouldn’t carry out his threat to feed her to some horrible abomination in his next story. She coughs, attempting to get back into character.

“JOIN THE VORTEX BOYS IN THEIR NEW BI-WEEKLY FORMAT AS THEY REVIEW WHAT MAY BE THE MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECT IN DOCTOR WHO HISTORY:

THE MULTI-PART, MULTI-FORMAT TIME LORD VICTORIOUS!”

Words appear at the bottom of the screen, spelling out the upcoming schedule dates and topics:

Aug
8/31 TTV #465 – LOCKDOWN continued…

Sep
9/21 TTV #466 – Lost in Time: The Myth Makers (Recon and Novelization)

Oct
10/5 TTV #467 – TLV: A Dalek Awakens (Escape Room), Defender of the Daleks #1 (Comic), The Guide to the Dark Times (Annual 2021)

10/19 TTV #468 – TLV: Monstrous Beauty #1 (Comic), The Knight, The Fool and The Dead (Book)

and more to come!

“AS ALWAYS,” She concludes, looking rather exasperated by the whole ordeal, “THE SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE, BUT WE’LL TRY AND LET YOU KNOW!” With that, she turns in a flutter of robes and strides from the dais, muttering something about “real authors like Andy Frankham-Allen”.

And in the ruined city below, a faint sound reaches back up to the top of the pyramid. She could not be certain, of course, but it sounds like applause.

Whoops! Scheduling

WHOOPS! STOP THE PRESSES! SHAUN SCREWED UP.

MAKE A NOTE IN THE LOG.

Yes, friends and constant listeners, I’m human, much to my chagrin, and that means I occasionally goof up. And I goofed up the schedule. We were to listen and review Big Finish #102 for this week’s cast, but it turns out that’s the FOURTH part of a four-part arc, and we had only listened to part one thus far. And so it’s time for a…

SCHEDULE CORRECTION!

TTV #369 will instead the next story in the Virus Strand arc, Big Finish #95 “Exotron” / “Urban Myths” 

One more 8th Doctor/comics match up in TTV #370 with Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures Season 3: #4 “Wirrn Dawn” and Titan Comics 12th Doctor Year 3 #5-7 

A bit of fun for TTV #371. We’ll talk about everybody’s favorite Brigadier via the “Liberty Hall” short film interview (this can be found as a bonus feature on “Mawdryn Undead”) and Candy Jar Books The Lethbridge-Stewart Quiz Book by Marc Jones. 

MAR

We’ll talk about last year’s huge Titan Comics crossover event “Lost Dimension” with all eight issues in TTV #372.

TTV #373 has a look at Big Finish #97 The Wishing Beast/The Vanity Box 

Glenn is gone this week, so Keith and I are cooking up something special for TTV #374.

Lost In Time with The Highlanders (Novelization & Recon) moves to TTV #375. 

APR

TTV #376 –  NOW we’ll get to Big Finish #102 The Mind’s Eye/Mission of the Viyrans, and discuss “The Virus Strand” Arc as a whole.

Book Review: Lethbridge-Stewart: A Very Private Haunting by Sharon Bidwell for TTV #377 (if I have my dates right)

Back to Big Finish for TTV #378 with #96 Valhalla, and the Titan Comics miniseries Ghost Stories #1-4 

TTV #379 promises to be fun, so start formulating your feedback now! Whobots – The Artificial Life Forms of Doctor Who. Here are the ground rules for this discussion: We are NOT talking Cyborgs, so Daleks and Cybermen are out. We are NOT discussing lifelike humanoid robots (those are androids) so the Androids of Tara and any doppelgangers of our cast are out. No, we want to discuss the clunky, the box with legs, the giant rumba robots that tend to inhabit the Whoniverse. Think Chumblies, or War Machines, or Vox Robots, or K1, or K9 etc… Should be lively… unlike the subjects of discussion.

That’s us playing a bit of catch up. On the horizon? We may finally get to the worst kept secret in the Vortex and land on Traken…

As always, thanks for your indulgence, and for listening!

 

 

 

 

Pride And Prejudice And Scheduling


Updates and changes galore for your newest home edition of Traveling The Vortex, and a few surprises as well!

Friday Night Who on 7/8 is “Spearhead From Space”.

TTV #289 is All 8th Doctor, as we cover Big Finish 8th Doctor Adventures Season 2: #3 “Brave New Town” and #4 “The Skull Of Sobek”, along with the delayed Titan Comics 8th Doctor mini series #1-5.

The 12th Doctor story Robot Of Sherwood and the Titan Comics we originally had scheduled to review have been postponed for a bit, instead for Friday Night Who on 7/15 is the non-cannonical, alternate universe, cringe at the spelling but still fun “Dr. Who And The Daleks” starring Peter Cushing. This one may be hard to find for some people, so head over to our Amazon link NOW and get yours ordered. It’s available in a two pack which is great, you’ll see why in a minute…

TTV #290 will have our thoughts on “Dr. Who And The Daleks”.

7/22 happens to be the exact 50th Anniversary of the second non-cannonical, alternate universe, cringe at the spelling but still fun “Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.” with Peter Cushing, so what better way to celebrate than to watch the film for this week’s Friday Night Who? Aren’t you glad you headed over to our Amazon link when you did to get that two pack we talked about a minute ago?

You didn’t?

Well, better go take care of that now.  Go on, the link is right there. We’ll wait for you.

Okay, you’re back? Great! On we go…

TTV #291 will of course have our reviews of “Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.”

FNW 7/29 is “The Greatest Show In The Galaxy”.

and it’s another book review for Traveling The Vortex episode #292. We’ll be taking a look at Candy Jar Books short story The Band Of Evil by Roger J Simonds & Shaun Russell and Lethbridge-Stewart: The Showstoppers by Jonathan Cooper.

FNW 8/5 is “Mindwarp”.

TTV #293 has some more Titan Comics reviews, these with the 11th Doctor (#2.6 – #2.10) and Big Finish #84 “The Nowhere Place”

Cybermen and dueling Matt Smiths are on the docket for Friday Night Who on 8/12 in the Neil Gaimon penned, “Nightmare In Silver”.

TTV #294 is our look into the acting prowess of the 11th Doctor, It’s Beyond The Doctor: Matt Smith edition. The film is still up for debate, but I’m pushing for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies… We’ll let you know as soon as that one is finalized.

FNW 8/19 is another new series episode with David Tennant in “Gridlock”…

…which sets up an Adversary Archive for The Macra in TTV #295. But we’ll be pulling double duty with this episode, also looking at the Lost In Time story “The Macra Terror”. Sadly NONE of the episodes of this 2nd Doctor tale still exist, so we’ll be reviewing it via the Target Novelization and the Audio Recon from the folks at Loose Cannons.

Beyond that? Top Con and Time Eddy loom on the horizon, along with a certain epiversary. Stay tuned, true believers!

 

Schedule Resolutions We Intend To Keep (…but may not)

  • UPDATE 1/4/16:

As we wind down 2015 and turn our eyes firmly forward to 2016, we present the upcoming schedule:

Friday Night Who on 1/1 is the swan song episode for Ian & Barbara. We’ll break “The Chase” into two weeks, parts 1-3 of the Hartnell episode are first

TTV #262 sees a return to Big Finish with mainline story #65 “The Juggernauts”, and we’ll offer up our opinions on the Titan Comics 9th Doctor mini-series event (issues #1-5)

FNW 1/8 concludes “The Chase” with parts 4-6.

  • And then we’ve expanded TTV #263 into a full blown Adversary Archive: The Mechanoids! We’ll review “The Chase”, (Goodbye, Ian and Barbara) cover some early Who comics with the stories The World That Waits (Comic – The Dalek World Annual), The Eye Of War & Impass (Comic – The Dalek Chronicles), and the short story Birth Of A Legend by Justin Richards (Doctor Who Files: The Cult Of Skaro). 

Sylvester McCoy returns to FNW on 1/15 in “Delta And The Bannermen”.

TTV #264 sees the return of last year’s “Beyond The Doctor” feature. For Sylvester McCoy we’ll be discussing his turn in the 1979 Dracula staring Frank Langella.

We had a request for some “funky Pertwee”, so FNW 1/22 is “Claws Of Axos”.

Since we’ve already tackled that story, it frees up TTV #265 for some Candy Jar Books fun. We’ll talk the Lethbridge-Stewart Short The Cult Of The Grinning Man, have our “Spoiler filled” Book Review of Lethbridge-Stewart: Beast Of Fang Rock by Andy Frankham-Allen, and catch up with the 10th Doctor in Titan Comics #11-15 and we may have a special treat with a special guest on the show this week.

FNW 1/29 – is the animated “Scream Of The Shalka”.

TTV #266 starts season 2 of Big Finish 8th Doctor Adventures: #1 Dead London, #2 Max Warp

Been a while for one of our favs, FNW 2/5 is “Doctor Who: The Movie”.

TTV #267 sees us go “Beyond The Doctor” with 8th Doctor Paul McGann… AND 9th Doctor (Alternate) Richard E. Grant in Withnail & I.

This one could be a bit of a bother. We are launching a new series of discussions on Lost episodes, and starting with William Hartnell’s “The Crusade”. Obviously, with missing episodes, there will be some logistical challenges for Friday Night Who on 2/12, but we’re confident we can square that away. Or at the very least muddle through.

TTV #268 is the first in our “Lost In Time” discussions over “The Crusade”, the Reconstruction and Novelization.

After that? Well Gally looms for those who can go. Not sure on our end yet, but we are ever hopeful. And of course we’ll have our Book review over January’s Goodreads title, and a few other surprises…

Stay tuned, true believers! And thanks for all your support!