We met briefly at my place, before decamping en masse (well all six of us anyway) to the Chester MegaBowl as promised. Balls were bowled, strikes were (rarely) achieved, burgers were burged and my game stank like Adric left out of the freezer. Congrats to Richard and Matthew for winning, and I dare say we'll be back in a year or so.

The website is being updated weekly now, and I hope to start adding Out of Time pieces during my week's holiday next week. We have been added to the Worldwide Doctor Who Web Ring, so will hopefully start to garner a few more browsing hits. There is also a link there to the OneList mailing list that I have set up for electronic group communications. Anyone without email who wishes to say something in the forum, write or phone me and I shall pass your tidings on forthwith.

There is also news on radw of a new Doctor Who movie entering the production phase. It's genuine, apparently, but at a very early stage, so don't get your hopes up yet.

The Beginning boxed set has been shelved in favour of a second Dalek box, with Planet and Revelation. Ho, hum... at least the decision does make commercial sense. For a Christmas release to be a success, a significant number of units need to be sold as gifts. Given the options, a colour Dalek release is obviously a more attractive parental purchase than a set of B/W stories from 36 years ago. Personally, I can see The Beginning being rescheduled for a release around Easter next year, when purchasers have a little more money to spend on themselves, and possibly a little free time to fill over the holiday weekend. It'd be nice if we had the option of buying the stories individually as well, though...

Mini Reviews:

A cracking start to the series, Paul C's dialogue being ready made for audio already. Skilfully edited and a joy all round, with special plaudits to Uncle Nick as Wolsey the cat. I've always enjoyed radio as a pantomime format, it allows all the absurdity without having to ruin the effect with painted scenery, and Oh No It Isn't reminds me of nothing so much as those wonderful Radio 4 Christmas productions of yore. The choice of tale also allows the lovely (copyright DWM 73)Lisa Bowerman to slip effortlessly into the good Professor's skin, with Bernice herself not entirely sure who she is for the largest part. Well worth the effort.

From the hour or so I've heard so far, this is if anything better than its novel, which for me sacrificed plot in favour of character a little too much. The essential plot, of the Sunless and their oppression of the native population, is pretty much intact, while enough of the character study remains for the story never to appear selfless. Emile is fittingly annoying, Tamika doubly so, and their interaction as good on the ears as in print.

Loved the book, hate the audio. Unlike Beyond the Sun, characterisation made Walking to Babylon, so when it is again sacrificed for plot the resulting audio suffers rather than benefits from the process. Worse, as the opening part of a trilogy, it doesn't even have a proper ending, leaving anyone who doesn't get the rest doubly short-changed. What in the book is a McGuffin is here presented as simple truth. Apparently Kate Orman requested major changes to the original script, which has to leave me wondering who to blame for the final product. lafayette is probably the best represented character, but he was not originally one of Kate's finest, being a fairly standard representation of a young Edwardian gentleman, while none of the minor characters, People included, are on air long enough to actually have any real character. And Sladen sucks. Of course.

Birthright

Again not the greatest, but it had much less to live up to than its immediate predecessor. The characters are cliched, the plot hackneyed, and Colin Baker both J but it rattles along at a fair pace and passed the half-hour walks home over three evenings quite nicely. Jason is a little out of place, not surprisingly as his role covers other characters from the original novel, but with idiot mode on Birthright just about gets away with it until the overly-confusing ending, which again has to combine the original novel's denouement with the needs of continuing the trilogy.

Hopefully all would come right in the final part of the trilogy...

A classic of the genre. Easily the best audio since Oh No It Isn't, this is actually less condensed than most by dint of concentrating on Benny's story alone except where necessary. Jason is somewhat out of character again in actually succeeding in life during his time in Blighty, but taking the story by itself he carries off the Doctor/Chris role most effectively. Meanwhile Lisa B is nothing less than stunning in her portrayal of an emotionally wrecked Bernice, trying to come to terms with her murder of Gerhard before having to survive the specialised courtesies of the Third Reich. Congratulations to both Lance and Jac for a flawless adaptation. I even loved the Poland gag...

Another success. Jac's tale is hilarious, Bernice and Keri (the Pakhar journalist from Legacy scoring endless points off each other during a live broiadcast from a dig, until they find they find they may have sunk deeper than they thought... Paul's story by contrast is stunning in its stark simplicity, Bernice finding herself on the other side of the gun than she is used to, and finding her justifications challenged as she has challenged so many before. Paul Cornell's interview is an illuminating bonus, although it's sad that he seems to be turning his back on the actual Bernice novelisations in favour of the audio series. Especially if Big Finish in turn neglect the Bernice audios in favour of their newly gained Official Who series... The musical suite that competes the CD is a nice bonus, and in fact the only negative thing to be said about the release is that it is currently only available to those purchasing the entire Time Ring series. Surely an individual release must be on the cards. Although that would in turn annoy those 'forced' to buy the job lot initially, the only alternative sees an inflated circulation of pirate copies, as people read how wonderful the CD is but are unable to purchase it legitimately.