Apr 142012
 

Consider the curious case of one Richard E Grant, what we here at THT Omniversal have called our Mystery Guest.  Banished to an obscure corner of the western spiral arm of the Tour, he sits there uncomplaining.  Happy for any attention that can be drawn his way.  Now that the dust has settled from the last major Tour update, attention can be paid to some of the lonelier parts of the Tour.

Now for those who don't know… as part of it's online ambitions with Doctor Who, BBCi produced late in 2003 as part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations a new online story starring Richard E Grant as some future incarnation of the Doctor in Scream of the Shalka. This BBC sanctioned event made him Tour-worthy, and by extension was touted for the new Doctor Who series starting in 2005.   Along with the Big Finish audios, this production served as a vital bridge for fans during the closing stretch of the wilderness years.  He also appeared in the 1999 comic relief special The Curse of the Fatal Death, penned by The Moff himself.

Now we've spiffed up the section bringing it into normal Tour look and compliance, whilst doubling the overall size of the section.  The improvement  is only about 150 images, relatively tiny by modern Tour standards, but still it's worthy to remember this part of Who history.

 Posted by at 1:32 pm
Apr 072012
 

After months of percolation the first real site-wide update for 2012 hits, and it's also the largest site-wide update in Tour history, adding over 6000 images to raise the overall image count over 145,000 whilst improving many, many others.  One emphasis to get the Tour through this gap period between seasons is to improve the breadth and quality of the screencaps within Tour confines.

Many of the earliest caps included for the Tour were either unsorted or of relatively poor quality, and the goal until the fall return of the show is to improve this.  We're particularly proud of the revision to the 1996 TVM, which finally got everything ordered and improved the quality as well.  Other stories included in this update which also had updates are The Daemons, Colony in Space, The Android Invasion, and The Robots of Death

While we have quite a few other stories on tap to cap, as it were, we're also in the market for cap submissions.  If you (and you know who you are) have caps which fill or improve Tour content, let us know.

Other Tour notables with this update, William Russell Who Not Who! images have been broken out into their own section and the nascent Jenna-Louise Coleman Who Not Who! images has been updated yet again.  That spans the entire run of the series doesn't it?

As always you can see which stories got updated by going to The Masterlist.

 Posted by at 8:20 am
Apr 032012
 

Getting ready to unleash a massive overall site update on the collective hive-mind of the interwebs. One of the joys of managing a collection of this size is in the finding of great photos.  Consider these a preview of coming attractions.

The Tour glitterati really like the McGann/Ashbrook picture.  Having just finished re-capping the 1996 TVM for inclusion in the next update, this picture just hit our sweet spot.

 

 Posted by at 3:21 pm
Mar 222012
 

Spring is that season of renewal it's often said, and so it is this year with Doctor Who.  Nowadays the arrival (or announcement) of a new companion is greeted with almost as much fervor as that of a new Doctor. 

And why not?  It isn't as though it happens very often, and since RTD used to change out the companion at season's end during his run, there was an unintended sense of closure to that story and then onto the next chapter for the Doctor.

But the Moff as a student of Who history knows that, especially during the sixties, companions were changed as often as socks (Katarina of Sara Kingdom anyone?).  It's with this in mind that we welcome Jenna-Louise Coleman to the fold, and here at THT Towers we introduce her to the mania in the only way we know how.  We've scoured the goodness of the interwebs to produce an initial gallery of images for her, some of the introductory announcement but others from various other sources.  Lots of "red carpet" type situations of course but 200 or so images is a nice start.

 Posted by at 7:15 pm
Dec 312011
 

When it comes to Christmas specials Doctor Who fans are often caught in the trap of knowledge.  While fans understand inherently that a program tailored just for fans is not and cannot be sustainable in the long term, fans also don't want the program to be so broad that it loses it's niche appeal. 

This is doubly true at Christmas time where Doctor Who has held the prestige spot on the BBC's Christmas day schedule for a few years now.  The delicate needle that must be threaded, at least for fans, makes for hit or miss evaluations as to story and overall importance to the larger mythos of the show.  One need look no further than The Runaway Bride as evidence of this.

All of which brings us to this years outing.  It should be stated clearly here that there is nothing inherently bad about The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe.  Performance by one and all was uniformly fine.  Matt Smith was at his fizzy best but the sense of scale was missing this time around, kind of like The Next Doctor in that respect.  Still we shouldn't judge too harshly.  It's the last new Who for 9 months we figure so if history is our guide we'll probably be more kindly disposed to The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe come late spring or early summer when anticipation will be mounting yet again. 

For the sake of completeness here's our revised list ranking the Christmas specials:

Images and caps for The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe are now online.  BTW even though the view here at THT Towers is that "Doctor Who Confidential" had served it's purpose and run it's course, didn't you miss it too?

 Posted by at 2:12 pm
Dec 062011
 

The Sixth Season Discs are arrived hither, tither, and especially yon.  The much-talked about discs extra, and a first in Doctor Who as far as we know, is the inclusion of a set of mini-episodes, and while certainly enjoyable, put us here at the Tour in a bit of a quandary.  We're rather disciplined here at THT Worldwide in that everything here on the site comes out of televised Doctor Who in one way or another, that's why there aren't Torchwood or SJA caps (which don't have the Doctor in them).   But the set of five "Night and the Doctor" minisodes are a different kettle of fish.

Of the five, "Up All Night" reads and feels like an extended or deleted scene from Closing Time and doesn't feature the regular cast at all, and as such is the most easily dismissed.

Good Night and Bad Night primarily feature Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and, importantly in the case of Good Night, has a conversation between the Doctor and Amy that many fans wish had occurred during the season. 

First Night and Last Night feature the kind of timey-wimey River-centeredness we as fans have come to expect.  These two stories, set somewhere between A Good Man Goes to War and The Wedding of River Song, tie together as one story more fully but still amounts to a trifle that gives larger context to the mentioned but unseen adventures between the Doctor and River.

Almost entirely set within the Tardis, it seems likely the entirety of these minisodes we're shot over the course of a day tops, but it's nice to know the cast and crew are going that extra light year or two for the fans, who after all are going to be buying the set to begin with.

Caps for each of these minisodes have now been posted.

 Posted by at 7:11 pm