Doctor Who

I'm not sure what I was more excited about last night at 5 past 9 in the evening - the new Doctor Who episode or writing this blog entry about it.

I was out on Saturday and Sunday night, so I only just watched the latest Doctor Who episode last night on a VHS tape on our chunky Alba TV, (on digital :( )

The beginning of the new theme tune was a little dissapointing, I liked the bit not disimilar to Biffy Clyro's 'The Captain', which has been replaced with something that might be heard in a heavy metal song, or perhaps 'Clubwork' from the black & silver keyboards at school (Yes, that's great in context, like in my GCSE Rondo Composition, but not replacing the bit with the same rhythm as 'Love Gun' by Kiss). But it soon went into a thin, vintage sounding synthesiser, with a lovely grey background and old-style credits like on the latest album from Lostprophets. It also had a kind of dark-feeling background that feels nice and retro, but not the same kind as when the men behind Offshore 98 were setting off on the tender to the ship.

Further on through the episode, a message about 'Prisoner Zero' was coming through an ice cream van's speakers (they use wireless?), mobile phones, TV and radio. They must have had it playing on a loop tape (and it must have actually been really low and they the put pitch shift on using a Zoom G2 to get that shaver-like echo) on the whole electromagnetic spectrum, but missed out the sound wave part of the spectrum. The Doctor did some quick DXing and found some foreign radio stations broadcasting the same message in their native languages. Reception was crystal clear, with no static, so his sonic screwdriver must be bigger on the inside and have the best active loop antenna/longwire combination ever. The radio stations must have also switched to FM mode. Since there was very little (or no) static, the Doctor must have pressed the preset buttons. This means that (If the woman who owned the radio conformed to the government) these foreign stations he heard must have been broadcasting on the same frequencies as Heart, BBC Radio 2, and that area's local BBC station (for travel announcments).

The T.A.R.D.I.S was given a makeover as well. And a nice makeover as well, innit. I think I spotted a valve radio up on the shelf, and an oscilloscope, or maybe it was some audio editor on a specially shaped wooden computer with a tiny screen, zoomed in (they need to make a Linux Penguin shaped computer, but that's a different story altogether).

In the end, the girl with the nice name (Amelia Pond) was asked if she would give up her current life to travel with the Doctor (no, not Doctor Tim). And that made me think, would I? Well, there was a valve radio in there, so it wouldn't be possible. Maybe I could have a mix of the two. I could put a MW transmitter on a satellite, like there has been disscussion about on the Radio Caroline Fan Mailing List, and get the Daleks to kill the ionosphere jsut so I can prove Peter right. I could also use the sonic screwdriver to find Eric Gotts' house and send the Daleks there. So the above says I wouldn't, but maybe I still would, I'm really not sure. It would be a very hard decision, but hardly worth making, since its never gonna happen to me (yes, you didn't need to hide behind the settee from the Daleks, they're fake). I should concentrate my energies (not much, since I've broken my toe) to making another decision - Which MW transmitter circuit diagrams should I use, the one in Radio Is My Bomb or the one that Radio Musicmaker sent to me?

73s Cunham