The Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity returns for a tenth year, giving new writers the chance to join the Doctor Who adventure at Big Finish
Every year for the past decade Big Finish have given Doctor Who fans a chance to fulfill what, for many, is a lifelong dream. It’s their opportunity to write an adventure for the Doctor themselves. The Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity remembers Big Finish production team member Paul Spragg, who was a tireless champion of new talent. Now the writing competition that bears his name will give one writer the chance to have their short story recorded. It will then be released as part of the Doctor Who Short Trips range.
Every year, the guidelines are slightly different to help keep people’s ideas fresh. For the 2025 competition, Big Finish are asking writers to submit their outlines for a brand new Thirteenth Doctor short story. It can feature any of her onscreen companions, or she can be travelling solo. However, entrants shouldn’t create any new companions for her. Conversely, all other characters, including the monsters, must be wholly original. No existing monsters from the show or other media should appear, and no real people, or real world historical figures.
Entries need to contain a 500 word synopsis of the entire story. There should also be a 500 word sample from the story itself. Big Finish have noted in previous years that the ability to keep to a brief is a key trait they’re looking for in new writers. So writers shouldn’t assume their idea is so good they’ll get away with breaking the rules. The deadline for getting entries in is the 12th of June. So get typing!
For the complete list of guidelines, and examples of the previous winners for guidance and inspiration, see here. Good luck to everyone who enters!
Lucky Day hits Doctor Who’s lowest chart position in five years in its +7 results
The +7 viewing figures for the fourth episode of the current season are now available. These reveal that after seven days, Lucky Day has a +7 rating of 2.80m. That’s an increase of 1.12m (66.7%) on the number of people who watched on the Saturday, whether on BBC One or iPlayer.
While that’s a substantial time-shift, the overall result is down 0.43m (13.3%) on previous episode The Well. It’s also down 1.26m (31%) on last year’s equivalent episode 73 Yards, the scale of the difference in part being due to the Hugo nominated episode being last season’s highest rated episode, while Lucky Day has the lowest +7 so far this season.
Though ratings were down across the board last week, Doctor Who is currently at #29 in the weekly chart. That’s the first time the show has fallen out of the Top 25 since 2022’s Eve of the Daleks. It’s also the lowest chart placement overall since 2020’s The Timeless Children was at #30.
That said, the Ncuti Gatwa era’s average chart position remains at #17 – the same as Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker’s eras, and one place higher than Peter Capaldi’s.
Full viewing figures for last Saturday are still unavailable, while we’re still waiting for the premiere’s final numbers
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a clear picture of how many people watched The Story & the Engine on Saturday. It has an official overnight viewing figure of 1.59m, up 0.08m (5.3%) on previous episode Lucky Day. However, the numbers for the 8am iPlayer drop are still unavailable. This means any kind of meaningful comparison is impossible for now. However, Blogtor Who will make sure to include the details in our viewing figures column next week.
There’s similar disappointment for anyone waiting for The Robot Revolution’s +28 viewing figure. That final official BARB rating is still unknown too. It should be said that it seems that no +28 viewing figures have been published for over a month now, so it’s not a Doctor Who specific issue. Again, we’ll update you next week if they become available in the meantime.
Rylan Clark & Sabine (JULIE DRAY) also guest star in the Eurovision style episode ,BBC Studios,James Pardon
Doctor Who continues with The Interstellar Song Contest at 7.10pm this Saturday on BBC One. Episodes drop on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland) at 8am GMT.
May 12th, 2025: This comic is MAYBE inspired by me watching Murdoch Mysteries on the CBC. IT'S REAL GOOD!! They do their research though, which makes them better than me I MEAN T-REX.
Covers and synopsis for books out later this year are now available, as well as names of the audiobook readers
More details are here about upcoming books starring the current TARDIS team. In addition to the already reported original novels. these include their covers for the Target Books novelisations of his television stories, the 1001 Nights in Time & Space short story collection, and this year’s Doctor Who Annual.
We also now know the readers for the audiobook versions of the novelisations. These include Belinda Chandra herself, Varada Sethu, Susan Triad actor Susan Twist, and The Well’s Shaya, Caoilfhionn Dunne. Meanwhile Dan Starkey, best known as Strax the Sontaran applies his incredible vocal range to the many voices of Lux.
The Empire of Death – read by Susan Twist
The Robot Revolution – read by Varada Sethu
Lux – read by Dan Starkey
The Well – read by Caoilfhionn Dunne
Empire of Death. Cover by Dan Liles (c) Target Books
Doctor Who: The Empire of Death by Scott Handcock, 10th of July
What secret is the TARDIS hiding?
Enlisting UNIT in their search for an enigmatic woman who appears all throughout time and space, the Doctor and Ruby uncover deeper mysteries. What is the secret of Susan Triad? What happened on the night that Ruby was born? The answers lead the Doctor and Ruby to a horrifying confrontation with the greatest evil of all…
The Robot Revolution. Cover by Dan Liles (c) Target Books
Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution by Una McCormack, 10th of July
What if the story of your life is written in the stars?
Belinda Chandra grew up longing to travel – but never imagined rocket ships would be part of the deal. Abducted by killer robots and taken to a strange planet, Belinda must join forces with the Doctor to put right a revolution that might just be her fault…
Lux. Cover by Dan Liles (c) Target Books
Doctor Who: Lux by James Goss, 10th July
Fifteen missing people. A light that hungers. A trip outside reality.
A trip to 1950s Miami takes a dangerous turn, leaving the Doctor and Belinda at the mercy of Mr Ring-a-Ding. A cartoon come to life who wants something that only the Doctor can give him. Can Belinda save the Doctor? Or will they be trapped by a trick of light?
The Well. Cover by Dan Liles (c) Target Books
Doctor Who: The Well by Gareth L Powell, 10th of July
A terror from the past is rising from the darkness five miles deep.
Joining a military rescue mission to an isolated mining colony, the Doctor and Belinda find a single survivor of a violent catastrophe. What killed the colonists? Why is every mirror in the base smashed? The chilling truth spells horror and death…
Doctor Who Annual 2026 (c) BBC Books
Doctor Who: The Official Annual 2026, 21st of August
The second official Annual of a brand-new era of Doctor Who is the must-have companion book to the latest adventures of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor.
From the latest terrifying monsters to the friends helping to save the day, this book is packed with facts, quizzes and games.
So, jump on board the TARDIS, and step into a whole new Whoniverse!
1001 Nights in Time & Space (c) BBC Books
Doctor Who: 1001 Nights in Time & Space by Steve Cole and Paul Magrs, 18th of September
‘Stories are the most important thing of all because they are just about the only living thing that lasts…’
At the end of the universe, a mysterious storyteller builds a campfire to draw his audience. He has gathered tales like any minstrel of old – and his specialty is tales of the Doctor.
In this book of stories both long and short, you can experience Doctor Who’s adventures through the prism of folk tales and fables. Retold from unusual perspectives, 1001 Nights in Time and Space is a bubbling mix of heroes and villains, soldiers and monsters, princesses, goblins, demons, tricksters, computers, ghosts and gods from all across the universe… taking inspiration from the entire 60-plus years lifespan of the show.
The Story & the Engine was an episode all about the importance of human community and connection and, above all, forgiveness. So what did the online fandom make of that?
The Story & the Engine told a tale unlike any other in Doctor Who history, embracing mythology like never before. Blogtor Who has already shared their review. But, as always, fans were quick to take to the internet to give their own thoughts on the latest episode. Blogtor Who has collected some of the best and most insightful for you.
Walty Dunlop, Richard Unwin, Simon Guerrier, and Felix Gregory were some of those who had nothing but praise for the episode. Walty was left almost speechless, which Richard predicted The Story & the Engine would be next up representing Doctor Who at the Hugos next year, after 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble this year.
Bloody hell. <Gestures helplessly at telly> Bloody HELL. That… was incredible. #DoctorWho
Doctor Who completely knocking it out of the galactic park again this morning. Absolute madness machine. That was Hugo-worthy! And that surprise…! And that one…! Suddenly everything is possible…! #DoctorWho
What a brilliant, beautiful episode that was. Gorgeously directed, amazingly acted but above all so well written: Inua Ellen’s has packed his story with such power & heart; story about stories & the people they bind, about belonging….It was excellent.#DoctorWho
Joqu and Tom Coates both point to The Story & the Engine as the latest in a very strong season of Doctor Who, particularly praising the variety of the types of stories being told.
Ahhh!!!! Doctor Who has been so good this season!!!!! Might be an all-timer if the final episodes deliver too. Wow.
Another fascinating episode of #doctorwho. Not a single dud this season. We’ve had a fun space adventure, a brilliant meta episode in Florida in the 50s, a terrifying alien horror episode, a really troubling thriller about disinformation, and now a tale set in a barber shop in Lagos about stories.
Foe Lizzie and D Franklin, though, it was more than just the latest in a strong run, but actively the best episode in ages.
The Story and the Engine is beautifully crafted. Engaging and very different. This second season of Gatwa’s Doctor is actually more engaging and interesting then I think Who has been for a while.
Is it just me or is The Story & the Engine the best Doctor Who episode of the last few seasons? We've had good episodes but that was spectacular. Inua Ellams truly delivered excellence.
Other fans like Jonathan L Howard, and Iain Clark thought they could see influences and echoes of classic Doctor Who. Though Verypete Lambert saw more similarity to the devastatingly bleak finale of another classic British SF show.
I didn't find last week's #DoctorWho engaging, I'm afraid, but this week's was properly good. Great setting, great cast (huge props to Ariyon Bakari in particular, playing a complex antagonist), and a lovely vibe. It was like a 21st century bookend paired to "The Mind Robber" (1968).
That felt quite Season 25-ish, or the kind of thematic story you would get in a tie-in novel. Fresh, unusual.Quite one-room-talky, but given the subject matter perhaps that's appropriate.#DoctorWho
Paul Lang brought that quintessential part of the post-episode internet experience: quality trivia.
Tonight’s excellent #DoctorWho was the second time Ncuti has done an episode set in Lagos but filmed in Cardiff – they did the same thing for Sex Education.
Plenty of fans noted how much denser and unusual the storytelling was this week, even sometimes confusing. The Crimson Countess, Tardis Net, and Rebecca Farren were among those. Meanwhile, Didymus Holmes and Alan Sepinwall just wish there was more, both this week and this year.
Doctor who was really esoteric tonight, I loved it but it's gonna be one of those episodes that might fly over some casuals heads who where looking for a big standard monster of the week chase story.
That was a really enjoyable episode of #DoctorWho. It got confusing in places but I loved the themes of identity and community that were explored. It had a very simple concept and you can tell it was written by a playwright. It makes the most out of a confined location
Without spoilers, I think I can say that there were a couple of underdeveloped ideas in tonight's Doctor Who, and as usual a longer runtime would have helped there massively. But overall, it was a corker. Another example of a fresh voice taking it somewhere new and exciting. More of that please.
The Story and the Engine felt like a cross between Can You Hear Me and the best of timey-wimey Moffat- the latter because I struggled to follow and mostly had no idea what was happening, but I cried with joy no fewer than 3 times! Ncuti’s best episode?? #DoctorWhoSpoilers
Rylan Clark & Sabine (JULIE DRAY) also guest star in the Eurovision style episode ,BBC Studios,James Pardon
Doctor Who continues with The Interstellar Song Contest at 7.10pm this Saturday on BBC One. Episodes drop on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland) at 8am GMT.
Discover the stuff of nightmares with your ultimate guide to the Cybermen from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine
The latest bookazine from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine explores the tortured history of a group of villains not too different from ourselves. However, the urge to survive at any cost sent them down an alternative path. A path leading to the Cybermen.
The age of artificial intelligence is bringing us closer than ever to the parallel world that Doctor Who first predicted some 60 years ago. As the embodiment of that nightmarish future, the Cybermen remain one of the series’ deadliest foes. They’re also a grim warning about our loss of humanity.
Cybermen: The Ultimate Guide includes details of every Cyberman story and design so far (c) Panini
This bookazine explores the entire history of these horrifying machine creatures across 224 lavishly illustrated pages, with exclusive CG recreations of Cyberman designs and technology. You’ll also find concept art for some of the Cyberman variants that never made it to screen. But may still haunt your nightmares.
Featuring new interviews, rare images and insightful commentary, this comprehensive and revealing guide is available in an exclusive slipcase.
Doctor Who Magazine: Cybermen – The Ultimate Guide (c) Panini
Doctor Who Magazine: Cybermen – The Ultimate Guide
DWM: Cybermen – The Ultimate Guide is on sale Thursday the 22nd of May from the online Panini store, and newsagents priced £19.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from Pocketmags You can also save with a subscription, as well as receiving exclusive, text-free covers.
If ordering from the Panini store, you can use promo code ‘FREESHIPPING’ for free UK standard delivery. Code must be entered prior to payment. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, and may be withdrawn at any time. Only valid on orders of Doctor Who: Cybermen – The Ultimate Guide. There’s no need for a code if your total order value is over £20 – UK orders over £20 automatically receive free standard delivery, and over £50 automatically receive free express delivery.
Spoilers For Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 5: “The Story and the Engine”
The Power of African Storytelling
In a season packed with ambitious and genre-bending episodes, “The Story and the Engine” stands out as perhaps the most audacious yet. Written by Inua Ellams and directed by Makella McPherson, this Nigerian-set episode delivers a poetic, visually stunning meditation on storytelling, identity, and the power of myth that feels utterly unique in Doctor Who’s 62-year history and quintessentially of the show.
Ellams, a Nigerian-born poet, playwright for the Royal Shakespeare Company & Royal National Theatre, and a Complete Works poet alumnus, recommended by Ncuti Gatwa, brings an extraordinary voice to the series. As an internationally touring artist, his theatrical background shines through in every frame. This isn’t just the first African Doctor Who story—it’s a masterclass in how the show can embrace its original educational remit while creating something new.
Doctor Who S2E5 – The Story and The Engine – Tunde Adebayo (JORDAN ADENE), The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA), Rashid Abubakar (STEFAN ADEGBOLA), Omo Akiyemi (SULE RIMI) – BBBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
The Barbershop that Breaks Time and Space
The episode finds the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) in Lagos, Nigeria, 2019, where the Doctor visits his old friend Omo (Sule Rimi), owner of a barbershop that’s more than it seems. When they discover people are going missing—trapped inside a barbershop run by the mysterious Barber (brilliantly played by Ariyon Bakare)—the Doctor finds himself caught in a web quite literally spanning dimensions. The shop isn’t just in Lagos; it’s perched on the back of a colossal mechanical spider crawling through space, powered by stories extracted from its unwilling customers.
Doctor Who S2E5 – The Story and The Engine – Barber (ARYION BAKARE), Amaka Obioma (MICHAEL BALOGUN) – :BBBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Gatwa’s Finest Hour
Gatwa delivers one of his finest performances as the Doctor, particularly in scenes exploring his experience as a Black man in different parts of the world. Unlike previous episodes this season that dealt with racism through confrontation, here we see the Doctor finding acceptance and community in Lagos. The joy in his interactions—greeting market traders like family, settling into Omo’s chair for a proper haircut—creates a beautiful counterpoint to episodes like “Dot and Bubble” where his Blackness made him a target.
Doctor Who S2E5 – The Story and the Engine – The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) – BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Dan Fearon
Myths, Gods, and Six-Word Stories
The show’s recent focus on myths, demigods, and pantheons gets its most sophisticated treatment yet. The Barber, revealed as a former servant to the storytelling gods across cultures—Anansi, Dionysus, Loki (a Marvel and Disney reference all at once), Bastet—plots revenge that would sever humanity’s connection to these mythic figures. It’s a concept that plays beautifully into RTD’s vision whilst maintaining Doctor Who‘s sci-fi core through the mechanical spider, story engines, and dimensional barriers.
The climax hinges on the power of six-word stories, explicitly referencing Hemingway’s famous “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” But it also echoes “The Christmas Invasion,” where Tennant’s Doctor toppled PM Harriet Jones with six devastating words: “Don’t you think she looks tired?” Here, Gatwa’s Doctor defeats the Barber with his own six-word story: “I’m born. I die. I’m born.” It’s a perfectly recursive solution to a story about stories, overloading the engine with the Doctor’s never-ending narrative.
Doctor Who S2E5 The Story and The Engine – The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) – BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Dan Fearon
The Return of the Fugitive
Jo Martin returns as the Fugitive Doctor, albeit briefly, in a scene that finally addresses her mysterious relationship to our current incarnation. The revelation that she once encountered Abena (Michelle Asante), daughter of Anansi, adds depth to both characters whilst honouring the continuity puzzle Martin’s Doctor represents. Curiously, the Fugitive Doctor’s memories appear without the Doctor remembering her regeneration just a few moments before. Whether that slip is important in the season’s finale or just another Doctor quirk remains to be seen.
But the actual celebration of the Doctor’s history comes when he connects himself to the story engine. In a sequence that will leave fans both teary-eyed and cheering, we’re treated to a montage of every Doctor who has come before. Starting with Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Christopher Eccleston, and David Tennant, the montage continues with Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, Matt Smith, Tom Baker, Paul McGann, William Hartnell, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker—all of them living inside the Fifteenth Doctor’s narrative.
“My body is like a barber shop,” the Doctor explains, “all of them inside… telling their stories, bickering—I will not fail them.” It’s a moment acknowledging every incarnation’s contribution to the character’s ever-expanding mythology.
The Fugitive Doctor in Magic the Gathering. Art by Greg Staples (c) Wizards of the Coast
Visual Poetry in Motion
Visually, the episode is sumptuous. The barbershop’s magic mirror, displaying stories as they unfold, creates gorgeous animated sequences that give the whole affair a storybook quality. Director Makalla McPherson wrings maximum atmosphere from the confined setting, making the shop feel both cosy and claustrophobic.
Doctor Who: Unleashed S2E5 – The Story & The Engine – Director Michaela McPherson – BC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/James Pardon
Room to Breathe
Yet for all its ambition, the episode occasionally buckles under its own weight. The complexity of the spider, the weave of stories, the maze cut into the Doctor’s hair—all fascinating concepts that could use more space to breathe. This feels like an episode begging for a 75-minute runtime rather than the standard 45. The stakes sometimes feel abstract until quite late, and whilst the barbershop customers provide excellent character work, their stories deserve more development.
This is particularly true given that Ellams has written a prequel story from Omo’s perspective—a charming tale of his boyhood encounter with the Doctor that explains their friendship. Incorporating elements of this prequel might have helped ground the episode’s wilder concepts earlier on.
(Aside – Read the prequel story about how the Omo and the Doctor met so many years ago. It can be found on BBC’s Doctor Who website.)
What I Did on my Summer Holidays by Omo Esosa. Illustration by Bunmi Agusto
Belinda Takes a Back Seat
Speaking of underdevelopment, this is a “Belinda-lite” episode, with Varada Sethu’s companion spending much of the runtime separated from the Doctor. Instead, the barbershop customers fill the companion role, offering community and context whilst the Doctor navigates this bizarre situation. It works, but it does leave Belinda feeling somewhat sidelined.
One delightful detail that deserves mention is that Mrs Flood appears briefly when Belinda pops round for her medication, continuing this season’s background mysteries. These little threads keep accumulating, suggesting something significant is brewing for the series finale. (Still hoping for The Rani.)
Doctor Who S2E5 The Story and The Engine – Belinda Chandra (VARADA SETHU) – BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
The Power of Narrative
The episode’s meditation on stories feels particularly relevant given Doctor Who’s current position, facing persistent rumours about Disney’s renewal and cancellation. But Doctor Who is about the stories. To misquote the Eleventh and Fifth Doctors, we’re all memories and stories in the end and a Time Lord even more so. Whether or not this current iteration results in a pause or continues with another season, the Doctor will be around in some story or another. As “The Story and the Engine” enlightens, our stories aren’t just what we tell—they are part of what keeps us alive. Doctor Who survives because it’s a never-ending story and re-invents itself for each generation.
Doctor Who S2E5 – The Story and The Engine – Barber (ARYION BAKARE) Abena (MICHELLE ASANTE) – BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Dan Fearon
Season 2 Finds Its Voice
Season 2 is definitely hitting its stride. From “The Robot Revolution” to “Lucky Day” to now this, each episode brings something genuinely fresh to the table. One does miss the longer seasons, though—eight episodes still feels rushed compared to the more generous runtimes of years past. Stories like this deserve room to breathe, and it’s telling that “The Story and the Engine” feels like it would benefit from multiple viewings to appreciate its layers fully.
Writer Inua Ellams on the set of The Story & the Engine COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Dan Fearon
Final Verdict
Ellams has crafted something remarkable—a story about stories that celebrates Africa, examines the Doctor’s changing relationship with his own identity, and pushes the show into genuinely new territory. It’s not perfect, but it’s ambitious and heartfelt and visually stunning. Most importantly, it feels like Doctor Who is staking out new ground whilst remaining fundamentally itself. In a story about never-ending narratives, that’s perhaps the greatest achievement of all. “The Story and the Engine” delivers an episode that’s as much a poem as an adventure. It is a testament to what the show can achieve when it embraces both its past and its future.
Doctor Who returns Saturday 17th May with “The Interstellar Song Contest” at 7.10pm on BBC One. The episode will also appear iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland).
Doctor Who’s new season continues with The Interstellar Song Contest, as the cast list revels character names, and the synopsis spells disaster
Next week’s Doctor Who episode, The Interstellar Song Contest, takes its place in a line-up including an FA Cup Final and Eurovision. In theory, the Doctor and Belinda’s role in the high profile evening of entertainment begins at 7.10pm GMT. However, let’s hope the football doesn’t go into extra time or, worse, penalties, to spoil the night. The episode comes in at 47 minutes long, and Eurovision is an immovable feast at 8pm. So Doctor Who only has three minutes buffer time to play with.
The synopsis for the episode by Juno Dawson doesn’t give much away we didn’t already know. There’s an outer space version of Eurovision, naturally. And, equally obviously since this is Doctor Who, disaster strikes and only the Doctor can save everyone.
However, it does reveal the name of Freddie Fox’s intriguing horned villain. It also tells us that Christina Rotondo, who previously voiced Janice Goblin, singer of The Goblin Song in The Church on Ruby Road is back. She’s be one of the Interstellar Song Contest competitors, going by the wonderful name Liz Lizardine.
Charlie Condou as Gary Gabbastone in The Interstellar Song Contest, c Bad Wolf, BBC Studios
Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest
The Doctor’s quest to get Belinda back home to Earth leads to a space station hosting the famous song contest. But a harmless night of fun soon becomes a battle to survive.
Cast
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Kid – Freddie Fox Mike Gabbastone – Kadiff Kirwan Gary Gabbastone – Charlie Condou Rylan Clark – Himself Graham Norton – Himself Sabine – Julie Dray Runner – Imogen Kingsley Smith Nina Maxwell – Kiruna Stamell Wynn Aura-Kin – Iona Anderson Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Cora Saint Bavier – Miriam-Teak Lee Len Kazah – Akemnji Ndifornyen Liz Lizardine – Christina Rotondo Jeddy Kine – Abdul Seesay
The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) visits 1980s West Africa in The Story & the Engine COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Doctor Who continues tonight with The Story & the Engine at 7.10pm on BBC One. The episode’s already on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland)
Doctor Who brings us right back to 2025 with a story built around a skillfully executed twist
Ruby Sunday is back, and with her comes the smart, razor sharp episode Lucky Day. It’s a story that’s not afraid to raise difficult questions for which it has no easy answers to offer. Elegantly fulfilling multiple production demands at once, it’s ironically Pete McTighe who comes closest to importing the furious anger of Russell T Davies’ Years and Years into the Doctor Who mould. It also expertly plays with the same subject matter of other episodes we’ve seen before while completely subverting them.
This is the third Doctor-lite story in the 14 episodes of the Ncuti Gatwa era so far. That’s the equivalent of David Tennant’s first year not just giving us Love & Monsters, but also a School Reunion where a seemingly abandoned Rose meets Sarah Jane, and a Girl in the Fireplace where he spends the episode trapped in France and Mickey and Rose have to sort things out for themselves.
Frankly, with so short a season, the concept needed to be brilliant. It’s the only way to justify losing the Doctor for yet another episode. McTighe manages to provide just that, though it would undeniably have been an easier sell in a 13 episode season.
Young Conrad (BENJAMIN CHIVERS meets the Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) and Belinda (VARADA SETHU) in 2007 ,BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Lara Cornell
The first act is brilliantly misleading, riffing on past episodes to set up viewer expectations before pulling the rug out from under them
Lucky Day initially presents itself as a collision between School Reunion and Love & Monsters. There’s perhaps a minor fender bender with The Long Game, too, with someone not cut out to be a companion. Like Sarah Jane, Ruby has struggled to readjust to life on Earth. As with Love & Monsters’ Elton, a childhood encounter with the Doctor inspires Conrad Clark to seek out an online community about the Time Lord. They both live life hoping to see a Police Box around every street corner.
This being 2025, rather than wandering around London with a photo of Rose Tyler, Conrad posts a TikTok of Ruby Sunday. The result is a slot on his Lucky Day podcast and some sweet, if horrendously cliched, meet cute moments. Soon they’re boyfriend and girlfriend, and what could possibly go wrong?
Doctor Who S2E4 – Lucky Day,Conrad (JONAH HAUER-KING) & Ruby Sunday (MILLIE GIBSON) – :BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Lara Cornell
Pete McTighe’s script cleverly anticipates viewer suspicions and hints at something else wrong with Conrad before the reveal
One of the script’s cleverest moves is recognizing that viewers will be suspicious of this sort of love story. He seems perfect. So what’s wrong with him? So the cunningly misdirects you. Conrad seems more obsessed with the Doctor than Ruby, like she might be the ultimate trophy for his fan collection. That, like Elton and Jackie Tyler, his need to find the Doctor compromises their relationship.
He also appears reckless, like he’s openly inviting a Shreek attack, as if doing a ‘Lois Lane’ so the Doctor has to show up to meet him and Ruby.
You fully expect Ruby to have dumped him by the 40 minutes mark. Though you’re led to expect it will be because he’s not seeing her for herself, just as the Doctor’s companion. He even seems cued up to pay the price for treating it all like a fun game.
Another cunning idea from the production team helps obscure the twist too. All of the footage of Lucky Day from the advance trailers is from the stunning sequence bringing Ruby’s description of the Shreek’s hunt to life, not of anything that really happens.
So the reveal of what’s actually going in a true gut punch.
A classic villain reinvented for a very modern world, <Think_Tank> are both pointed commentary and a reminder that Doctor Who has always told these stories
Conrad, it turns out, is the leader of <Think_Tank>. They’re a group of dark influencers winning themselves followers off the back of lies and disinformation. They’re a threat that’s very of the moment, one the Doctor Who team couldn’t have conceived of in 2005.
Such clout chasing trolls really have two essential moves: make up a fake menace to terrify everyone with, or convince people a real one is fake. <Think_Tank> specializes in the second option, following in the footsteps of Covid denialists, only instead of making wild claims about vaccines and Anthony Fauci, it’s UNIT and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.
It’s a powerful message calling out pressing real world evils, and exposing the way they operate. More, it’s a chance to redress the almost criminal oversight that the existence of aliens finally going public simply happened off screen between seasons.
Even the naming of this week’s villains feels like a choice with deliberate purpose. The original incarnation of Think Tank faced off against UNIT in the Tom Baker era. Back then, they were a group of reactionaries who seized control of the world’s nuclear arsenal to extort the world. High on their list of demands in 1974? The banning of women wearing trousers.
The new <Think_Tank> is the perfect reminder that Doctor Who’s social commentary is nothing new. Also that it’s rarely been entirely subtle about it, either.
Jonah Hauer-King succeeds in making Conrad as insufferable and impossible to reach with reason as his real life counterparts
Lucky Day is an episode of razor sharp intent to mirror the present day world. For good or ill, that it’s at once compelling, messy, and full of moral contradictions.
Conrad’s plan, in straightforward terms, utter nonsense. Yet that seems to be McTighe’s point, figuratively waving it and exclaiming in exasperated tones “See?! That’s what I’m talking about!” In any other point in time, in any other context of television drama, Blogtor might point out that UNIT dashing to the site of a reported incursion is evidence they’re not faking them. Otherwise how could <Think_Tank> fool them into thinking they were responding to a real one? He might also point out that Conrad repeatedly sees absolute proof that these things are real, from the TARDIS materializing, and the Doctor not aging in 20 years, to first hand encounters with alien monsters.
Yet, at the end he’s still smugly declaring that he “denies [that] reality.” While even the live streaming of the real Shreek attack merely levels the playing field in the online hashtag wars, rather than convinces <Think/Tank> followers they’re wrong.
Sadly, though, we the viewers can’t reject that that’s the reality we’re in. One where Conrad’s real life counterparts spew forth an endless stream of made-up facts. Always simply going briefly quiet in the face of the truth before starting up the lies again. Lucky Day is the first post-truth Doctor Who episode. And as a result more terrifying as 500 Dalek warships.
The Fifteenth Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) channels a 21st century take on the Fifth in Lucky Day ,COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
The Doctor may not give viewers any easy, cathartic vengeance, but his failure to reach Conrad is depressingly true to life
The episode ends with the Doctor’s return but not the cathartic fury of the ancients you might have anticipated as the TARDIS’s moans and groans filled Conrad’s cell. The Doctor doesn’t trick him into the event horizon of a black hole, or freeze him in time forever. Instead, he’s subjected to reasoned argument. An appeal he simply rebuffs and even mocks. As the Doctor says, “exhausting.”
It’s the moment in the episode that’s most uncomfortably close to real life. As is the messiness of Conrad having no real ‘villain origin story.’ He’s just not that deep.
Yet, for a story so absolutely of the present, it feels ever so slightly off in its timing, much like a TARDIS landing. It’s a clarion call, warning not to let populists seeking power in; to not believe in their lies and to trust in science and democratic institutions. But that’s a very 2024 message, for the time at which Lucky Day was written and made. It’s now 2025 and in parts of the world, the Conrads, in their black baseball caps, have already taken control. They’re already gutting the bodies that used to protect the people and turning them into vehicles for conspiracy fantasies and power grabs. In 2025, civil rights are already being thrown on the bornfire and black clad paramilitaries who look a lot like UNIT disappear people off the streets, apparently unaccountable to any court of law.
Even in the UK people who a year ago claimed to ‘just have concerns’ are on the cusp of banning entire groups of people effectively from existing in public.
By the time Lucky Day actually dropped on Disney+ and iPlayer, it was into a world where the likes of UNIT would already be comprehensively DOGEd. Blogtor Who would suggest Lucky Day is crying out for a sequel to address that very point, but it might be too depressing for words.
Shirley (RUTH MADELEY), Ruby Sunday (MILLIE GIBSON), Kate Lethbridge Stewart (JEMMA REDGRAVE) and Colonel Ibrahim (ALEXANDER DEVRIENT), in Lucky Day ,BBC Studios/Bad Wolf,Latoya Fits
The notion that UNIT should be beyond civilian oversight trades heavily on fans’ affection for the team, but is hopefully building to something more
However, it might be overdue for the Doctor to have a slightly less cosy relationship with UNIT. Once upon a time, not actually all that long ago, the Doctor was less than thrilled that Martha joined UNIT. Even more recently Kate Stewart was introduced as a new ‘Science Leads’ advocate, working to demilitarize the task force. Even back in the 1960s and 1970s, civilian oversight may have put obstacles in the Brigadier’s way. But he never once complained that that wasn’t exactly as it should be.
But perhaps UNIT’s escalating high handedness is all building to something. Pete McTighe is also the co-writer of upcoming UNIT spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea. Certainly, this Doctor-lite UNIT adventure helps set up exactly what that spin-off might look like. But hopefully it’s also setting up the background to difficult choices ahead for a UNIT which operates in such an unaccountable way.
It would certainly be nice to think we’re supposed to wonder if Kate is going too far as she sics a dangerous carnivorous alien on Conrad. But chances are most of use were still too enraged by the Brigadier slander to do anything but cheer the Shreek on.
Conrad (JONAH HAUER-KING) encounters the TARDIS in Lucky Day COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Millie Gibson reminds us again what a force of nature she is
There are some other minor quibbles. Has UNIT bought a job lot of moles from closing down sale of the CTU from 24? Having yet another traitor in their midst absolutely undercuts Kate’s claim civilian government can’t be trusted to keep their secrets secure. How does someone like Conrad get to 80,000 followers based on his ‘Nice Guy’ public persona and then pivot effortlessly into telling them it was all a lie?
Those are simply fudges to allow the plot to happen, though, and are justified by that result. Lucky Day also just about justifies the near total absence by Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu. And as good as Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley and the rest of the cast are, that’s almost entirely down to Millie Gibson as Ruby. She lights up the screen, reminding us just what a gift she was to Doctor Who last season. Every emotion plays out across ever square centimetre of her face. Lucky Day simply wouldn’t work without her talent, the audience’s collective desire to smack Conrad into next week is built entirely on Ruby’s hurt and betrayal.
Kate Lethbridge Stewart (JEMMA REDGRAVE) & Colonel Ibrahim (ALEXANDER DEVRIENT),,COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Time will tell what future generations of fans make of a story so uniquely plugged in to the politics of 2025
Lucky Day is likely to bounce up and down various fan charts as it’s reassessed and reassessed again in decades to come. We can only hope that part of that will involve future fans simply not being able to believe men like Conrad Clark ever existed. When they’re not even a footnote, but ashes on the wind.
That really would be a lucky day.
The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) visits 1980s West Africa in The Story & the Engine COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Doctor Who continues with The Story & the Engine at 7.10pm this Saturday on BBC One. Episodes drop on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland) at 8am GMT.
April came with a lot of smaller changes and fixes to AO3. We also made a few bigger improvements, such as fixing gif icons that weren’t animating and updating the way we send invitations to new users. On top of that, we added a confirmation email to the email change process and created a button to delete all your subscriptions. We also made a number of changes to make the work of our Policy & Abuse committee easier as they continue to tackle a wave of spam. Special thanks and welcome to first-time contributors Emily Wiegand, Hamham6, Laura, melo, Michelle Tanoto, niic, and Tom Li!
On April 2, we fixed gif icons which weren’t animating and deployed a number of small changes all around the site.
[AO3-5596] – When the boxes on the All Fandoms page were of unequal heights, we’d sometimes end up with a box jumping over to the wrong side of the page and creating a big empty space where it should’ve been. We’ve fixed it so the boxes should now stack up in the correct columns no matter how tall they are.
[AO3-6751] – When a fandom tag had a period in its name, the “Relationships by Character” link on its tag landing page would give a 404 error. We’ve fixed that by properly escaping the periods in the link.
[AO3-6939] – We’ve added more information to the browser page title for various collection pages, so now they include which page you’re on in addition to the collection title (e.g., “Collection Title – Profile” or “Collection Title – Fandoms”).
[AO3-6942] – The page where a Policy & Abuse admin confirms the deletion of a spammer’s works and comments had the browser page title “Confirm Delete User Creations Admin User.” This was computer-generated gobbledygook, so we changed it to “Confirm Deletion of User Creations,” which is at least marginally better.
[AO3-6955] – When we changed the code library we use for icons across the site, animated gif icons stopped being animated. We’ve fixed this so gif icons, including icons uploaded before this release, are now animated again.
[AO3-6799] – Our Support and Policy & Abuse committees needed to move some things around in their ticket trackers, so we moved some things around in the code to make sure ticket information still ends up in the right place.
[AO3-5744] – If the URL you entered when importing a work redirected you to a different URL, you’d get a 500 error. We’ve fixed it so the work will still get imported.
[AO3-6949] – We bumped our version of the nokogiri gem from 1.18.3 to 1.18.4.
0.9.405
On April 11, we deployed some improvements for the Policy & Abuse committee. We also made a number of display fixes and increased the reliability of sending invitations from the invitation queue.
[AO3-5573] – If you tried to change the sort order on your Works in Collections page, the works stubbornly remained sorted by their updated date no matter which option you chose. We’ve fixed it so now they’ll actually be sorted in the desired order.
[AO3-6597] – We were making some changes around invitation pages, so we took the opportunity to prepare those pages for future translation.
[AO3-6877] – When you fill a prompt in a prompt meme, we automatically add some text to the work notes linking back to the prompt meme. We’ve updated this text so it will now use the collection’s display title rather than its name, which is primarily intended for the URL. (Please note that this will not affect notes on existing works.)
[AO3-6957] – We improved the look of the error highlighting when you try to leave an invalid comment, such as an exact duplicate of a comment you previously left in the same place.
[AO3-6961] – We made caution notices, such as the text informing you what will happen if you change your username, more readable in the Reversi skin.
[AO3-6672] – When a Policy & Abuse admin needed to change someone’s username to a generic one, they used to need help from someone with database access. Now they can press a button and the username will be automatically changed.
[AO3-6830] – When someone reports a work to our Policy & Abuse committee, we now automatically add a list of the work’s creators to the ticket PAC receives.
[AO3-6913] – Admins can now control how often invitations are sent by specifying the frequency in hours instead of days. This helps improve the stability of sending emails by letting us spread the load out over the course of a day instead of doing all the work at once.
[AO3-6952] – When a Policy & Abuse admin bans a spammer, we no longer submit comments that are marked as deleted to our spam checker.
0.9.406
On April 17, we added an option to delete all your subscriptions to the Subscriptions page. Additionally, we improved error messages all around the site to be more informative and made some other small changes.
[AO3-6578] – If you marked a work as inspired by a work not hosted on AO3, the ratings in the blurb for the inspiration would overlap the text informing you that the work is not posted on the Archive. We’ve moved the text so it’s now completely readable.
[AO3-6896] – We’ve made it so long usernames in the kudos section of a work will wrap across lines instead of running off the side of the page on small screens.
[AO3-6935] – Trying to create a skin with a title that matched an existing skin’s title in every way but capitalization used to result in a 500 error, but now it will give a nicer error telling you the skin title must be unique.
[AO3-6956] – We reworded the error message you get when you try to make duplicate comments in the exact same spot (for example, submitting the same comment twice in a row on the same work).
[AO3-6965] – We optimized some of our automated tests by spending less time on posting works.
[AO3-3524] – We adjusted our HTML parser so you can now use media embeds from 4shared.com in your works.
[AO3-6401] – If an OTW volunteer tries to leave kudos while logged in to their committee’s official account, they’ll get an error message telling them to log in with their personal account instead.
[AO3-6711] – Your subscriptions page now has an option to delete all of your subscriptions. (You can also delete all subscriptions of a certain type, such as work subscriptions, by going to the page listing that kind of subscription.) Don’t worry, all of these buttons come with a separate confirmation page.
[AO3-6849] – To make testing and translation easier, we made a preview of the email users receive when they are gifted a work.
[AO3-6911] – When a page takes too long to respond, you will now be redirected to a more informative error page.
[AO3-6945] – When you were entering a tag with a pipe (|) in a field, the autocomplete would return unexpected results if you didn’t surround the pipe with spaces. We’ve fixed that and also sped up the autocomplete search for tags with pipes.
0.9.407
In our deploy from April 24, we improved account security by adding a confirmation email that will be sent to your new email address when you attempt to change the email address of your account.
[AO3-6113] – Previously, the autocomplete dropdown for tag fields would sometimes stay open after you selected a result from it. It should now always close as expected.
[AO3-6938] – We updated the browser page title on the Related Works page to include the username of the page’s owner.
[AO3-6962] – When reviewing nominated tags for tag sets, the tags were unreadable in the Reversi skin. We fixed this and also adjusted the Snow Blue skin to address an issue with hover styles on that page.
[AO3-6972] – Our dependency updater bumped our code style checker from version 2.21.2 to 2.21.3.
[AO3-5350] – We updated the email that is sent to you when your work is hidden as spam, so that the email can be translated in the future.
[AO3-6388] – To help keep your AO3 account secure, we’ve changed the process for updating your account’s email address. We already made you enter your new email address twice to reduce the risk of typos, but now you’ll need to confirm the new address is correct one more time before we start processing the request. You’ll still receive a notification at your old email address, but now we’ll also send a confirmation link to your new email address. Your email address will officially be changed only if you log in and use the confirmation link within seven days.
0.9.408
On April 29, we deployed some improvements to our automated tests and fixed a few bugs on the archive.
[AO3-5053] – When you updated your username or pseud, the blurbs for your bookmarks would continue to show the old name for some time. We’ve changed this so they will now update immediately.
[AO3-6136] – Admins can now see the timestamp when a user successfully reset their password in the user’s account history.
[AO3-6813] – When translated emails were enabled but an admin disabled translations for a specific locale, emails would continue to be sent in that locale. Since that’s not what the admin intended when disabling the translations, we’ve fixed this behavior.
[AO3-6845] – When an admin searched for invitations sent to a particular email, the result would be displayed in a different format if there was only one invitation. That format was inconvenient, so we’ve changed it to display the same way as a search result of multiple invitations.
[AO3-6963] – Some normally invisible line breaks in the page title would result in awkward AO3 link previews on other sites. We removed the extra whitespace, so the title in the link preview now looks nicer.
[AO3-5862] – Back in 2018, we created a migration to remove a column from the database, and then promptly forgot to run it. We’ve updated the migration and didn’t forget about it this time.
[AO3-6982] – We fixed some automated tests that were randomly failing.
[AO3-6031] – The file for our automated comment tests was getting quite large and unmanageable, so we split it up into several smaller files.
[AO3-6980] – One of our automated tests started failing because it was accessing a website that no longer exists. We changed the test to use a mock website instead.
[AO3-6974] – We bumped our version of the nokogiri gem again, this time to 1.18.8.
The Story & the Engine’s Inua Ellams has also written an exclusive short story for the official site revealing the first meeting between the Doctor and one of the episode’s main characters
Poet and playwright Inua Ellams has written a special prelude for his Doctor Who episode. Set decades before The Story & the Engine, What I Did on my Summer Holidays by Omo Esosa is exclusive to the official Doctor Who site. It tells the story of the first meeting between the Doctor and one of the episode’s main characters, Omo. The setting is Nigeria in the 1960s, and young schoolboy Omo is about to meet the most incredible man in the universe: the Doctor. But as we’ve seen before, sometimes standing too close to the Time Lord can have consequences. Ones that can even linger lifetimes after he’s popped back in his magic box and flown away…
The short story is exclusive to the official Doctor Who site, and also features artwork by Bunmi Agusto.
You can discover all about the Doctor and Omo’s first meeting in What I Did on my Summer Holidays by Omo Esosahere. Then find out the rest of the story as they encounter each other again tomorrow in The Story & the Engine.
Once upon a time there lived a boy called Omo. He was just like me. In fact, he was me, and he did not want to leave Lagos. I did not want to. I wanted to work in my father’s barber shop every day, listening to all the stories…
The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) visits 1980s West Africa in The Story & the Engine COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Doctor Who continues with The Story & the Engine at 7.10pm this Saturday on BBC One. Episodes drop on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland) at 8am GMT.
Though relatively new to the world of television, The Story & the Engine’s Inua Ellams is already one of the UK’s most prestigious modern playwrights
There have been many legendary Doctor Who writers. These include ones beloved for their contribution to the show itself, and ones who have made a wider mark across all manner of television. But there aren’t many as accomplished in the world of art and theatre as The Story & the Engine’s Inua Ellams. He’s a critically acclaimed and award winning poet and playwright. He also earned an OBE in 2023 for his contribution to the arts.
Ellams comes to the show with the personal recommendation of the Doctor himself. Ncuti Gatwa suggested the fellow of the Royal Society of Literature to Russell T Davies. Incredibly, the result in the first Doctor Who episode written by a Black man (three Black women having previously contributed episodes.) With its Nigerian setting and focus on barbershop culture it immediately shows the benefit of a diverse writing team. It tells a story few previous writers on the show would have been able to.
Inua Ellams performs his autobiographical The 14th Tale
Following a childhood in Nigeria and a youth in Ireland, Ellams has made London his home
Inua Ellams was born in the setting of his Doctor Who episode: 1980s Nigeria. Raised in a blended family of a Muslim father and Christian mother, and numerous sisters, his early childhood was spent devouring every superhero comic book he could find. When he was 12. safety concerns led the family to relocate first to England. They soon moved onward to Ireland, where Ellams spent the rest of his childhood. It was here that he first discovered a sense of ‘Blackness,’ made keenly aware of the difference between him and almost everyone else in his school. It was also during this period that he developed his love of poetry and two his work’s central themes. Stories bringing Nigerian culture and stories to a wider audience, and the art of storytelling itself.
Establishing himself in London as a young adult Ellams, quickly built an impressive body of plays and poems.
Ellams has written a dozen plays. These include the personal and powerful, such as the autobiographical The 14th Tale, and Untitled, full of magic and meaning as it charts the lives of twin boys born on the day of Nigeria’s independence but separated when one escapes to England and the other remains.
The Barbershop Chronicles by Inua Ellams. (c) Mark Brenner
Ellams’ most celebrated work so far is The Barbershop Chronicles, detailing one day in the lives of five barbers around the world
Among his work, he’s also adapted existing classics, in doing so illustrating both the universal themes they contain while highlighting our cultural differences. His version of Chekov’s Three Sisters at the National Theatre relocates the action to 1960s Nigeria. on the brink of the Biafran Civil War. Similarly, his adaption of Antigone placed the story in a modern world, where the ancient play’s collision of personal conscience and the power of the State now brims with racial tension.
But perhaps Ellams’ most famous work so far is The Barbershop Chronicles. It’s steeped in barbershop culture, a place Ellams once called “a sacred safe place for Black British men.” It’s not just about the hair, but about the community, fellowship, and friendship. With barbers often in the role of wise man, the play visits five cities in one day, as the barbershops of Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra, and London fill with banter, hidden truths, and stories. Always the stories.
The barbershop at the heart of The Story & The Engine,. Barber (ARYION BAKARE) and; Rashid Abubakar (STEFAN ADEGBOLA) COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Ellam’s play Black T-Shirt Collection is currently in development as a TV series with Working Title
Doctor Who is not Ellams’ first television work, though it is his highest profile to date. He contributed Swipe Slow, about modern online dating, to The Break, BBC Three’s series of modern first person monologues updating the classic Talking Heads format. Ellams also worked on an episode of anarchic Muslim all-girl punk band sitcom We Are Lady Parts.
Next up after Doctor Who is a series adapting his own Edinburgh Fringe show Black T-Shirt Collection, still in the early stages of development with Richard Curtis’ Working Title. Two teenage brothers, one a gay Muslim, the other an orphaned Christian adopted into the family, have a simple dream of making a little money making and selling t-shirts. Yet, international success in the world of fast fashion brings a host of ethical compromises and personal dilemmas.
Appropriately, Inua Ellams returns to the world of barbershops and stories with The Story & the Engine. A story about the magic and power of stories, it sees the Doctor face a challenge like no other. And it seems nobody else could have told it but Inua Ellams.
The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA) visits 1980s West Africa in The Story & the Engine COPYRIGHT:BBC Studios,CREDIT LINE:BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/James Pardon
Doctor Who continues with The Story & the Engine at 7.10pm this Saturday on BBC One. Episodes drop on iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else (except Ireland) at 8am GMT.
Mr. Ring-a-Ding, Aliss, and the Lucky Day podcast feature in new merchandise from Forbidden Planet and the Who Shop
Both Forbidden Planet and The Who Shop have new merchandise related to the current season of Doctor Who available for fans.
As usual, Forbidden Planet have been producing a new t-shirt aligned to every new episode as it airs. The latest addition is a black tee featuring the logo of Conrad Clark’s Lucky Day podcast. Though given the later revelations about Conrad, and Lucky Day being exposed as a front for the villainous organization <Think_Tank> Blogtor Who isn’t sure how many people will want to look like Conrad fans.
There’s also a t-shirt for previous episode The Well. This time it features a high contrast image of Rose Ayling-Ellis as Aliss in yellow against a black background. An understandable choice since they could hardly feature the monster itself.
The title card in front of all Mr. Ring-a-Ding cartoons
Forbidden Planet also has two new t-shirts celebrating the legend of classic ‘rubber hose’ animation, Mr. Ring-a-Ding!
Move over Doctor Who! There’s a new iconic family favourite scoring his own merchandise this month! Yes, that classic 1930s cartoon caperer Mr. Ring-a-Ding stars in a range of new merchandise out now.
The items include two different t-shirt designs as part of Forbidden Planet’s exclusive range of Doctor Who products. One features the legendary star of such classics as Mr. Ring-a-Ding Goes to Town in a recreation of his original 1930s title card. Reading “Dawn Animation House Presents a Mr. Ring-a-Ding Color Cartoon” and showcasing that great big grin that started every Ring-a-Ding cartoon, it’s the perfect way for Ding-a-Lings (as his fans are known) to show their fandom. After all, he is quite literally, the biggest thing in cartoons.
The other t-shirt features a graphic right above your heart bells as they sing with pride at celebrating your hero. A full body image of Mr. Ring-a-Ding smirks as he waves a cautionary finger. Because, remember, don’t make him laugh. It’s a tee gorgeous enough to take your breath away. And your soul…
The Who Shop are also celebrating Lux with a Mr. Ring-a-Ding pin badge
Meanwhile, the Who Shop are also releasing their own exclusive piece of Lux merchandise with a Mr. Ring-a-Ding pin badge. The 40mm badge features the cartoon menace with a broad smile, his arms spread wide in celebration. It’s available to pre-order now and will be shipping next week.
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Ncuti’s best episode?? #DoctorWhoSpoilers
