“I knew instantly you can never play Beatles songs on screen because the copyright is too expensive. So I’m thinking, ‘How would you do a Beatles episode without Beatles music?’ And that becomes the entire plot,” Davies explains. “That’s where the idea came from – copyright law!”

This one has a little less of the timey wimey temporal paradoxes than the Disney trailer a week ago, but it still manages to span a wide section of time and (relative dimensions in) space.

We get a bit more of Jinkx Monsoon here, another Bridgerton name check — and I think we can confirm the Doctor taking the mic for another song and dance sequence in the 1960s... All fun and games on a background of some apocalyptic, spacey wacey goings on. Honestly, the Doctor's promise to Ruby's mum that he can keep her safe is starting to sound a little strained.

The season episode titles have also been released:

1. Space Babies
2. The Devil's Chord
3. Boom
4. 73 Yards
5. Dot and Bubble
6. Rogue
7. The Legend of Ruby Sunday
8. Empire of Death

Other notes:

• Episodes 1 and 2 will air on the same day, 11 May.
• Episode 2 seems to be the one featuring Monsoon as a musically themed baddie.
• Episode 3 is penned by Steven Moffat, and RTD has given the cryptic teaser "Antelope. Moment. Drums." The director of the episode adds "Hitchcockian" as the writer's cue to her.
• Episode 6 is our Regency period story, written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman (both coming off Loki, so anybody want to bet they have their time travel right?)

This new trailer from Disney+ gives us a lot more to look forward to — and speculate about!

Looks like the RTD/Bad Wolf team aims to blow viewers' minds. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but go nuts in the comments 🥳

[Edited the subject to correct the season number. This is season 1 of a new show (same continuity as the old show), not season 14 of the previously-new show which is now the less-old-but-not-entirely-new-Who.]

Just released to the Doctor Who youtube channel, with the announcement (excerpted):

Are you ready for this? 😉 Watch Doctor Who from the 11th May on BBC iPlayer in the UK and stream on Disney+ where available. Find out more here: https://bbc.in/4a5c1vA

I guess this is what RTD was teasing the other day on Instagram...

A short while back the BBC added a batch of new/never before seen scripts to their Doctor Who database, including the 60th specials. Tucked away at the tail end of "The giggle" is an alternate ending scene featuring Wilfred Mott that the late Bernard Cribbins didn't shoot before his demise:

THE DOCTOR And Grandad, where is he?

SYLVIA He’s off, shooting moles.

From offstage, a BANG!

SYLVIA (CONT’D) There he goes.

And all TURN to look.

There’s WILF, in his WHEELCHAIR, buzzing across the lawn, with a SHOTGUN.

WILF I’ll get ‘em! Don’t you worry, Doctor! You stay there! I’ll get the little..!

ALL laughing, except Rose.

ROSE Leave them alone!

WILF I will never surrender!

And Wilf glides away. All turn back to each other.

THE DOCTOR Don’t worry, I gave the moles a forcefield. Love the moles.

Here's to things left undone, Mr Cribbins. You live on in our hearts.

[Tom] Baker, who famously played the Time Lord from 1974 to 1981, will be reprising the role this April. His Doctor joins the Paternoster Gang as they fight intergalactic crime in the latest entry to the Trespassers series.

He joins the cast made up of Neve McIntosh as great detective Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as her spouse Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as their loyal valet Strax.

McIntosh added: "Acting with Tom Baker has been something I've wanted to do for so long. He was my Doctor growing up, from when I was hiding behind the sofa."

I'm thrilled TBH, I thought the chemistry between McIntosh, Stewart and Starkey made the previous Paternoster Gang sets some of the most campily enjoyable BF work I've heard. Add Tom Baker, even in his old age... Woof, this'll be good!

The podcast, which will start releasing weekly on Saturdays from March 2024, will showcase fan-favourite stories from Big Finish’s back catalogue, presented in episodic, 30-minute instalments.

Each episode will feature a brand-new introduction read by Sixth Doctor star Colin Baker, and will also include behind-the-scenes interviews, with the podcast being available via all podcast platforms, with listeners able to stream it for free with ads.

• Device: Oneplus 6 (enchilada)
• Android version: 10
• ROM: LineageOS for MicroG v17.1
• Rooted with Magisk

Apparently the latest Magisk update somehow crippled my WiFi. AFAICT this mainly affects Android 10, and since I probably need to go into ADB anyway to fix the WiFi issue, I might as well perform a long overdue OS upgrade.

So clearly I don't routinely do maintenance on my phone via CLI. LineageOS used to have fairly involved instructions on how to upgrade between major versions, some including unpacking Oxygen OS updates and selectively installing firmware modules through a terminal... That's not a trivial series of operations for a dappler like myself. Let me just run another idea by you all, please let me know if it'll work:

Suppose I flash an Android 10 OOS to my phone. Dirty flash preferred, I want to preserve my apps and settings. Could I feasibly let the official ROM perform as many kernel and firmware updates as possible via OTA to get to the latest (presumably last/end of life) supported Android version?

After that I would flash the latest LOS/mG back on the device, probably rooting with KernelSU this time.

I appreciate any comments and advice! Thanks in advance 🙏

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/3668164

I've only made one system change to my phone today, allowing the Magisk app to update to v27.0 — and now my WiFi returns "IP configuration failure" to all networks.

Maybe I'm seeing a correlation where there isn't one, but I'm curious if others have similar experiences and — more to the point — have any suggestions for fixes.

I've only made one system change to my phone today, allowing the Magisk app to update to v27.0 — and now my WiFi returns "IP configuration failure" to all networks.

Maybe I'm seeing a correlation where there isn't one, but I'm curious if others have similar experiences and — more to the point — have any suggestions for fixes.

Actors come and go in the part of the Doctor, it's a revolving door by nature. But it struck me just now how long Nicholas Briggs has been doing the role as his nemeses, the Daleks.

Or rather, I'm wondering exactly how long he has been turning the knobs on the old ring modulator? IMDb gives his earliest Dalek credit as 2000's Doctor who: The apocalypse element, but surely they aren't listing all of his audio plays?

Big finish got the rights to produce Doctor who audios in 1999, were there any Dalek bits by him there — giving him an early silver jubilee this year — or perhaps earlier in unlicensed fan works?

I hope somebody better versed in the extended universe can help answer this. Either way, the fact that Briggs has played the same part in Who productions longer than the entirety of the revived series has been on the air is... monumental.

The link is just one recent example of the wild entertainment it it to follow fan conjecture going off the rails from the most spurious of information. So it went like this:

1. Ahead of "Wild blue yonder" one of the announced bit parts was played by Susan Twist. Fans be like "Holy shit, there'll be a TWIST involving SUSAN!"

2. Turns out there was no such storyline in the episode, and Susan Twist is an actual actress who just happens to have the name. Fans quiet down until

3. Susan Twist emerges again in "The church on Ruby Road" as a contemporary concert goer. Fans: "She requested an odd song from the same era that her previous (possibly unrelated) part was from. TIME TRAVELER!"

4. In background footage from the "Imagine..." portrait of Russell T Davies, a framed, fake magazine cover captioned "Susan Triad" seems to feature Susan Twist again. Needless to say, this sparks even more speculation.

I'm not condescending to the people who engage with Who like this, after all RTD is actively teasing fans with snippets of advance information. I just want to let you know that I'm enjoying your fan labour from the sideline. With no new Doctor Who on screen for 4-5 months, I'm lapping it up 🙂

In fact, my own theory is that "Susan Triad" means Susan returns in a coming season as three distinct regenerations — and that we've seen two of them already this December:

• Susan Twist in several centuries-spanning cameos;
• Anita Dobson as "Mrs Flood";
• and finally, obviously, Carol Anne Ford returning for a (last?) appearance as the Doctor's long lost granddaughter.

Oh no, I've been Stockholm syndrome'd. I'm part of the game now!