But what a shock! New theme tune arrangement! Love it!
And here’s Geoffrey Palmer, on Doctor Who for the third time. He is hiding something. Ah, the ship, from the planet.
Doctor talks to the alien which reminds me of that creature from the Bernice Summerfield audio.
The robots are malfunctioning. They have an interesting resemblance to my Christmas present last year, the Robots of Death.
Astrid finds that spaceflight isn’t what she wanted. DT and KM work well together.
Meteor shower, not quite astronomically accurate…
Psychic paper gets the Doctor shoreside. Mr Cooper (Clive Swift returns to DW also) and his off-beat take on Earth customs. Deserted streetn but Earth is exotic for Astrid.
It’s Bernard Cribbins! Christmas in London is not safe in the Whoniverse!
Ah. That might explain why the meteoroids are not standard issue. What is the captain up to? The Doctor’s onto him, but the Captain has superior man- and fire-power. And the angel robot tells them they are all going to die!
Wham!
Angels queueing up… Why?
Steward sucked into space! And lots of other people have been too… And the Tardis! Landing on Earth, so we know where this is going to finish.
Oooh, nasty angel!
Aha, so the ship crashing will wipe out life on earth. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the end of the world!
“I am a Time Lord, I am from Gallifrey…” Great stuff!
Yes, the Doctor agrees with my statement about his Christmases.
A nice bit of character-building from the Van Hoffs. (Rather more cheerful than the Eastenders plot.)
Bk is a cyborg – how will this fit with the robots?
Kitchen staff about to get wiped out… Yep.
Killer robots… Hand stuck in door – a familiar trope – Rose, Robots of Death. (The midshipman is recovering rather well from a gut shot.)
“A Time King from Gabbadee.” “You should see me in the mornings.” “OK!” Oooer!
Space shuffles! A fake degree! Glorious!
“I was sort of made homeless…” Awww.
A bridge across the chasm. Poor Foon… But will the Doctor be able to come back for her?
Angels have wings!, and Banakaffalatta can kill them dead! But not much good for him. Rather moving sacrifice.
…And Foon sacrifices herself too.
“All I do is travel.” “I could squeeze in it…” Makes a change for someone to beg the new Doctor to come too. (Well, Mickey did.) “Old tradition, yeah.” Good music now.
Three questions. Whoops, that blows two of them.
Teleport to safety… No, to deck 31. Good girl, Astrid. (But will you survive to the end of the story?)
It’s Max Capricorn. Looks in bad shape. What is he up to? Is it all just an insurance scam? No, elaborate corporate revenge. This is rather Douglas Adams-ish. Well, if he had written Davros.
Kylie and a forklift truck… Oh dear!!!! Poor Astrid, I thought things might not end well!
How’s the Doctor in charge of the angels? Oh.
Rescue the ship now! Skip into the atmosphere… Oh dear, poor old Buckingham Palace! Getting the Queen out in time! And a near miss (reminiscent of the end of Revenge of the Cybermen) of the target. Looks like Elizabeth II is better disposed to the Doctor than Elizabeth I.
Can we save Astrid? Looks like maybe not. Every victory has a cost, and the good guys don’t always live to see the end.
“If you could decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster.” So true. And off they go to England.
And Mr Copper has fallen on his feet, hasn’t he!
“Where are you going?” “No idea!” “Me neither.”
And a tribute to Verity Lambert.
Well, an interesting shift of tone! And I loved the world-building, the Vones and the invocation of Vot.
Oooh, Torchwood trailer with James MARSTERS!
I read scads of Scott in my youth, and Ivanhoe was always the one I liked the least, for all the reasons you say. It always struck me as unfortunate that this also seems to be the book of his that people most often try first – a very bad introduction to a usually entertaining author.