Calling all Shalka-heads (I don't know if that's a thing)

We've had stories from expanded media adapted into TV stories like Dalek, Human Nature and The Star Beast with different Doctors and some changes to the story.

Which of the main incarnations of the Doctor do you think would do a work best for an adaptation of 'Scream of the Shalka'? And, if you want, what tweaks would you make to the story to make it work?

(As a self confessed Shalka-head, I do love Richard E Grant and would have loved to have seen more of him, but then we probably wouldn't have had the revival so there we go)

starts tonight

https://thebrightonskatrain.co.uk/

What's the vibe like if you've been before? What night would you recommend? Any other thoughts or comments?

Can someone explain what the release of Coyote vs Acme means in terms of the Warner's money/tax? What happens if you cancel it as a tax write off? What happens when you then release it? It's fascinates me

I am under no illusions that this will realistically happen or that anyone will like it, but this is my idea for what could happen following the end of The Reality War. It ties up a few (but not all) loose ends so sorry for those who wanted it to include >!Ruby, Belinda, Poppy, Rogue, the Pantheon or the Master!<. Yes, it does retcon a few things too but that is part and parcel of the show. With any luck, it's still satisfying.

The Doctor's (Billie Piper) regeneration energy sputters out and stalls. They are struggling to stabilise and flips between faces as reality has been re-written (and quite by chance, within the first 15 hours of regeneration cycle as noted by the 16 hour clock in the TARDIS). They will flip between some old familiar faces over the course of the story.

The TARDIS^(1), recognising something is wrong with the Doctor's regeneration, warns them and states that they have seen someone is playing with this same energy so the Doctor will need to stop that power getting into the wrong hands.

A quick outfit change later^(2), The Doctor goes to the basement archives of the Time Hotel to investigate, and works out they'll need to talk to The Boss to get any answers. They are about to head back to the TARDIS, when they are invited to the Time Hotel's penthouse to meet The Boss.

The Doctor is welcomed by some senior staff who introduce them to The Boss who is revealed to be ...Mrs Flood/the Rani^(3) from the future. Following everything that happened in the Reality War, she's conducting experiments to work out how to re-create Time Lords biology. A lot of time has passed since we last met her.

She is using time sensitive, telepathic and two-hearted species^(4) to conduct her research. In her lab, we can see Ood, Meepkind, Weeping Angels, and many other species in tanks, cells and hospital beds. There is a special section of her lab where she is trying to 'weave together' these various elements.^(5)

The Doctor has another vision of Susan calling out to him, but stronger, more vivid. The Doctor finds a tank with an unconscious Susan in there. Mrs Flood explains that, due to the shifting of reality, she slipped into another timelines and managed to find and kidnap Susan, a Gallifreyan who hasn't regenerated. When she's ready, Mrs Flood will keep triggering the regeneration process until she has collected all the data she needs (i.e. until Susan's dead). She has used her psychic abilities to try and reach out to the Doctor to help her.

Mrs Flood reveals the reason Susan is so special is that she was an oddity among the children of Gallifrey and a lot about her past was unknown. The Doctor had taken her under his wing and kept her away from the Academy and other authorities, but when Rassilon took an interest in Susan, the Doctor (having snuck away from Gallifrey a few times before) decides he should take Susan with him and run away properly (although he removed most traces of Susan from the Matrix on one of his trips back).

Susan comes round, recognises the Doctor and they have a heartfelt reunion. The Doctor, appalled at the experiments, sees who is in the other tanks and also finds an older 14th Doctor.^(6) 14 reveals he was also taken from his future, long after Donna's family have all moved on. The Doctors and Susan try to save the day, sending the lab subjects back to their own time periods. 14 tries to stop Mrs Flood but she is escapes^(7). Meanwhile, Susan is critically injured.

The three of them get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor (now David Bradley) goes to Susan and encourages her to regenerate but she never learnt how. The Doctor tries to coach her but she says she thinks it's too late. They have a final heart-to-heart where the Doctor confesses that all their companions have been trying to fill the gap Susan left^(8) and may never manage it but Susan has been close to their hearts and they've never been lonely. Susan dies and her body turns to stardust.

With 15 hours almost up, the Doctor (finally Ncuti Gatwa again) needs to stabilise their regeneration. They begin to regenerate but the process still isn't working. The 14th Doctor realises it's his turn to play his part. His body (and shadows of other Doctors) merge into the Doctors glow, getting brighter and more powerful each time.

The clock in the TARDIS ticks over to hour 16^(9) and the TARDIS is overwhelmed by the glowing light as the regeneration completes. From outside, we see the light fade from the TARDIS window. A pause. We hear the TARDIS engine fire up, then the lamp on top start glowing, and the TARDIS takes off. Quiet falls again but the adventure continues.

Footnotes and clarifications:

1. This could be anyone like the Fugitive Doctor or Oodkind, but it would need to be a cameo that made sense.
2. Something a bit more robe-like that can accommodate the different body shapes, heights etc of the various people playing the role
3. Yes, I know Mrs Flood has been retconned before into becoming the Rani, so might as well retcon her to be The Boss, a systematic (Rogue mentions paperwork) two-heart curious (as the Meep states) person who is familiar with the Doctor (says "Hi" via Anita)
4. She kidnapped a lot of them herself but also used people like Rogue and the Meep as bounty hunters. Other Time Lord abilities are available.
5. Might as well tease looms again.
6. Yes, Tennant again but looking visibly older, maybe dressing a bit like Wilf. A small role but not much to explain what happens in the gaps.
7. Escapes, or is trapped, or appears to die. Doesn't matter, she's gone away.
8. A lot of other people have come up with this idea, but I really like it.
9. It started at hour 1 so we can end on 16 for the symbolism.

Full details here for Brighton & Hove Pride’s 35th anniversary: https://www.brighton-pride.org/

Useful info below. Please put other advise, recommendations and questions in the comments.

The big events

• Pride Parade (Saturday 1st, 11am, see full route here)
• Pride on the Park (Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd, Preston Park)
• Pride Street Party (Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd, Marine Parade) - Moved from St James's Street

Travel

It's not worth driving - there'll be too much traffic, lots of road closures and nowhere to park.

Train is best, even if they're ridiculously busy. They should be putting on extra services. Check the Southern or Thameslink websites for the latest information.

If you are coming from elsewhere in Sussex on the bus, you can get the 270, 271, 272, or 273 from West Sussex, and Regency routes 28 or 29, or the Coaster routes 12, 12X, and 13X from East Sussex.

Allow plenty of time to get around as you'll probably be walking.

Choose a meeting point and time if you get separated from your friends.

Health

It's hot. Stay hydrated and keep applying sun cream (Melanoma Focus were crowd favourites in the 2024 parade). TDC’s Youth Bus will be at the bottom of Preston Road, with water, condoms, sun cream, and phone charging, free for 11 to 19 year olds.

You will probably be offered drinks/drugs/sex/being invited somewhere - don't feel pressured accepting. If you're worried, go into a local business and ask them for help. If you do wish to partake, be safe.

There's a safe, quiet space on Friday and Saturday night (10:30pm-5am) at St Paul’s Church, West Street.

Get a free STI test kit online or from one of the 8 vending machines.

Smaller events (but probably still quite busy)

• Everything happening on St James's Street all weekend
• Rainbow Run 5K - Friday 31st, 6pm, Hove Park
• Big Pride Beach Clean - Sunday 2nd, 8am-11am, Seafront Office, Kings Road
• Sober Pride Party - Sunday 2nd, 4pm-11pm, Ironworks Studio
• (please add your suggestions in the comments)

Which writers would you like to see return to write episodes in future?

Obviously we'd all love to see new writers come in and being something new, but there's been some real talent that we'd all probably want to see more of.

It's more likely to be someone who wrote post-2005 rather than the classic series in terms of matching pacing, writing for modern shows, etc (plus checking who is still actively writing/alive would make creating this list a lot harder).

Writer/co-writer	Episodes written	Episode examples
Maxine Alderton	2	Village of the Angels, The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Mike Bartlett	1	Knock Knock
Malorie Blackman	1	Rosa
Frank Cottrell-Boyce	2	Smile, In the Forest of the Night
Paul Cornell	3	The Family of Blood, Human Nature, Father's Day
Neil Cross	2	Hide, The Rings of Akhaten
Richard Curtis	1	Vincent and the Doctor
Juno Dawson	1	The Interstellar Song Contest
Sarah Dollard	2	Thin Ice, Face the Raven
Inua Ellams	1	The Story & the Engine
Phil Ford	2	The Waters of Mars, Into the Dalek
Mark Gatiss	9	The Unquiet Dead, Night Terrors, Empress of Mars
Matthew Graham	3	The Almost People/The Rebel Flesh, Fear Her
Stephen Greenhorn	2	The Doctor's Daughter, The Lazarus Experiment
Peter Harness	4	The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion, The Pyramid at the End of the World, Kill the Moon
Kate Herron and Briony Redman	1	Rogue
Ed Hime	2	Orphan 55, It Takes You Away
Charlene James	1	Can You Hear Me?
Matt Jones	2	The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
Tom MacRae	3	The Age of Steel/Rise of the Cybermen, The Girl Who Waited
Jamie Mathieson	4	Oxygen, The Girl Who Died, Flatline, Mummy on the Orient Express
Pete McTighe	3	Lucky Day, Praxeus, Kerblam!
Nina Metivier	1	Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
James Moran	1	The Fires of Pompeii
Rona Munro	1	The Eaters of Light
Simon Nye	1	Amy's Choice
Vinay Patel	2	Fugitive of the Judoon, Demons of the Punjab
Helen Raynor	4	The Poison Sky/The Sontaran Stratagem, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
Ella Road	1	Legend of the Sea Devils
Robert Shearman	1	Dalek
Keith Temple	1	Planet of the Ood
Stephen Thompson	3	Time Heist, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, The Curse of the Black Spot
Catherine Tregenna	1	The Woman Who Lived
Sharma Angel-Walfall	1	The Well
Toby Whithouse	7	School Reunion, The God Complex, The Lie of the Land
Joy Wilkinson	1	The Witchfinders

Disclaimers:

• Hopefully the list is accurate but it's been done manually so may contain errors.
• I've probably been pretty favourable with the episode examples, but makes more sense if you're looking the good stuff. Feel free to mention your own examples.
• I've removed any problematic people as you probably wouldn't want them back
• Anything co-written with a showrunner is allocated to the other writer
• I've not included showrunners. Moffat came back and did a decent job, and they've all done great work outside of the Whoniverse and would have more freedom writing without the pressures of showrunning. Feel free to include them if you wish.

I'm trying to keep this positive, so it'd be nice to have balanced takes rather than people complaining about who they don't want back

The lifeguards usually have a board where they've written the water temperature, tide times, wind speed, UV rating, etc.

Does anyone know a website where you can get all this information in one place?

I've had a little look but it's all spread over a few sites

What brands do people recommend for sea shoes/water shoes? I've mastered the coming-out-the-sea-hobble-up-the-beach, but those pebbles are tough

The new era of Doctor Who will probably (inevitably) have a companion from the present day as part of the Tardis team.

So for we've had companions from (combinations of) London, Sheffield, council estate, suburbs, village, University, teachers, nurses as distinct categories. Depending on showrunner, between a third and half of their stories are set in that location and/or the present day.

If you had to choose another present day companion, where would they be from and who would they be? What would give you the interesting story potential?

On the last episode of the Sneak Peek, Erik mentioned the way they announced the cast for Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping was "some of the most clever marketing" but I completely missed it.

Can anyone shine a light on how it was announced?

How do people feel about bringing back Tales of the Tardis?

I know it'll take a while for the new producers to be chosen and film a series, but I think creating a short run of ToTT would go down a treat. It'd be pretty cheap to produce, give the hardcore fans something new (and build some goodwill), and give an older story a bit of a spotlight.

If so, what stories would you want them do and who would be in the Memory TARDIS discussing them?

Anyone know where I could get a single coin capsule? I've got a coin for my sister-in-law's birthday that I want to present nicely so don't need loads

I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks and came back to the news of RTD's departure. I may have missed some of the smaller/earlier reports and rumours, but there's one thought that keeps persisting.

Obviously this is pure speculation about RTD's thoughts and emotions but...

From his personal posts (at least, the ones I've seen reported), I can't shake the feeling of some bitterness and melancholy that he's been removed from a massive show that he's given so much to, but an element of still wanting Doctor Who to continue and flourish.

My reasoning is:

At the end of the Chibnall Era, there was no one to take over the show and it was going to fizzle out. Davies heard this and, after everything to revive the show in 2005, felt a personal duty to keep a show close to his heart going and not fall into a hiatus.

Davies tried to pick up where he left off in terms of the Whoniverse (the main show, a behind-the-scenes show, and a spin-off) to jump-start the popularity, plus the bonus of Disney backing and distribution. To him, it sounded like a winner. But then...

The second series and 'The War Between...' didn't have time to learn from the audience response of the first series, and the show overall didn't make the splash that Disney wanted leading them to holding off the renewing their partnership (among other behind-the-scenes issues that we don't need to get into). All things that would cause concern at the BBC.

Ever the professional (and maybe optimist?), Davies paints the facade that everything is fine until it wasn't - the finale (until it needs to be reshot); Disney (until they pull out); the Christmas special (until it's scrapped).

I assume the BBC decided that the show needs to lose Davies and Bad Wolf to thrive. I think I remember Davies saying he wanted to stay for 4 years/series before handing over the reins so this seems premature.

RTD is a brilliant writer (I loved The Second Coming, It's A Sin, Tip Toe, etc.) and I'm sure he'll keep writing amazing series, and obviously he has a bit of an ego, but I feel a real sense of sympathy for how his time on Doctor Who seemingly ended.

Going on holiday next week and trying to work out the best way of travelling to/from Heathrow. The options seems to be

• National Express - Brighton to Heathrow
• Thameslink - Brighton to Farringdon, Elizabeth line - Farringdon to Heathrow
• Southern - Hove to Gatwick, National Express - Gatwick to Heathrow

Any advice or alternatives? (For context, I live in Hove, flying out on Thursday morning at 10am, landing back on Wednesday morning at 6:30am)

I'd love to hear a breakdown of how they filmed/created 2 great looking versions - 'Authentic Black and White' and 'True-Hue Full Color'.

Normally, if you colorised a black and white movie or de-saturated a color movie, it doesn't really work, bit Spider-Noir seems to nail it and I really want to find out how

I'm coming up to Edinburgh this weekend and want to take our friends who live up there for some Indian street food. Any recommendations? Ideally with vada pav

I'm heading to Japan for my honeymoon in June (expect a few more posts from me), and was hoping to attending a training lesson while in Okinawa.

Does anyone have any recommendations of dojos that I can approach? I'm currently learning Shotokan (7th Kyu), so hoping to try a Shorin-ryu class

Can anyone tell me the specific issues that explicitly show the following events?:

• B.P.R.D. being officially founded
• Setting up base in New Mexico
• Moving to new base in Connecticut
• Professor Bruttenholm stepping down as director

TIA