Radio Free Skaro #1076 – The Ceefax Initiative

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The UK is awash in televisual Mrrahhh Business this week as Sky is set to purchase ITV for $2.13 billion and what better “experts” to weigh in on the subject than three Canadians with a passing familiarity with the industry? Plus a surfeit of Troughton-era goodness in the form of a massive production diary of the era by author David Brunt and a Doctor Who: Legends special featuring Ol’ Two himself. We also have blatant foreign election interference as we endorse Count Binface and poorly explain what Ceefax is to the younger generations who do not in any way care! All this AND part one of our Classic Series Commentary for the newly released special edition of “Warriors Of The Deep”!!

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Radio Free Skaro #1075 – Open Wide for Some Soccer

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We’re Breaking Circuits over here at Radio Free Skaro Towers, with a web-based UNIT story setting up the whole shebang and a new Titan Comics adventure (which we have read in preview form) soon to come! While TWBLATS has yet to grace North American bandwidth via Disney+, the BBC Writers Room site has provided scripts for you to peruse! Plus Steven Moffat continues his unofficial Doctor Who appreciation tour with a guest appearance on Peter Purves’ podcast, Blake’s 7 Series C Blu-Ray available for preorder in the US, and the conclusion of our Classic Series Commentary for part four of Spearhead From Space!

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Radio Free Skaro #1073 – Cancel Culture

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If you thought a complete vacuum of Doctor Who news would stop the Three Who Rule from prognostication based on the vapours and some recent UK media podcast analysis about the BBC tendering process, boy howdy you would be wrong! Thrill to our educated guesses as to where we go from here in a fractured media landscape! Puzzle over the tender process! Draw no real conclusions! Plus part the third of our Spearhead from Space Classic Series Commentary!

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Radio Free Skaro #1072 – This Song May Be Over

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It’s (not) the end, but the moment has been prepared for! Well, not as such but a press release from the BBC confirms what we long suspected: there will not be a Christmas special nor were plans for one ever seriously pursued. Sad news to be sure, but we’ve cobbled together industry and wider fan reaction along with our own lengthy takes tinged with what we’d like to think is both optimism and realism. More importantly, we have former Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury to give us his rather more informed take on the whole situation. Brave Heart, Tegan, after all somewhere the tea is getting cold. 

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Radio Free Skaro #1071 – Minimal Editing

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The rumours and nonsense continue to bubble up from the internet swamps this week with claims of the Christmas Special shot in a minimal style, a fake news release to irritate us all, and actual footage of RTD saying there will be a BBC press release in a week or two. The Three Who Rule dig deep and are quite skeptical of all this torpor (other than RTD’s almost certainly correct claim) as well the usual Big Finish and Dalek 63-88 updates and Part the Second of our Classic Series Commentary for Spearhead from Space!

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Radio Free Skaro #1070 – Do They Know It’s Christmas?

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Jingle bells are probably silent this Christmas as, if RTD’s hinting in the UK media has led the Three Who Rule to conclude, after Mr. Davies stating he won’t be filming anything this year, so…whither Doctor Who Christmas Special? We get after it! We also look into the spectacular looking 4K release of the 1996 TV Movie, our thoughts on the Mandolorian and Grogu, the usual Big Finish Zaprudering, and an interview with Sophie Aldred, Paul Cornell and author Adrian Tchaikovsky and their involvement in the Salvation’s Child graphic novel! Space Comics!

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Radio Free Skaro #1069 – Thunderballs, I Calls ‘Em

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The fallow times continue as the Three Who Rule murmur about the shifting media landscape that led to the Mando and Baby Yoda Movie not getting quite the cultural cachet of blockbusters of yesteryear and what, if anything, this portends for Doctor Who. (Still no War Between on Disney+, by the way)! Plus we discuss Ncuti Gatwa’s SNL monologue, remember the life of Michael Keating, pass on Film is Fabulous news, and crawl even further into the rose-tinted World of the Past with the first part of our Classic Series Commentary for Spearhead From Space!

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Radio Free Skaro #1067 – Beryllium Atomic Clock

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If you’re looking for a deep dive into the glorious 4K (in the UK at least) return of Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) you’ve come to the right place! We have an epic interview with film restoration expert Paul Vanezis all about the painstaking process of sprucing up the 35mm print of said TV movie to modern video standards. If you’re looking for granular details about frame rates you already knew we’re the place to be, but now even more so than usual. Plus we have news of Jodie Whittaker at Chicago TARDIS, Film Is Fabulous! discovering a 1964 BBC directors training film, more exciting news about Jo Martin’s new hat via the latest Whoniverse Show, and more!

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