Freyburg

The three jaunty fellows were pleased as punch to commentate on one of the high points of Tom Baker’s career, “The Talons of Weng Chiang,” a fantastic set of episodes by the late, great Robert Holmes (though unfortunately marred by the casual racism of the period.) Since Talons is longer than a trip on a Victorian steamer to the colonies, we decided to split the commentary into two parts. Warren will be at San Diego Comic-Con next Sunday, but he’ll do his best to get Part 2 off his hard drive and onto the Internet in a timely fashion.

“The Stolen Earth,” the penultimate episode of Series 4, was a barnburning spectacular of fanwankian proportions, and the RFS crew did their level best to keep their geeky selves in check before effusively praising (or in the case of Chris, begrudgingly praising) a jam-packed episode full of danger, Davros, Daleks, derring-do, and other things starting with the letter “D”. Delightful!

The BBC, in their infinite wisdom, decided sometimes in the late Sixties or early Seventies that they needed space for new shows in their tape library, and destroyed many of the original tapes containing Hartnell, Troughton, and even a few Pertwee stories. Despite the odd find each decade of a lost story molding away in some backwater, many of these classic Who tales are lost in the mists of time…until now.

It turns out many a fan recorded the audio from the shows as they were broadcast, so almost all the soundtracks have been preserved. But a cadre of fans spread across the globe are taking things a step further and animating the classic lost Doctor Who adventures to recreate the Doctor’s first adventures. The BBC did this officially with “The Invasion,” but as stated in the Guardian story, animating is a tremendous amount of work. Fans don’t care, though, they want their Who and they’re willing to put noses to the grindstone to get it.

Chris absconded to Las Vegas  this week for liquor, gambling, and other licentious pursuits, so it was left to the other two pillars of RFS to hold the fort, which they barely managed. The subject at hand? “Turn Left,’ which served as not only this season’s “Doctor Lite” episode but also as a fantastic return to the series for Billie Piper, not to mention a sterling performance by Catherine Tate. The usual digressions and drivel-making were of course present, but without our tall co-host’s derisive sneers and seething hate, it wasn’t quite the same.

For once, the Three Who Rule were in total agreement that “Midnight,” the psychological thriller/Donna-lite episode of this season’s Doctor Who, was a fine bit of viewing. That left us with little else to do besides mock Who overseer Phil Collinson and engage in many a ridiculous digression, as per usual. Next week, Rose, dead Doctors, and atomic weaponry. Allons-y!

Ah, two great tastes that taste great together!

CIA director Michael Hayden recently announced that Al Queda is on the ropes, a spent force, and that the group has failed to gain traction in Iraq. Well, not so fast. A recent editorial in the Guardian points out that mass uprisings may not be what Bin Laden has in mind when he calls for jihadist revolution, and more importantly, terrorists don’t even need mass support to achieve their goals. All they need is the loyalty of a hard-core group of supporters, and they can continue their operations indefinitely. Will the leaders of those die-hards be Al Queda? Maybe not, as recent intelligence has indicated some disillusionment with Bin Laden and Zawahiri. At any rate, the last time the United States took their eye off the ball, they ended up suffering the most devastating attack in the US history, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and basically ruining their standing in the world. For their own sake, a little more vigilance and a lot less swagger might be a good idea.

We here at Radio Free Skaro are always happy to pimp another amusing Doctor Who podcast, but the pickings are rather slim. Surprisingly, nerds devoted to a whimsical British scifi program can be a humorless lot. Not so with Tachyon TV, a pack of sarcastic ne’er do wells from England who bring the funny in a big way, as well as running Behind the Sofa, an equally funny Who blog. What are you waiting for? Check it out!

In this gripping episode of Radio Free Skaro, the Three Who Rule discuss The Fires of Pompeii, the latest adventure for the Doctor and his erstwhile assistant Donna Noble….and not much else, really. It was a rather slow week for news, though much jocular speculation on the contents of the rest of the season did manage to fill some of the dead, dead air. Next week, fear the Ood!

The New Music Express has alternatively championed and derided every major form of music to come out of the UK since the 1970s, but according the Time of London, the august tome might finally due to expire. Meanwhile, music critics surprisingly hate the artists beloved by the public, and vice versa.