Happy Birthday Tom Baker and a Big Blue Box Update

Garry: Hey, hey, hey, Who fan and welcome to the Big Blue Box podcast. My name's Garry and this is episode 417. Hey who fans and thank you for coming back and listening to another episode of the Big Blue Box. I'm going to be running solo this week just to keep you up to speed on a few things that have been happening in the world of Doctor who. Post our episode previously of our review of Joy to the World. It's been a few little stories drop which I just want to keep you up to speed on and Adam's busy at the moment with a few bits. One of those things I will update you on later on in this episode actually. But yes, I hope you are keeping well who fans keeping safe and you are doing something Doctor who related. Yes, I'll get straight into it. Who fans. There's been a few things that have dropped over the last few weeks since we last recorded a couple of them. I don't really want to kick the show off with, with talking about, but alas, we have to recognize the greatness of these people. So we've lost a couple of people already in 2025, which is, which is gutting. So first of all, Barbara Clegg, she sadly passed away on 11 January, so a couple of weeks ago. Now, to predominantly Classic who fans, you'll know that name pretty well. To those of you that have recently jumped on board Doctor who and have primarily watched the, the current stuff, then you might not recognize her name, but Barbara was one of the first, or the first, should I say female writers for, for Classic who back in the day. So she, although she wasn't the first female writer to be credited with Doctor who, I think she's the first person to come to put together a complete, a complete serial together. So Leslie Scott was the first female writer to be credited that was back in the 60s, I think, and she wrote that in conjunction with her husband. What was her husband's name? Paul. What's his name? Paul Erickson, if memory serves. So she's credited there for back in the 60s for writing a story with her husband. But I think, yeah, Barbara Clegg's the first solo writer to solo female writer to put, to put a Doctor who serial together. She wrote the script for the fifth Doctor story, the third one in the Black Guardian trilogy called Enlightenment. And she, I'm pretty sure she was. That was a bit of a female tag team, if memory serves. I think that was. Barbara wrote the script for that. And we had a female direct, Fiona Cumming. Yes. Of course, Fiona Cumming directed that. So yeah, that was a. The first kind of all female writing and directing force, if you like, for some classic who. Yeah. So Enlightenment was. Was written by. By Barber back in the day and I think that was in the early 80s. Right. So enlightenment must have been 82, 83, something like that. And. And she wrote for some other bits as well. Corrie. So if you soaked here in the uk, Coronation street and Crossroads, it's just a sad one that Barbara leaves us. Like I said, I hate doing bad news, especially to kick the year off. But we also say goodbye to the awesome Christopher Benjamin. What a loss this is. So, yeah, so age 90, this was last week on the 15th of January, last Wednesday Christopher Benjamin passed away. He just turned 90 as well. So a sad time for everybody. Just because his characters were so loved, I think not just in Doctor who, but the other roles that he played on television. I think Pride and Prejudice was a big one for him as well. But for us Doctor who fans will remember him fondly of course, as Henry Jago from initially, you guys will already know, but the Talons of Wang Chiang, such a great standout performance for him. Had been involved with Doctor who before that. Of course he was in. He was in Inferno before that, played Sir Keith Gold who if you remember back in Inferno he was the. The underhanded sort of director of the Inferno project. He's pretty good in that. But obviously found his feet with the character Jago from from Wayne Chiang and then went on to do loads of Big Finish audio dramas. If you've never listened to any of the Jago and Lightfoot series from from Big Finish, so many great stories. They're very, very cool. Loads of content as well. Like they were so popular with these characters that they ended up doing so many stories for Big Finish. There's loads of box sets, a couple of little spin offs as well. Very, very cool. He just went on to. To star in some newer who as well. So if you remember the Unicorn and the Wasp. Bit of a Marmite story that one, but he was very good in it. I love Unicorn and the Wasp but I know it's a Marmite story, but yes, Christopher Benjamin sadly leaves us at the age of. Of 90. On a more chirpy note, we say happy birthday to Tom Baker who has just celebrated his 91st birthday yesterday, 20th of January, which is amazing. I love that. So although it's sad that we say goodbye to a couple of people also in their 90s, by the way, we also can celebrate somebody in their 90s. So the Immortal, it feels like Tom Baker, who is now Tom Baker MBE by the way, which is awesome and it's great to see him still up and about. There was a couple of video clips that were put out. I can't remember the, the creator's name, the YouTube channel, but he put a couple of videos out. I think it was down his local pub and just in front of a nice big fire, classic kind of old school Tom Baker video. And he looks, he looked really well, I mean a lot of people pick up on whenever they see tomorrow in any sort of public light. Over the last few years, the comments that, you know, myself and Adam have mentioned it a few times as well, that he always looks so frail, you know, and old at the moment, but when you see him in videos like this, you know, he actually looks really well at the moment. He seems to be in good spirits. His voice still sounds amazing. He's still got that classic, deep Tom Baker quintessential voice. And yeah, he's got that lovely twinkle in his eye still a lovely smile. So yeah, he looks, he looks really good and 91 years old and like I said, it just feels like, just feels like he's immortal, like he's, he's going to go on forever, which would be lovely. So yeah, 91 years old. Celebrate Tom Baker's birthday, which is, which is amazing. And we've, we, as you guys know, we, we mention this on the last video, sorry, the last podcast episode that we've got buckets of Tom Baker over at Big Finish still to come. I think they've recorded, I don't know, I think they've got like at least a, at least a decade's worth of, worth of, of, of Tom Baker stuff. Fourth Doctor stories. So yeah, we still got many, many more cool stories for, for the fourth Doctor to come and good times. Before we go on to the next story, just a friendly reminder to make sure that you're hitting that follow button whatever podcast app you listen to your podcast on, and especially if you're a new listener to the Big Blue Box, this is a slightly different change to format. It's normally me and my co host Adam the Geek's Handbag, we normally go through the news and then waffle about some various Doctor who things before we review something in the world of Doctor who, which we've almost, we're almost done with all of our reviews of, of everything, certainly live action, both classic who and modern Doctor who and all the spin offs and stuff. We're pretty Much done. We've just got a few animated bits to get through and we reminded ourselves the other day as well that we've not reviewed the Cushing movies, so we need to get those on the list as well. But there's a slightly change of format. I'm just doing a solo shorter episode this week, but normally it's the two of us and we also do a monthly roundtable. We have a, we have a small team of really cool, awesome writers who put out reviews for Big Finish and event rundowns and editorials and stuff on the website. We draft those guys in once a month. We just sit around a virtual table and just chat around, chat around the things that are happening with Doctor who. And we have that January episode going out at the end of this week actually. So yeah, make sure, especially if you're a new listener to the Big Blue Box, that you are following us on your preferred app. And you can also listen on the website, which is bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk you can listen to all the episodes there and check out all the, all the reviews and all the goodness from the writing team there. And just to, as I've mentioned my co host Adam a few times, make sure you check out his YouTube channel. It's called the Geeks Handbag. Loads of cool, mainly Doctor who stuff there, but just a very cool geeky site. Tons. He's been doing that channel for years now, longer than the this podcast. We've been doing this since the March 2014, so 11ish years now. And I think he was doing the Big the Geek's Handbag for maybe a year before that, something like that. So yeah, tons of videos on his channel. Go and grab a cup of tea and, and check out all of that stuff. You can also find us on the socials. We're on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky. Find us on there. There are links, all that stuff on the website or just do a search for the Big Blue box. You'll find us on there. And we also have a very cool Discord server, so there's a link on our website. Just hop in there and chat Doctor who with loads of other core Doctor who fans. There's always conversation about something going on, whether it's threads around the upcoming new stuff for Doctor who or classic who or merchandise collections or upcoming merch events. Big finish, the whole thing. It's very, very cool. So hop in there and chat plenty of Doctor who right next news story. This is a fun one. Steven Moffat is feeling the love over on the Socials in the, the wake of his second story after coming back after Showrunner. So he had. In series 14, we had the story boom, of course, and that went down reasonably well, I would say. I don't think that was a story that was. I don't think it's going to pop up in anyone's top 10 favorite list of Doctor who episodes, but it was a reasonably good story. It wasn't amazing, it wasn't terrible, it was reasonably good. And it was kind of an expected. It was an expected Moffat story, I would say. When I say expected, I mean it was, you know, in terms of how the dialogue played out and that kind of suspenseful nature with everything. It was, you know, it was kind of Moffat. But his recent, most recent story, the Christmas special, that's just gone. Joy to the World, I think that was an even more expected Moffat story. Very timey wimey with the whole time hotel and the whole bootstrap paradox thing with the, the Doctors, you know, coming back and the code for the briefcase and all that stuff. Very, very Moffat. And again, we reviewed it reasonably well. I think we gave it a six and a half or a seven and a half, something like that. And again, not gonna, you know, blow your socks off or appear in anyone's top five or top ten, but not terrible either. You know, just a, you know, not a bad watch. Bit of a middle of the road, but enjoyable watch. Very Moffat. However, the fans over on the Socials are they want to see more of the moth bag. They want to see him come back and write more Doctor who. So this is from David Craig over@radiotimes.com and he's picked up on the, on the positive feedback that fans are throwing at the show and at Moffat after that Christmas special went out. So a couple of the comments are things like, I would cheer if you went back to writing Doctor who, said one. One viewer, another one said they would literally jump up and down with excitement if Moffat dropped another Doctor who update. He said regardless of how angry it would make, their neighbors downstairs would jump up and down. Another one said that they shared their hope that Moffat would write another River Song story just one last time, bring Alex Kingston back and write River. Write another River Song story. And then another user said it would be amazing if, if Moff came back to write more Doctor who. So, yeah, I mean, that's not to say that there wasn't some kind of, you know, criticism for his, for his, his script for Joy to the World over there. Of course there's going to be that with every story. That's just the nature of TV these days and anything that people put out there, you can't please everybody. But I think the majority of people didn't mind Joy to the World. It was certainly it didn't go down as, as terribly as some of the previous Christmas specials that we've seen in the past. But yeah, not too bad. So fans wanting some more Moffat. I don't know what you guys think about that and I'm pretty certain we'll see at least another Doctor who story written by the Moff Bag at some point. I don't think he's done with Doctor who just yet. So yeah, we'll see. Right. That's all we have in terms of, you know, the new stories that have dropped over the last few weeks since we last recorded. And just a couple of reminders now and a bit of a recap. So the first one is that the Season 7 Blu Ray collection is still available for pre order. Normally we advise you guys when these are announced to go and pre order if you're collecting these because they do typically sell out in the first few weeks of of them being announced. Having said that, this one is still available. So this was first announced, I think it was the 19th of December 20th and it's up for pre order pre order on the usual website. So Amazon, Xavi, HMV and a small smaller website here in the UK called Rare Waves rarewaves.com they're all still available to pre order. They haven't, they haven't put the sold out badge on there just yet. So if you want this box set, if you're going to continue your, your collecting run of these, then you can still get those. It does look like a very cool set. Seven discs. Obviously John Pertwee's introductory series into, into Doctor who kicking off with Spearhead from Space and, and then Doctor and the Silurians, the Ambassadors of Death and then finishing up season seven with Inferno, an amazing story. And those of you that got tickets lucky enough to get tickets to the upcoming BFI event for Spearhead From Space, that looks like it's going to be rather good. So we'll see if one of our or any of our team are on the way. I'm pretty sure Maria's probably got a ticket and she'll, she'll give us a rundown and stuff if we end up being able to attend that. We'll also give you a rundown on whatever podcast episode lands after that. I think it's in A few weeks time. The first of Feb. Yeah, so a couple of weeks. So those events are normally amazing, really cool events at the bfi. And then we'll give you the rundown on that. So, yes, Season seven, that is still up for pre order. So make sure you bag your ticket for that, you get your pre order in for that. And my mind is obviously racing ahead to the next reminder and that is that the event that's coming up in April, run by the DWAs, the Doctor who Appreciation Society Capital Cutaway is, Is coming up fast and that is. I think there are tickets still available for that. Yes, there is, yeah. So that's not sold out yet. So myself and the rest of the big blue box team are going to be at this one. Sadly, Adam won't be with us. He's. He'll be back in the US at that point. But Matt, Harry, Jordan, Maria are all going to be there, which is cool. So these, by all accounts, this will be my, um, my first event run by the DWAs. And by all accounts they're really cool. They normally do a much bigger event called, I think it's just called Capital and that's down by Gatwick Airport, I think, and that's a very cool event, that one. I'm gonna have to get to that next year, I think. But Capital Cutaway, this is in London in hammersmith on Sunday 6th April. So if you want a cool Doctor who event, if you are in the. This part of the country, down, down near London, then make sure you get your ticket in for that. So far, guests are Sarah Sutton, Peter Purvis, Joe Martin's going to be there, Peter Davison and Susan Twist, those guys will be there. And I think I could be wrong, but I think they're also going to announce another slew of guests or at least a couple more over the coming weeks and the next month or so. And. But of course, the highlight for you guys, if you do end up being, if you do end up going, we'll be meeting us a lot, of course, so. So get your ticket in for that. I'll put a link in the show notes to that or do a. Do a search for DWAs, capital cutaway, something like that. But that all looks rather good. Right, just want to finish up on a bit of a recap on things. I put an article out on the, on the blog a few days ago, Last Friday the 17th, which was titled New Year, New Podcasting Goodness. And a bunch of you had replied, replied it had sent over some tweets and, and blue sky messages and so on about this stuff. So just wanted to recap on a few things here and a bit of a shameless plug as well for something that we've been. We've been planning and working on for a little while. So the first thing and the one that you've probably all seen on, on our social accounts is we're starting a new podcast that lands this week, actually Tomorrow, Wednesday the 22nd. It's a new podcast called Federation Strike a journey through Blake 7. So those of you that have listened to the podcast for, you know, a couple of years or a few years now, you'd have heard us mention and tease that we should always do a Blake 7 podcast. Mainly because my co host, Adam Blake 7 is. It's his favorite classic television series. You know, the. Not at the annoyance, but at the surprise perhaps, of many Doctor who fans. Yeah, Blake 7 is Adam's favorite and he's been. He's been going on for so long about wanting to. To possibly do a podcast about Blake 7 at some point, but we just never really found the time to dive into that stuff. But last year we were at a BFI event. It was for the Happiness Patrol, actually. The. The McCoy story again, which is amazing event. Really enjoyed that. We're in the bar afterwards and we were talking about the. The Blake 7 Blu Ray set of all things, and that prompted us to. To talk about doing the podcast. And then we just went nuts. We. We literally. We buggered off for. For about an hour and a half over a pint and just said, look, for two reasons, we want to start branching out and doing some other things in terms of podcasting. The first reason is that in terms of Doctor who and the Big Blue Box, which I'll come on to in a second, we've literally reviewed nearly everything. As I said earlier in the show, we've gone through all of classic Doctor who pretty much bar a couple of stories and some animated things. All of Modern who we've done. Strangely, the only one episode that we've yet to review is one of the Christmas specials. I think it's A Christmas Carol. So you're gonna have to wait until. Until Christmas this year for us to review that one, because that'd be weird, right? To do a. A Christmas episode review in like, I don't know, February or something. But yeah, so that's not to say that the Big Blue Box is going away anytime soon. But yeah, we have done pretty much everything, so we need something else to get our teeth into and secondly, there are so many cool shows that Adam and I love outside of Doctor who that we would love to just dive in and review together. So the first one, we, as a bit of a spoiler, we've got a few shows planned. So the first one of those is, as I mentioned, Federation Strike, A journey through Blake 7. Now that's going to be a seasonal podcast. So that was the other thing that a couple of people had said, like, you know, how many are you. You going to keep going? Even though the Season 2 or Series 2 or Series B, whatever you want to call it, of Blake the seven may not have been released. And, you know, so we're going to do that as a seasonal podcast. So unlike the Big Blue Box, which is just episodic continuously, we'll get to the end of series a of Blake 7 and then we'll just pause for a bit. We have got a couple of bonus episodes that will drop after that, which you'll find out, you know, as we get through the series, but. And then we're going to give it a pause, wait for the next Blu Ray set to hopefully land grab that, and then we'll jump back in and we'll do season two of Federation Strike, where we review the second series of Blake 7, etc. So you get how that works, right? So the Big Blue box, just to pick back up on that and to confirm, because a few people did say, you know, what's going on with that. The Big Blue Box is not going anywhere. We will still, we'll still do. We'll still aim for a weekly podcast for that we might not do every week just because of Adam's and I's work commitments and Adam traveling and I have to travel with work reasonably frequently as well and, you know, just other things going on. So. But we will aim for a weekly episode like we've always done. It might not just be every week and. But we'll absolutely still do the monthly roundtable as well. So the writing team, they love doing that and I love doing that show with them. And as I said, we're recording January's roundtable this week and that's going to drop at the end of this week. So the roundtable will still happen as well. And those guys putting out their reviews and articles and everything. That will still happen. So the Big Blue Box is definitely not going anywhere. That's still our, our mainstay, if you like, our sort of, you know, premium show. I don't know how to describe it, but, you know, that's Our, our main show. These other shows are just to satisfy Adam and I's need to just talk about some very other cool shows that we either grew up with and loved. It's, it's mainly going to be classic tv. I don't think there's going to be anything brand new. Like we're probably not going to review like, I don't know, we're probably not going to review like Lost or Stranger Things or, or anything like that. It would just be, I mean, that's not to rule it out, but it's likely just going to be, you know, like classic retro British science fictiony kind of stuff. Not always science fiction, but, you know, classic British tv. And so yes, that's the first announcement. First thing to clear up Federation Strike, a journey through Blake Seven Lands tomorrow, Wednesday the 22nd. And they're gonna, it's gonna be a two special, two episode drop. We're gonna review the first two episodes and then it will be weekly from next week onwards. And it's seasonal and the first season will stop at the end of season A or series A of Blake 7. And then we'll pick it up again later on with the second series now as an offshoot of that and, and, and something to house these podcasts. Because it was fine when it was just a big blue box. It was its own entity and its own thing, but now we are sort of branching off and doing some other shows and we need sort of, we need a home basically for those things. We need a bit of, a bit of a roof over these things. So that again, for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's, it's a really good way of sort of cross promoting these shows so that if there's a listener that's listening to the Big Blue box and we mention our other podcast that the Blake 7 one, they might be like, ooh, I've been wanting to listen to a Blake 7 podcast because I haven't listened to one in ages and I love that show. Didn't know you guys did a Blake 7 podcast. Awesome. I go and check that out and vice versa. So that's the. We can create this whole, you know, sort of cross promotion of content to get, you know, either listeners who love those things to go and listen to those podcasts or, and this is something that's really cool actually, that, that I've, that I've noticed from you guys on the socials over the last week since we announced Federation Strike, was that it, it's a good opportunity to try and get new people onto these programs as well. So I've had at least four, possibly five people who have messaged me on Message the Blue Box, on either on Twitter or Facebook and said, awesome that you guys are starting a new Blake 7 podcast. I've never seen the show before, but I've heard you guys talk about it. I've just ordered the Blu Ray set, and I can't wait to start watching it and follow you guys, your journey through it. So that's amazing, right? So a bunch of people who had never even considered diving into Blake 7, but they were aware of the show, they just didn't, you know, whatever reason, have not dived into it. Our announcement that we're going to do a podcast, they've now ordered the Blu Ray set. They're going to start watching it as well. That's very cool. So if we can get new people into watching these shows that we love, then that's only a good thing, right? So. So that's cool. So, you know, we can. And there's going to be a. So Federation Strike is the first of a few shows that we've got in the pipeline. I can't tell you at the moment what they're. They're going to be because we're still figuring that stuff out, but this is the first one. So with that in mind, we also launched our podcast network called Cosmic Echoes. So Cosmic Echoes is the name of our podcast network. So the big blue box, Federation Strike, they will fall into the network, and the subsequent shows that we'll do moving forward, they will all be part of it. So it's essentially just one big cool bubble of podcasting content, basically. And it's a way of you guys just following our journey into other programs, you know, and. And doing that stuff. So that. That's just to recap. Those are the couple of things that we announced over the past week. And just to clear up a couple of things. So Big Blue Box is not going anywhere. That's still our main. Our main show, our new program, our newer show, new podcast is Federation Strike, a journey through Blake 7 that lands tomorrow, two episodes, and that's a seasonal show. And Cosmic Echoes, which is the new network to house all that stuff. Now, there might be a point in the future, could be a point in the future where we invite other people to do a podcast to sit within Cosmic Echoes. Who knows? That could be something. That could be something that we. That we do in the future. Who knows? But what I would say is it's an exciting time. It really is, because uh, it's been the first time in a while that Adam and I have had this kind of electric, tangible excitement about podcasting and stuff. You know, it's. Because with the Big Blue Box, obviously it was very exciting when we, we first got that rocking and rolling, but it's. The Big Blue Box has become, you know, we've got it down so well now that it's. I wouldn't say it's become routine, but it's just become, you know, we can do that with our eyes closed, basically. You know, it's. It's something that. Don't get me wrong, the subject matter, the. The subject of Doctor who is still, you know, still love that stuff. Of course, otherwise we wouldn't. We wouldn't still podcast about it. But the actual process of podcasting and doing that stuff is, you know, is second nature now. So over the last few weeks, since the new year that we've been talking about the Blake 7 stuff and then just that whole process of gearing up to do a new show is such a cool experience and so cool. So it's the first time in a while that we've both been like, just, you know, texting each other a lot and talking about things, you know, to do with the show and, you know, as we've been working up, you know, all the, all the podcast material, the marketing material, the. The marketing artwork and all the, all the stuff, you know, and all that's just been really exciting. So hopefully that comes through in these podcast episodes and you enjoy our journey through, through Blake 7. So there we go. A bit of a recap on where we are with the Blue Box and some very exciting times for podcasting goodness moving forward from 2025 onwards. And I think I've waffled long enough who fans about all that stuff, so I'm going to stick a pin in it there. That's episode 417. Well, thanks you lot for bearing with me as I've recapped on. On the news and kept you up to speed on what's happening with the podcast. Sad times with a couple of people that have left us over the last. Over the last few weeks. But also, you know, a. A kind of celebration of the great stuff that they. That they gave us through, through Doctor who and some other bits and pieces. And also a big happy birthday again once more to Mr. Tom Baker MBE, who celebrates his 91st birthday. Very cool. Make sure you get your pre order in for the Season 7 Blu Ray set and get your ticket sorted for capital cutaway. Some very cool things coming up to kick off 2025 for all things Doctor who and then yeah, our announcements for the Cosmic Echoes Network which is going to house the Big Blue Box and our new podcast Federation Strike. I'll leave a link in the show notes to where you can listen to and follow that podcast and the socials for it etc. And in the meantime just very quickly make sure you hit the follow button on your podcast app of choice wherever you're listening to this episode so that you won't miss the future episodes and the roundtables, etc. And you can find us on the socials under the Big Blue Box podcast. Just do a search for us or head over to the website bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk, link off there, have a chat with us in between episodes and or dive into the Discord server and chat Doctor who there as well. So thank you very much once again. I will see you you soon. Until then take care of yourselves and remember.