The Latest Doctor Who News and Happy Birthday Tom Baker

Garry: Hey, hey, hey who fans and welcome to The Big Blue Box Podcast. My name's Garry and welcome to our first episode of 2026. It's 431. Yes. Woohoo. Who fans, welcome back to a fresh new year. I think we can say this still. I think we can say Happy New Year. January is pushing on a little bit, but happy New Year to you all. It's great to be back recording some Doctor Who stuff. This is episode 431. Not a great deal going on in the world of Doctor Who admittedly, but there are a few little things simmering around which I want to talk about. So this is a news sort of quick update episode. It won't be too long. Just going to dive into a few things that have been kicking around in the world of Doctor Who. I hope you are keeping well and safe. I should probably do the trademark intro, shouldn't we? Hope you are keeping well and safe and that you've all managed to do something Doctor Who. Really elated indeedy. I hope you got some cool stuff for Christmas by the way, some who merch. Did you get your Doctor, did you get your TARDIS slippers, your TARDIS dressing gown, your Doctor Who calendar for the year? All the things that your significant others and family members have no idea what to get you so they just buy something to do with Doctor Who. You probably got all that stuff. But yeah, I hope you got something Doctor Who related. I don't get that stuff anymore. My, my family of my, my wife and my kids and friends, you know, they just like he's probably got it. We don't want to get him anything too cheesy to do with Doctor Who. So yeah, I don't get that anymore. I used to like those cheesy little gifts like a Doctor Who mug or the little tearaway desk calendar, that kind of thing. Yeah, those were the days. But yeah, hope you had a good Christmas and a good new year. Recorded the roundtable last night with some of the team that was really cool. That will be out next week at some point early next week for January that was, that was with Maria, Matt and Harry and we, we spoke about the latter half of the war between. So when we recorded the December roundtable the first two episodes had landed for that. So now we finished up our thoughts and. And scores and stuff for that as a really interesting chat to get those guys thoughts on that series. It was pretty cool and we went on some big tangents on that one as well. We spoke quite a bit about classic who A couple of us are doing some Rewatch stuff, so I'm doing a. I kicked off a rewatch towards the end of last year, which is taking a little while, admittedly. You've been a bit busy and stuff. And I'd finished up the Dalek Invasion of Earth at the beginning of series two, and I had forgotten just how much of a. An emotional punch in the stomach the end of that. That story is, you know, at the end where Susan stays behind with David and the Doctor. Ian and Barbara hear the conversation between her and David outside. They're in the Tardis and he doesn't let her back in. He kind of forces her to stay because he knows ultimately that's the best thing for her. And we have that lovely speech with Hartnett at the end, which is the. Go forth in all your beliefs. You know, that lovely speech, the very famous one. And I'd completely forgotten about the. Not. Not the speech itself at the end of that. That episode in that story, but I'd forgotten about the. The build up to that. It's been a while since I've. Since I've watched that story. And of course, the. The closing lines from. From Hartnell are iconic and so on, and that's emotional in itself. But yeah, I'd forgotten about the whole. With Susan sort of gradually coming to the realization that, you know, perhaps traveling with the Doctor and those guys is not her future and she's met somebody and that sort of thing, and that her leaving the TARDIS key on the ground and walking away. Oh, man. Some emotional stuff. So, yeah, we spoke a bit about Hartnell's era and that stuff, and those guys had watched some classic stuff recently and we were asking what their favorite eps were and all that sort of normal stuff, but it was really good episode. So make sure. Make sure you're following or subscribing to the Big Blue Box so you won't miss that episode of the Roundtable when it drops next week. And talking of updates for that sort of thing, before I carry on, we'd love it if you were following or subscribing to us in your preferred podcast app of choice. If this is your first time listening to the Big Blue Box, welcome aboard the tardis. It's very good to have you here. Thank you very much for checking us out. If you're one of the longtime listeners, we call them the Grizzled Ancients. If you're back listening, then. Welcome, guys. Great to have you back. As always, we put fresh Doctor Who content out across the podcast and across our blog every single week, every month. So we keep you up to date with all the. All the Doctor Who things and then we've got a bunch of, like, opinion pieces and editorials and rankings and all of that stuff over on the website, which is bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk. and that's just had a fresh redesign, by the way. I've spent many, many months, towards the end of last year completely redesigning and rebuilding that website. It looks very cool and I've had some great feedback. Thank you very much for that. You can check out all of the articles and reviews and whatnot from the writing team over there. We're also on the socials these days. We're mainly on. On X Blue sky threads and Facebook and Instagram, but we mainly converse on. On. On X and Threads more these days. Actually threads is picking up quite a bit. So, yeah, we post qu over there and chat to people. So which, whatever flavor, whatever social media flavor is your thing at the moment, we're on one of those. So there are links to those things on the website. Come give us a like and a follow and chat plenty of Doctor Who throughout these episodes and reviews and stuff. And we also have a very cool free Discord server. There's a link on the website. Hop in there. Loads of conversations about all things Doctor Who going on in there. Go and check it out. Some really lovely people there chatting. Just plenty of Doctor Who all the time. There'll be something for you to. To engage in conversation with. Alrighty, let's jump into some news. So the first one is not really news, it's more of a celebratory thing. But yesterday our main man, Tom Baker, celebrated his 92nd birthday, unbelievably, just in brilliant shape and form. Still, there was a bunch of photos that landed recently when he received his MBE. So a couple of really cool ones where he's got his iconic scarf on and he's in front of the TARDIS and stuff, beaming from ear to ear. Lovely big smile as well. There's really big twinkle in his eye still. And yeah, he looks and sounds really good. And yeah, just 92 crazy. So we say a very, very big happy birthday to the Doctor. The definite article, you might say, Mr. Tom Baker looking fabulous at 92. The next doctor. The next Doctor. The next story is this is not big news, but it's more of a comment from somebody that kind of highlights, I think, what a lot of us have been thinking, depending on what side of the fence you. You land on with the recent era of Doctor Who, specifically the Disney era and Shooty's era of who. And it's not really this wasn't really directly at Doctor Who. This is comes by way of, I guess it's kind of related, I don't know. Anyway, the director Peter Hore has been in the news recently. This comes from deadline.com by the way. They did an interview with him and also producer Matt Bausch around the announcement that they're going to reboot Blake's 7, which is just crazy in itself. And as a little sideline here for listeners who are not aware, normally I do these episodes with my co host Adam by the way, but he's, he's been busy recently and he's been traveling. He's just literally just settled back in the US for a few months. So we will be recording some stuff, but we also do another podcast about Blake's 7 which we started last year called Federation Strike journey through Blake's 7 and we are going to hop on and record some stuff later actually about this very subject and some other bits to do with Blake's 7. So if Blake's 7 is your thing, I'll put a link to the show notes in the other podcast that we do. It's very cool. It's, it's a really cool dynamic because unlike the Doctor Who stuff that we do with Blake's 7, Adam is a lifelong fan, so his, his approach to it is to re watch the things and comment on stuff that he's watched for years and it's his favorite TV show. And the dynamic is cool because I'm coming in it completely fresh. I've never seen Blake's 7 before and last year we went through all of Series A as they released it on Blu Ray. So we've got all that stuff and so we're doing that seasonally. So season one was our review of Series A and we've got some really cool bonus episodes at the end of that season as well where we've interviewed some people in who involved in Blake's 7, involved in the the making of the Blu Ray and all that stuff. So that's really cool. Go and check that out. And then next month, I think it's around next month we're going to start recording our reviews of Series B as that was released on Blu Ray towards the end of last year. Anyway, tangent link in the show notes if you're into Blake's 7 or you want to get into Blake's 7, our other podcast is very cool for that. But Peter how Peter Hoare has announced he's going to reboot Blake's 7 and while he's being interviewed over at Deadline, he kind of touches on the financial side of things and how it relates to the quality of storytelling and the quality of television. And he makes a really good point. So about halfway through the interview he goes on to say that he says the Blake's 7 story is legendary because they were given a certain slot within the scheduling and which was intended for a different show. And Blake's 7 ultimately got that slot and that sort of thing. And he said at the time it felt like it really meant something. He said, I could tell that they didn't have any money, but I was able to compartmentalize and enjoy the ride knowing that the sets wobbled and stuff. He's referring to Blake's 7. He then goes on to say that he compares Blake's 7 to the recent Andor series from Star wars over at Disney. And he thinks that the success of Andor is not because of the money, which was a ridiculous amount. I think it's so ridiculous, the amount of money that they had. But he says it's because of the integrity, wit and sophistication of the story. He then compares that to Doctor Who. He said, so Deadline mentioned that Disney plus have just exited after just two seasons of one of the biggest co production deals of the decade. And he says it's a cautionary tale. So then he says, I don't think anybody would doubt the skills at the front line of that show, Doctor Who, but something went wrong. I think there were lots of areas you could point fingers at, but ultimately it wasn't a better show with more money. And that's a good thing because we haven't got money anymore. Nobody has. And then he went on to say that, sorry, the other guy who's involved in the reboot of Blake's 7, Matthew Bausch, went on to say that we're driven by our passions, but also seeing that there is a gap in the market in the uk, particularly with the well publicized dropping off of Doctor Who for genre based British ip. So essentially what they're saying is, and I think I agree with this, in fact I do agree with this and it's something that's been on quite a few people's minds since shoot his era had started. And definitely when we got to the end of Shoot his era is that the Disney money absolutely didn't make a better show. And even if you had. So he mentions Andor and he's saying that even if you do have all the money, that's still not really like an indicator of what makes a successful show. What makes a Good, enjoyable, successful show is just good old fashioned storytelling with things like integrity and sophistication in today's modern TV landscape. Now we've said this quite a few times on the podcast that the Disney money in some ways almost had a negative impact on the show because you ended up with just, in our opinion, sort of unnecessary CG characters. Some, some would call it CG slop. You have that kind of thing. And so on one hand, don't get me wrong, the show looks fantastic in terms of like cinematography and the overall sort of fidelity of the image and the image quality and, and all that stuff. It looks really cool and professional and it looks amazing in some scenes and, and whatnot. But the, the amount of visual effects and stuff like that is just crazy now. And I think that's moving Doctor Who away from what makes it great in the first place. So Peter hall mentioned earlier on, in the, in this interview about when he was watching the show. He was able to mentally put aside the fact that, yep, Blake7 had no money and that the sets wobbled and it looked cheap in some areas and all that stuff. Same thing with Doctor Who back in the day with classic who, you know, it's famous for reusing sets for corridors to people to run down and things looked a little bit sort of, you know, cheap here and there and things like that. But the thing is, that's the charm, that's the thing that makes, or one of the things that makes it so good. And I think we've gone away from that. We've lost our kind of initial rawness around that stuff a little bit. So I thought it was a fascinating interview from Peter Hoare. All these things that we mention throughout these episodes. There are links in the show notes if you want to go and check them out. You can do so. Yeah, I kind of wish that we don't get another streaming partner because, you know, it would be cool to go back to good old fashioned storytelling without relying on or having to, or feel like you need to use the money to make something unnecessary with these big CG characters like Sutek and Omega and all these things. It just, yeah, wasn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are wider problems, larger problems than that, I feel, which is a topic for another another day. But I don't think that helped. So moving forward, I'm hoping that we don't get another streaming partner because the other ones are going to be like Netflix, Amazon, if that was to happen, they're obviously going to throw a load of cash and we're going to be back in the same boat. So if it's just the BBC and they don't have as big as budget, that's going to force the writers to be creative with how they tell the story. And a bit like 2005 who onwards where you know, so much of it was physical sets on location, all that stuff and very small amount of blue or green screen stuff and it doesn't make. So it makes for a better show, I feel. But anyway, fascinating interview with Peter Hoare and Matt bausch and yeah, Blake's 7 being rebooted. So it's, it's. There's been several attempts to get this off the ground over the last decade. It's always fallen flat. But these guys look like they're going to get it done. So I think at this point in terms of a tiny update, they are just about to enter production and casting and that kind of thing. So it looks like it's gonna, it's gonna get some traction this one. So we'll, we'll keep you updated especially on the other podcast Federation strike. But little tidbits like that. There's a big crossover of fans between classic who and Blake's 7. So we'll mention that stuff on here. Moving on and talking about streaming partners. As we know, Disney have packed up shop and have left Doctor Who out in the cold. There is a rumor that, and this is not, this is not sort of, sort of a confirmation that yep, Doctor Who is going to move into something like this, but there is a rumor that the BBC is very close to signing a deal with YouTube to create original content that will be presented just on YouTube, which is really interesting. Apparently a bit of a landmark deal. The BBC are in talks that would see them produce content just for, just for that platform. So this was initially reported over on the Financial Times. Again this is mentioned on deadline.com as well. They're expected to announce, they're expected to announce this as soon as this week, possibly next week. And it would involve the Beeb making bespoke shows for new and existing channels that operate just on YouTube with a view that in the future they would then come over to BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds. So the BBC have not, they've not commented too much on this if at all. I think they're just keeping tight lipped until an official announcement is made at some point. But a couple of quotes from one of the initial deadline reports says the BBC is preparing to make original shows for YouTube which could then later switch over to iPlayer or BBC Sounds the hope is that this will ensure the BBC meets young audiences where they consume content, helping the corporation maintain its relevance for a future generation of license fee payers. So again, I don't want to go too much on this because it's not confirmed and it certainly doesn't relate directly to Dr. Who yet. So this could be a. At the moment, this sounds like that the BBC want to meet wherever the younger audiences are. And seeing as YouTube has got a huge amount of viewership from that sort of demographic, the younger audience, the BBC want to go over there and offer them shows and say, hey, we know where the cool kids hang out. You know, we know where you guys are at. So, you know, here's a bunch of new stuff for you. So at the moment it's only related to new bespoke content. They are not putting. They're not making brand new Doctor Who specifically to go on YouTube yet. So I think this could be. So the first thing is this could be a stepping stone into that stuff if this goes absolutely mad and successful. Or it could be a case of in the future you might see something like tune in for, you know, the brand new episode of Doctor Who available now on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, etc. So this could be a case of if this is successful and they get a massive uptick in viewership, they could in the future do this with YouTube. Whether that's going to involve the similar thing like we had with Disney, where they're going to throw us some cash and that stuff, who knows? Like I said earlier in the previous story, hopefully not. But also, I forgot to mention, sorry. The reason why the Peter hall thing with Blake7 and his comments on Doctor Who are important, I totally forgot to mention this is because he's been a director on Doctor Who. So he did a Good Man Goes to War back in series six with Matt Smith and then came back and did some stuff in Shoot his era. So he directed the Robot Revolution and Lucky Day both from series 15. Sorry, I completely forgot to mention that. But relating to this story, that could be a door opener for people like directors like Peter Hoare and other people who feel like, okay, you know, the Disney thing wasn't fantastic, that kind of fell on its ass a little bit. But this thing over here is doing really well. So yeah, it could open up a multitude of opportunities and stuff like that for Doctor Who. The second thing, if you're a UK listener, this does have ramifications on the license fee, the TV license fee. And you'll know What I mean by that where, if you've seen the news recently, there has been little whispers of the BBC extending the TV license fee to YouTube. So at the moment I'm not sure 100% on the details, but you have to be, you have to pay a TV license here in the UK if you watch obviously terrestrial channels, live content via the BBC, so iPlayer and stuff like that, but it doesn't extend to things like Netflix, Disney Plus, YouTube or those sort of things. So if that's all you had in your house is a TV with like Apple TV, but you don't use the BBC iPlayer app or anything like that, and you only watch things like Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, that sort of thing, you don't have to pay a TV license, I think. But there are some rumblings that the BBC is going to extend that to include YouTube because of this deal. So yeah, that could, that could annoy a lot of people, understandably. So we'll see how that pans out. But anyway, original content from the Beeb on the, on YouTube could extend in the future to do like dual broadcasting on YouTube and that sort of thing. We'll see how this all pans out. So that's the BBC deal. And then just finish up with a couple of wee stories here. A bit of merch, bit of a merch update. We've got some new modern target books have just been announced recently. So we've got the Aliens, Aliens of London, the Eccleston Story, that's by Joseph Lidster. We've got the Satan Pit written by Matt Jones, the 10th Doctor story. And then we've got the Time of Angels written by Jenny Colgan, Jenny T. Colgan, which is the, the Matt Smith and River Songs episode. So these have been novelized as we've seen over the last few years, where there's been sort of a revitalization of, of the target stuff where they've started to novelize modern era Doctor Who into these books, which looks pretty cool. So on Aliens of London, this first went out. Oh man. Bit of a nostalgia hit here. First went out in 2005, written by Russell T. Davis and it's, it's now novelized by screenwriter Joseph Lidster. The synopsis for this one is the Doctor brings Rose home a year after she left to find London in chaos. A spaceship has crashed into, into the Thames and an alien body lies in the wreckage. The Doctor uncovers a chilling conspiracy at the heart of Downing street. As ruthless alien invaders take control. Members of the family slything, the Doctor, Rose and The MP for Lydale north must fight to expose the SL infiltration before the Earth falls prey to a deadly interstellar con that will ignite World War 3. I love reading these old synopsis from these old. I say old from the early modern era Doctor Who stuff. It really makes me want to go and watch these again. But I need to get through the rewatch first. The Satan Pit. So novelized by screenwriter Matt Jones. The Doctor and Rose travel to Crop Tor, an impossible planet orbiting a black hole, defying the laws of physics. With the TARDIS lost to them, trapped with a crew of human explorers and their alien servants, the Ood. The they find ancient ruins and something far older and darker stirring beneath the surface. Whispers speak of a malevolent force imprisoned since before time. Something that even the Doctor fears. As seismic horrors rise and minds begin to fracture, one terrifying question remains. What if the devil is real? Absolutely cracking story from Tenants First Run. That's going to be a good book. And then finally the Time of Angels, novelized by best selling author Jenny T. Colgan. And the synopsis is an improbable call for help. From Riversong draws the Doctor and Amy to the wreck of the starship Byzantinium on the world of Elfava Matraxis. Well, get my teeth in. On the world of Elfava Matraxis. The wreck contains deadly cargo, a Weeping angel determined to escape. And the starship's crash site infringing on a sprawling subterranean tomb is no coincidence. In uneasy alliance in an uneasy alliance with a squad of military clerics, the Doctor's investigation becomes a desperate battle to survive as an army of implacable quantum locked killers grows ever stronger and flesh becomes stone. So three absolutely banging stories there from from the TV episodes. They should be pretty cool. Some good writers here on these books. You can pre order them now from the usual places and they are going to be released on the 26th of March this year. So get your pre orders in for that. And lastly, just very quickly, one of our own writing team has put a new review out for Big Finished today, it's just landed on the website which is Matt's review for the thirteenth Doctor Adventures. The Return of the Doctor from Big Finish. And the synopsis for that story is. Having saved the peaceful Zaryans from an evil alien threat, the Doctor and Yaz sail off to their next adventure. Only this time Yaz wonders if they're moving on or running away. Convincing a grudging Doctor to return to the planet, they are shocked to find the Zaryans in turmoil? What did the Doctor do? Why is the city in ruins? And what's the voice in Yaz's head? So yeah, Matt's given a decent little rundown here with this story. I won't give you the the spoiler on the thoughts and the scores and stuff, but there's also an include from Harry also on the team. So I'll put a link in the show notes to that and there's a link on there to go off to big finish to purchase the story. So that's your rundown on what's happening in the world of Doctor Who. It is a little bit slow at the moment, as you guys know, but we have got a little, a little smattering of things that are going on across the world of Doctor Who which sound interesting and if they come to fruition, especially the YouTube thing, that could be cool. And also hopefully, hopefully the sentiment from director Peter Hoare on his thoughts on what makes good television in terms of financial stuff. I'm hoping that people at the BBC hear that sort of thing, they take that into account for new Doctor Who moving forward past the Christmas special, of course, that we've got coming up at the end of this year. So thank you very much for sticking with me and I think we'll end it there for episode 431. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for checking out another episode of The Big Blue Box Podcast that was 431. As I said earlier, usually my co host Adam is with me on these, but he's busy traveling and doing stuff that's going to be par for the course moving forward. Adam is a busy chap with travel and work and stuff, so we will record as much as we can when we can. And as I mentioned, We've got our Blake's 7 podcast and there's going to be some a new episode for that dropping really soon. Also, as I mentioned, we've got the roundtable episode with the team that's going to be out early next week, so make sure you check that out and we will be back on this podcast channel with just everything that's happening in Doctor Who when it happens. And there's going to be some interesting little bits as well popping up on this podcast over the year, certainly over the next couple of months. So make sure you're following or subscribing within your fave podcast app. Just hit the follow or the subscribe whatever the button says so that you get notified when new episodes drop. You can also listen over on the website, which is Big Blue Box podcast at Code uk, and you can check out all of the reviews, editorials and everything that I mentioned from the writing team over there. They post regularly there, so go and check that out. And we're also on the socials, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all of those things. Go and link off there and connect with us. We chat Doctor Who, as I said, all throughout the week and throughout the month, in between stuff. And we have a really cool free Discord server. There's a link on the website. Hop in there and chat plenty of Doctor Who with other Doctor Who fans. It's very, very cool. There's always something going on, talking about new stuff, upcoming stuff, big finish, all sorts. So go and check that out until the next episode, then. Take care of yourselves. And remember... Aaaaaaaaallons-y!