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alexwilcock.bsky.social
Alex Wilcock 🔸🏳️‍🌈
@alexwilcock.bsky.social
1.8K followers 740 following 3.3K posts
Married to Richard, he/him, gay, Doctor Who fan, still European, Liberal Democrat, mostly ill, burnt-out firebrand (but gets by online with the odd spark).
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alexwilcock.bsky.social
‘Doctor Who was never political until [moving target of the last couple of years]!’
So, the Budget…
OTD 1977: The Sun Makers
Prices rise, taxes grind, the wealthy in power laugh at poor citizens and even the cost of dying is too high.
Just a humorous little story. Nothing serious. Nothing political.
The Doctor eats a jelly baby (he says) and beams Leela (Louise Jameson), K9 (tin dog voiced by John Leeson) and the Doctor (Tom Baker), long scarf round all three of them Giant humbug Gatherer Hade has boasted of his special powers. Unfortunately they do not include flight. Doctor Who – The Collection Season 15 Blu-ray cover: The Doctor (Tom Baker) with wild hair and wilder scarf winding away from him, jelly babies floating out of the bag in his hand and cogs, wheels and sparks whirling all around, while within lurk monstrous forms including potato-headed Sontarans and jellyfish Rutans, a gestalt of Gorgonic woman and rearing slug-snake that make up Death itself – and a giant prawn (but no K9)
November 26, 2025 at 11:20 AM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 2018: #DoctorWho The Witchfinders
Life is righteous when you’re a 17th Century landowner: you have a big wig; the King will visit you; you can get any woman who disturbs you drowned as a witch.
You’ve only two things to fear.
It’s in the trees. It’s coming.
And the Doctor.
The Doctor [witch!] (Jodie Whittaker) wields her magic wand, flanked by Yasmin Khan [witch!] (Mandip Gill, with axe) and Willa Twiston [witch!] (with local knowledge of the spooky woods) Becka Savage [definitely not a witch!] (Siobhan Finneran) with a tight corset and tighter lips The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) bobs for apples. Yaz (Mandip Gill) looks dubious. King James VI and I (Alan Cumming) thrusts a blazing torch into the night, and into the Morax Queen
November 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1978: The Androids of Tara
or the Time Lord Frivolous
(he’s on A Mission From God, but has a day off)
David Fisher’s witty script brought to life by Tom Baker, Villainous Peter Jeffrey, K9, Mary Tamm, Mary Tamm, Mary Tamm and Mary Tamm!
The most fun story of a hugely fun #DoctorWho season.
The Androids of Tara – Doctor Who The Complete and Utter History art of Romana / Princess Strella (identical but for different hats), the Doctor (Tom Baker), castles, King Reynart and villainous Peter Jeffrey as Count Grendel Doctor Who – The Androids of Tara 2022 novelisation by David Fisher, cover by Anthony Dry: the Doctor smiling in hat and scarf, Count Grendel with fabulously jutting hat, jutting nose and jutting beard, and Romana set inside a crystal segment of the Key To Time (well, she does have many facets in this one), all amid exciting spangly lights and clouds Romana (Mary Tamm) and Count Grendel (Peter Jeffrey), both in fabulous outfits and hats‬ SPOILER: Count Grendel (Peter Jeffrey) on the balcony, having lost his fight and his hat but preparing fabulously to live to fight another day‬ (though while the Count is snarling vengeance, the cherub statue is laughing at him)
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
Showrunners Russell T Davies (First of His Name) and Steven Moffat often seemed to be competing to see who could cram the most conceptual entities from this one book into their story arcs
“Moffat’s secret revealed!” Poster for Doctor Who – The Name of the Doctor ripped through to show Alien Bodies beneath
November 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1997: #DoctorWho Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles
One of the greatest, most influential, funniest Doctor Who adventures
“It was a dead body! Dead! Its biodata was of no use!”
“A legend never dies, Cousin. You should know that.”
Time War looms:
Suddenly the future of the Time Lords isn’t assured…
Doctor Who – Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles cover: a circle of bacteria
November 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OYD* 1981: Blake’s 7 – Sand
So near the very end, yet still a glorious 10/10 episode (and not the last!)
A glorious tour de force for Jacqueline Pearce
Pure theatre in its tragedy, intensity, loss, sex… Servalan.

“Try to remember, I have a gun.”
“Actually—No.”

*Yesterday
Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) tests Tarrant’s resolve by pushing his gun against her head Servalan gazes into Tarrant’s eyes over dinner… …and the morning after: Servalan gets close to Tarrant, but his gun in her hand against *his* head is closer.
November 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1967: The Prisoner – Checkmate
One of this iconic series’ most iconic episodes – visually and conceptually, playing chess with actual people is exactly what you imagine The Prisoner does.
Plus fabulous Peter Wyngarde’s Number 2, and Number 6’s characteristic arrogance coming a cropper.
Village citizens in brightly-coloured capes stand in place on a life-sized chess board Number 6 (White Pawn) and Number 8 (White Queen) Number 2 (Peter Wyngarde) smiles insouciantly Number 2 (Peter Wyngarde) in his control room, in gym pyjamas, hairy chest on display. He was beautiful. Disturbing, but beautiful.
November 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1979: #DoctorWho Nightmare of Eden
Inventive, intriguing, tonally all over the place
Starts on a fanfare, ends on a moral:

[spoilers]

‘Kids – don’t do Muppets’

I rarely fly, but on a plane trip I bring this and Airplane! to watch on my phone and laugh and laugh. I’m only economy class.
Two spaceships, large and small, warp-smash through each other head-on above a planet (Doctor Who: Season 17 – The Collection Blu-ray new effects) Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 17 Blu-ray cover: the Doctor (Tom Baker) smiles raises his hat, framing an array of monsters and villains (hate-filled one-blob armoured tank Dalek, wizened half-Dalek Davros, Lady Adrasta in black and red, tentacle-worm-faced Scaroth Last of the Jagaroth, a horned Nimon, a fur-and-clawed-and-massive-jawed Mandrel) Captain Rigg points and laughs as his economy class passengers are killed by big shaggy Mandrels A pack of big shaggy Mandrels rampage through spaceship corridors, a dead guard at their fluffy feet
November 24, 2025 at 7:42 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
So, you might start with the Fourth Doctor and keep going
Or start with the Ninth, through New Who
How incredibly joyous – to join Billie Piper as she enters the TARDIS!
My 10 Reasons to Watch Rose:
loveandliberty.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/doct...

Happy #DoctorWho Day!
Rose (Billie Piper) runs joyously into the future AND INTRODUCING BILLIE PIPER
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
DW has many times and places to start, but the first I ever saw had a giant impact—
Everlasting love of Doctor Who
Led to everlasting love of my husband
Its political heart to empathise with the other
and to fight fascists.
10 reasons I love Robot:
loveandliberty.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/doct...
The Seven Doctors: a gorgeous 1991 portrait by Alister Pearson for Doctor Who Magazine 174, poster version* – the first seven Doctors fanning around the spinning TARDIS: William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton (orange-red); Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (blue); Peter Davison and Colin Baker (purple); Sylvester McCoy (top and centre, in natural colour) All on a red background, with the Doctor’s closing words from Survival: “There are worlds out there where the sky is burning. Where the sea is asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. “Somewhere there’s danger. Somewhere there’s injustice. And somewhere else, the tea is getting cold. “Come on, Ace – we’ve got work to do.” [*This is slightly cropped, so if anyone has a hi-res proper scan, please drop me a line! It’s a favourite]
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1963: Doctor Who begins with An Unearthly Child
“Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles…?”
One of the greatest TV episodes ever made
I adore William Hartnell’s Doctor, terrific from the first

But here are 3 other places to start too…
Doctor Who titles (Mark I) – the words “DOCTOR WHO” come out of the swirling shapes of the time vortex titles The Doctor (William Hartnell) at the TARDIS controls, Ian Chesterton and the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan behind him The Whoniverse brought to you by the letter W: reflecting in a turning metallic W, Doctors including Ncuti Gatwa, William Hartnell, David Tennant, Tom Baker and Jodie Whittaker The Whoniverse brought to you by the letter O: reflecting in a turning metallic O, monsters, villains and other creatures including the Daleks, the Cybermen, Koquillion (The Rescue), Weeping Angels, the Bane Mother, Missy and Sea Devils (Homo Aqua)
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
Silver Bullet Nemesis is, improbably, a crossover with
[thunderclap]
The Satanic Rites of Dracula!
In which this day, the Sabbat for the Undead, heralds disaster: “The 23rd of this month…” The 11th month. Think on.

[OTD 1983 USA: Doctor Who – The Five Doctors’ Rassilon is in this movie too!]
Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing)’s revelation: “Yes, indeed, the 23rd of this month…”
November 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1988 Doctor Who – Silver Nemesis
Cybermen vs Nazis vs Witch in 3D Chess
Lady Peinforte is fabulous!
“You are a good man, Richard. And I—am evil…”
Often repeated in our flat (with view of one very changed location, while from a certain point of view there’s a villainous Mr Flowers)
#DoctorWho Day
The Doctor (Sylvester Nemesis McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) menaced by Cybermen wielding a huge knife to cut – their cake! The Doctor and Ace stand by the TARDIS Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 25 Blu-ray cover: The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), in cream jacket and hat, bearing silver-coloured (but not silver) bow and arrow and surrounded by blazing asteroids, framing an exciting array of monsters – hate-filled one-blob armoured tank Black Dalek Supreme, hate-filled-against-other-blobs plus huge-cannoned even more of an armoured tank Special Weapons Dalek, handle-helmeted cyborg revenant Cyberman, sinister Clown, and murderous walking liquorice allsort
November 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 2013: #DoctorWho The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
I should watch this again. I laugh a lot. All the way from “Usually I’m in everything!”
And can never unsee under the Zygon shrouds…
“Work permitting, obviously.”

I started The Three Doctors again this morning. Even more joyous, and nearly as funny.
Doctor Who – The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot cover (I don’t know who designed it, but thanks to them) in the style of 1983’s The Five Doctors: Peter Davison (top – he wrote it); Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy; Paul McGann (work permitting) and Tom Baker (cut-out); all around an obelisk revealing the time vortex; set above BBC Television Centre; below, the villainous Moffster
November 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
Happy Doctor Who Day!
I saw these yesterday and couldn’t resist getting them for our breakfast for today.
And, almost as comfortingly, we’re watching a double bill of…
Midnight
The Well
Wildfarmed REGENERATIVE Crumpets Two crumpets on a plate, one slathered with butter, the other also slathered with jam.
November 23, 2025 at 12:02 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1989: #DoctorWho Survival
It felt like it could run forever.
And it will.
Doctor Who at its most grounded in real life
*and* at its most unearthly and unexplained
Doctor vs Master
Lesbian subtext
Gorgeous music
And never the end.
‘You had to pick a Saturday, didn’t you…?’
Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 26 Blu-ray cover: The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) in hat and dark jacket, holding a question-mark umbrella and holding within him a glorious array of monsters and characters, Witch-Queen Morgaine (Jean Marsh), a space-knight, the blue sucker-covered Ancient Haemovore, horned demon the Destroyer, recording angel Light, above all feral-grinning the Master, space rocks spiralling out behind and around (like this era’s title sequence but more so) Doctor Who Survival OST by Dominic Glynn – the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and the Master (Anthony Ainley) fight, and Ace (Sophie Aldred) stands, on a blazing world of Cheetah-people on horseback Ace and the Doctor in Perivale, looking as thrilled to land there as you would The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) stands silhouetted against the red moon and sky of the Cheetah People’s world, the ruins of an old civilisation cast into the desert before him
November 22, 2025 at 9:30 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
The true believer religious maniac is the really scary of the Three Who Rule
Though I have a soft spot for Zargo and Camilla. There’s something compellingly attractive about a Doctor Who couple who eat well and have a deeply committed relationship for a very, very long time…
Camilla strikes a pose, Zargo at an oblique angle behind her. Like Abba Of The Night. What music they make! Richard and I in obliquely Abba-esque poses in white and black, not quite a thousand years ago
November 22, 2025 at 8:48 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
Whether by accident or design (sunny for one then grey and chilly for another helps!), in these stories the colour alone marks such a telling thematic contrast.
While Season 18 as a whole feels Autumnal, the E-Space Trilogy seems to shade from Summer through Autumn to stark white Winter…
Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 18 Blu-ray cover: The Doctor (Tom Baker) contains a promise of monsters, the Master and a mystery, against a blaze of stars
November 22, 2025 at 8:48 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
Compared to its predecessor Full Circle’s jungle, teeming with bright, vivid life, this has an eerily muted colour palette:
Rich ancient bloodstain brown and red in the Tower
Drained grey and bone white in the Village
Even the trees are sparse, thin grey and black jutting from dead, dry leaves.
The Doctor (Tom Baker), in vivid red, crouching with K9 in the vivid green foliage of Alzarius The Doctor and Romana crouch in the sparse dark woods of the vampires’ planet
November 22, 2025 at 8:48 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1980: #DoctorWho State of Decay
Endless stagnation as Those Who Rule drain the people for a Great One that’ll never come—
[Oh, make your own topical jokes]
As the nights draw in, the Doctor – in a ghost story – tells ghost stories of the Time Lords’ terrible vampire enemy…
Three vampire lords – Zargo, Camilla, and the power behind the throne but way out in front, Aukon – in gorgeous robes of dark red and ancient brown like long-dried blood Aukon stares into the distance, summoning his bats (one seen overlaying his face) A tall, curiously pointed castle looms in the dark over a village Zargo and Camilla strike a pose together even asleep, arms crossed, a vampire gargoyle watching over them
November 22, 2025 at 8:48 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
“A unit may have gone random”
My in-depth old review, twinned with another story that alienates us from UNIT:
loveandliberty.blogspot.com/2012/05/dvd-...
The plot’s as dodgy as Styggron’s safety protocols, yet it always delights me. And gorgeous locations! Even the concrete.
“Let’s try the pub!”
Doctor Who and the Android Invasion by Terrance Dicks, cover by Roy Knipe – the Doctor (Tom Baker), spacesuited androids and crumple-faced Kraal with an improper use of a war memorial (the Doctor is tied to it) A beardless me in glasses, in blue jeans, in green T-shirt and in my 30s, pretending to be lashed to the War Memorial in Devesham (or is it?) Enemies of Doctor Who – The Kraals jigsaw: rhino-faced (here, unusually green-faced) Kraal scientist Syggron, pointing “Let’s try the pub!” A beardless me in glasses, in blue jeans, in green T-shirt and in my 30s, visiting Devesham with Millennium Dome (who was both under-age and an Elephant), and pointing along the road to the Fleur De Lys
November 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1975: #DoctorWho The Android Invasion
Fifty years of
“Is that finger loaded?”
The Doctor and Sarah Jane
vs
The Doctor and Sarah Jane
See them eerily plastic-faced on Blu-ray
But Tom and Lis’ rapport is in such a high Summer here that – when not sinister doubles – they’re irresistibly charming
Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 13 Blu-ray cover: The Doctor (Tom Baker) with vivid blue eyes, Tam o’shanter and tartan scarf, holding a trilanic activator (you probably have one at home) and holding within a blaze of monsters, dark god Sutekh the Destroyer, glowing anti-matter beast from the edge of our Universe, walking plant human-Krynoid hybrid, rhino-faced Kraal, Egyptian Mummy-shaped robot, blobby bulbous suckered orange-red-green Zygon, Morbius (in composite body built to hold his brain with artificial eyes on stalks and huge claw) leading – as once he did the High Council of the Time Lords, then millions of fanatical followers when he dreamed the greatest dreams in history! All against a glistening indigo-blue honeycomb of translucent pinky-blue organic crystallography. Spacesuited androids give our heroes the finger (they’re guns, I add quickly) Doctor versus Doctor! But which is the fake? My bet’s on the one with the gun. Fake Sarah Jane’s face falls off. But you can spot her by the gun, too.
November 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 1968: #TheBeatles White Album
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Back in the USSR
Piggies
Dear Prudence
Savoy Truffle
I’m So Tired
Long, Long, Long
Helter Skelter…
What a selection box!
(You can keep the cherry cream, though)

…and I still wish for 37 versions of Not Guilty.
The Beatles 1968: album – a plain white LP cover with a small “The BEATLES” (embossed) and a serial number (stamped) The Beatles 1968: quartered portraits – George looks determined, Ringo sad, John like he really needs sleep and Paul like he’s been woken for the snap
November 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
I have a bigger list of things that don’t make sense from it than perhaps any other Who story, and I can’t defend it intellectually, yet every time I watch it Tom, Lis, the locations are all so delightful… It just has a hold on me
A beardless me in my 30s pretending to be tied to the War Memorial in Devesham
November 21, 2025 at 10:30 PM
alexwilcock.bsky.social
OTD 2059*: Bowie Base One ends in Flood and fire…
And the Time Lord Victorious begins.
34 years to go until #DoctorWho The Waters of Mars takes place!

[*also 2009]
The Waters of Mars poster – the Doctor (David Tennant), Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan) and the Flood-possessed team under the dome of Bowie Base One on Mars The Doctor in orange spacesuit and orange flames decides the Time Lord Victorious is his apotheosis. The flames may rise high, but, ooh, that hair rises higher. Spider-shaped Bowie Base One on Mars – domes linked by arm-tunnels and a carrier shuttle set amid red rocks
November 21, 2025 at 9:37 PM