Before the Flood

In 1941, esteemed science fiction author Robert Heinlein published a short story titled “By His Bootstraps”. In it, a scholar Mr. Wilson writing a thesis on metaphysics and time travel, is met by individuals claiming to be from the future. After a series of argumentative and even physical confrontations, Wilson is brought to the future and becomes a man of great power, and realizes after some period that he must inherently become one of those individuals venturing back to meet his former self, and […]

BBC Announces New Whovian Spin-Off

In an unexpected and rather unusual social media announcement today, the BBC unveiled plans for a new YA series within the Doctor Who universe titled Class, with the familiar names Steven Moffat, Brian Minchin and author Patrick Ness as executive producers. Shooting in Spring of 2016, it will be set at the famous fictional Coal Hill School, where so much of Doctor Who both classic and new has taken place. We say “unusual” because in hinting that “huge news” was […]

The Witch’s Familiar

Just when we thought we had a fuller understanding of our tumultuous 12th Doctor, and had joined him in coming to terms with his identity as a “good man”, a voice rises from the depths to haunt us with questions of ethics, compassion and mercy. Over the course of a emotionally painful conversation, seemingly timeless grievances are put aside for that brief moment — and eyes open, we consider the possibility that, in fact, enemies could be friends we have yet to know. […]

The Magician’s Apprentice

The advisement that “your patience will be rewarded” often sounds like something you’d tell a child who asks repeatedly how much longer they have to wait for a birthday, or allowance, or other anticipation. Why would it be any different for us as the groundlings at Steven Moffat’s feet, hoping against hope that this is the day we are given a tremendous gift, and that gift is not only all we hoped for, but perhaps even more for the sake of wanting? Could […]

A Word on Jenna Coleman’s Departure

We in the Doctor Who fan community had every reason to suspect this was going to happen, but with a single day before Series 9 commences, the news that Ms. Coleman will be departing the program feels bittersweet. Let me explain. As we on GPR have pointed out many times over the past six months, Jenna weathered the criticisms received for how the Clara character was written and presented in the latter half of Doctor Who‘s Series 7 — criticisms that […]

Pop Culture Honors the Doctor

When you love something dearly, you want to surround yourself by it. You immerse yourself in it. You find ways to involve it in aspects of your life where it may otherwise not have a place. If you happen to be a writer, producer, director or actor on a film or television set, or perhaps a game developer or author, you might even go so far as to find subtle (or not so subtle) ways to reference that deep-seated interest […]

A Conversation with Paul Cornell

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” — J.D. Salinger This week, we are thrilled to be joined by none other than writer Paul Cornell, author of numerous Doctor Who novels, the televised episodes Father’s Day, Human Nature, and Family […]