Terrance Dicks was fine as a scriptwriter but not so much as a novelist. Malcolm Hulke really was king when it came to Doctor Who novelizations.

Malcolm Hulke was a secular humanist in his beliefs - after his untimely death, he had a humanist funeral - but he often mentioned Christian concepts like heaven and the bible in his Doctor Who novelisations. Of course this isn't really strange - it's not impossible for a secular humanist to have an interest in Christian mythology or to value Jesus for his ethical teachings - but it is interesting.

Oh, that is interesting!

I've really wanted to read the novelizations of Doctor Who stories, but I can't find them anywhere. =/ So far, I've only been able to find one, and that's The Ark in Space. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, but I think it's pretty cool that it's written by Ian Marter.

~Riella

One thought on the Christmas episode of "Doctor Who":

The fifth Doctor says to Borusa in The Five Doctors: "You want to be President throughout your remaining regenerations?"

Borusa doesn't want another regeneration cycle, he wants _true_ immortality.

I'm just now watching the new Doctor Who (Netflix to the rescue again) - only on the second season. I also watched all of the Classic Who episodes they had.

I'm enjoying it so far.

As far as which Doctor I like best - well, I like all of them that I've seen so far. But, Tom Baker will always be Doctor Who to me. He played the roll the longest and was my first encounter with the Doctor back when I was in high school. When I see him in anything, I immediately think of the Doctor. (Of course, every time I see Ron Howard, I think of Opie Taylor - so that's not a slam about acting ability).

There are dozens of "the Doctor visits Narnia" stories but they are never as good as CS Lewis would have written it. How would the Doctor really cope facing judgement by Aslan?

They have finally put up season 7 of Doctor Who on Netflix. Finally! I've been waiting for this for awhile. Just wish they'd put up the 50th anniversary show as well.

I've finally gotten round to seeing the most recent Christmas special. Spoilers follow, but at this late date I won't hide them.

I found season 8 generally disappointing, though it had its moments. In that light, the Christmas show was rather enjoyable. It openly referred to Alien, comparing the aliens in-show to those in the movie ("There's a horror movie named Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everybody keeps invading you.").

It also has themes from Inception with its dream-in-dream states, totems that let you know you're dreaming (in a sense, at least. Here, it's the dreamers' imaginations bringing in Santa Claus to let them know they're still dreaming), and dreams not always being distinguishable from reality.

Another theme is that Christmas is important because each one might be the last one we spend with someone (hence the title, "Last Christmas"). Sentimental, to be sure, but I reflected on this thought in my old age.

I've quite enjoyed Series 8. It had a mixture of events, places, scary aliens, Companion Alone, Companion and Boyfriend, and interesting/likeable one-off characters.
I liked the gradual development and introduction of the Doctor, as the episodes progressed. This was a real contrast to the Matt Smith first episode where by the time he had eaten a suitable first food he was competent to operate the Tardis and come back and start saving the world. The Twelfth Doctor was not well, he had to spend a lot of time learning his way around, and I think his lack of knowledge of social cues was a good source of comedy to lighten things.
I'm enjoying his blunt comments, my favourite of which is "Shut up, shut up, Shuttity Up Up Up!"
And he has now emerged as a Doctor with a sense of humour, who does know what is going on in the universe, but whose reactions can't be predicted. That's fine for me!
As for age, well it's nice to have a Doctor in my age group.

My weekend is planned - NuWho series 8 will be on Netflix starting tomorrow (8/8)!

I'm looking forward to finally be able to see all of the episodes. I've caught on here and there - and I like Capaldi.

Peter Capaldi has done the unthinkable: he's actually supplanted Jon Pertwee as my favourite Doctor. (Jon Pertwee was the first Doctor I remember watching regularly - I was too young to watch it when William Hartnell was the Doctor and I was still too young to really follow the stories when Patrick Troughton was the Doctor.)

I found the first two episodes and the final episode of Series 8 disappointing, but the rest of the series I thought was good. I liked the Christmas special too - it wasn't too silly in its use of Santa Claus but it didn't spoil the belief of children still young enough to believe in him.

My cable provider has finally put the first 5 episodes of this series on demand, and I've watched them all over the past few days. I found them pretty enjoyable. There seems to be a trend to 2-part episodes which allows them to include more detail in the stories.

I also don't mind a Doctor closer to my age, coracle.