Is that Pun Loaded?

While the documentaries on the Doctor Who DVDs are very good their titles can be a bit variable. Getting a Head on the Brain of Morbius is great and Hello Sailor!, on the Sea Devils cannot be topped but Dreams and Fantasy on the Invisible Enemy? The Making of Mindwarp? In fact all the documentary titles on The Trial of a Timelord set are a bit lackluster.

Here's some they should have used.

The Leisure Hive- Romana Holiday. It would probably have worked on City of Death as well but that had Paris in the Springtime which is okay, if not actually a pun.
The Seeds of Death- A T-Mat of Life and Death.
The Web Planet- Isop's Fables.
Timelash- The Good, the Borad, and the Ugly. The DVD went for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, so near and yet so far. Never Mind the Morlox would have worked as well but see The Space Museum below.
The Invisible Enemy- SaturnDay Night Fever. Anything with Saturday in the title would have worked SaturnDay Night's Alright (For Fighting the Nucleus of the Swarm); see. SaturnDay Night and Sunday Morning; well maybe not that one.

And there's still time to use these (except maybe The Keys of Marinus, unless they go for a costly recall to edit in a new documentary title).

The Space Museum- Never Mind the Moroks. There's still time to use this one guys.
The Keys of Marinus- Voord Do You Think You Are. How much do DVD recalls cost anyway?
Dragonfire- Citizen Kane. Boring but obvious what with all the film references in the script.
Planet of Fire- Sarn Like it Hot. Or, Being in Lava Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry because of the volcano.
Time and the Rani: Tetrap a Thief . Tetrap sounds a bit like To Trap... yes it's weak but this is harder than you'd think. If only the story had two Ranis instead of two Mels. If there had been three Mels you could use Melnage a Trois which sounds a bit rude.
Terror of the Autons- Auton Erotic Asphyxiation which sounds extremely rude.

Finally, here are some that can never be used unless the episode is found.

Galaxy 4- Ammonia Rill in a Gilded Cage. Drahvin Miss Maaga. The Rills Are Alive. Or, Galaxy Phwoar! because the Drahvins are all women (perhaps not).

In just seven days, I can make you a man*

*From beyond the grave; presumably.

That Was The Year That Was

In all the excitement of last week's news (Character Options have had their license renewed!) there was no chance to look back at 2008. And what a year it was! Here's a reminder of some of the stories which made the headlines.

The Olympics 2012 committee hired David Tennant to light the Olympic flame at the start of the London games," in order to ensure that the London Olympics are cannon."

In the book T Is For Television, Russell T. Davies admits he doesn't remember the Apollo 11 Moon landing of July 20th 1969 on the grounds that," it probably wasn't as good as that week's Doctor Who!" His shameful ignorance of basic Who lore, namely that series 6 had finished broadcasting on 21st June 1969, immediately outs Davis as a fake Doctor Who fan and a red-faced Russell announces his resignation.

The Doctor Who Restoration Team revealed the success of the Colour Recovery Working Group who have pulled colour information from black and white film prints. Their next project? Turning lead into gold.

As the latest series of Doctor Who comes to an end Doctor Who magazine's latest issue has alternate covers. So does the Radio Times. Later in the year SFX also has multiple Doctor covers as does the British Medical Journal which is accused of "cashing in".

The Royal Shakespeare Company sets limits on what fans can bring to the stage door for David Tennant and Patrick Stewart to sign while they appear in Hamlet. Luckily no such restriction applies to other cast members and John Woodvine (The Marshall, The Armageddon factor), Zoe Thorne (Toclafane voice, The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords. Gelth voice, The Unquiet Dead), Roderick Smith (Cruikshank, The Invisible Enemy) and Andrea Harris (Suzanne, The Stolen Earth) are nearly buried under piles of tat.

This week in Who

Lessons Learned on the casting of Matt Smith as Doctor #11.

1. It's really confusing to cast a new Doctor the week after broadcasting a story called "The Next Doctor".

"Have you seen the new Doctor Who?"
"The Next Doctor?"
"Yes, the new Doctor Who."
"No, do you mean have I seen the Next Doctor or the new Doctor?"
"I mean the new Doctor Who, the next Doctor".
(collapse of stout party)

2. Number crunching.

Percentage of online fans who have just worked out they are older than the new Doctor: 82%
Percentage of online fans taking comfort from the fact that while they are older than the new Doctor he is not yet young enough to be their son: 63%
Percentage of forums where someone posting about being older than the Doctor gets the reply,"you don't look 900 years old": 100%

BBC1 Christmas Day Scheduling Mixup Revealed