Voyage of the Damned - Aftermath

Pity the Peth - poor Astrid (an excellent and very alluring Kylie Minogue) might have been atomised by an understrength transmat, but her spirit lives on, and perhaps one day she might even return.

But what of the anagram? With fandom expecting the Astrid/TARDIS play to be significant - a move that would hardly have excluded the general public - Russell T Davies seemed more intent on giving the viewing public a big, brash rollercoaster of a ride in which the Earth itself was once again threatened.

And yet... ever heard the phrase "less is more"? While the production values cannot be questioned, Voyage of the Damned left me feeling a little empty.

With a template of stock Christmas special items to cram in (iconic Christmas symbolism gone bad, OTT master villain dispatched far too easily...) Davies might well have given us a set of touching characters (in particular Clive Swift's aging faux-Earth historian) and set events in place for Series 4 (Bernard Cribbins, no less, appears in the trailer) but there was little warmth, with Astrid's death being a little meaningless now that she's floating around the universe as particles.

The Christmas Invasion might have been less ambitious, but it benefitted from a warm, family atmosphere that The Runaway Bride and Voyage of the Damned just couldn't achieve.

And Christmas is a time for warmth and families.

Still, 13.8 million viewers tuned in - Doctor Who's highest viewing figures since its return, and since 1979's City of Death...

Forum Back Online!

Following a brief Christmas hiatus, the Kasterborous Forum is now back online!

We've changed webhosts for the Forum following the frankly unacceptably poor level of support I received from the old hosts. Another bonus is that both Kasterborous and the Kasterborous Forum are now hosted in the UK.

Some of you may have a few teething issues opening the Forum - this will be down to your ISPs DNS, and should resolve over the next few days as soon as we get "www.doctorwhoforum.org.uk" moved over to the new hosting.

Emailing support staff who don't seem to understand that the problem is at their end is not the best way to spend Christmas, and even an apologetic email admitting culpability wasn't enough to put that right.

However let's look to the future - the Forum should experience far fewer issues, better support and there's more space to host podkasts!

Ready when you are, Brian!

Forum Offline

Well chaps, this may seem pretty poor form for Christmas Day, but I'm afraid the forum is again out of action.

At the moment I don't know the precise cause of this, but rest assured I am doing everything I can to resolve the issue, which is kind of mucking up Christmas Day for me...

Also at this point in time, I wouldn't like to apportion blame; however I will be making huge efforts to avoid this situation in future. As such this may result in some scheduled downtime over the coming days.

So if you've come online to chat about Voyage of the Damned and how wonderful it was, please accept our apologies. Feel free to contact me on MSN (atomickarma@hotmail.com) if you're desperate for some Christmas Doctor Who-themes interaction.

Other than that, I hope you're enjoying Christmas Day in the best way possible.

Come On!

Well that was a strange few days, with David Tennant leaving, then staying, then not being asked yet to stay for Series 5... And all down to Catherine Tate saying too much to overpaide celebrity kiss ass Jonathan Woss.

I'm delighted that Tennant has confirmed that he is staying on for the 2009 quartet of specials, for many reasons.

Main amongst these however is the way in which he plays the Doctor, illuminating every scene with his presence. Having rewatched Human Nature this week and re-evaluated his turn as Dr John Smith, I can't help but be impressed by the differemces between Tennant's two characters in that story.

When the time really does come for him to leave, I suspect mischief makers like Catherine Tate will see a real reaction of fan upset and sadness. Tennant has done stirling work in doctor Who both audio and television, and long may he continue to do so.

We're Jammin'...

Ohhh I hope you like a-jammin' too...

Welcome indeed to the Kasterbaraoke Evening, our annual get together with drinks, food, song - and not a mention of Doctor Who to be heard!

Next up is your friend and mine, Brian Atticus Terranvova with his very own version of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", which has to be beter than Anthony Horatio Dry's earlier attempt at "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.

Later on, we'll be taking a tour of Kasterborous Towers and unveiling a new vidkast that we've been planning for months now... It's set for a release on Kasterborous in due course, so you lucky, lucky guests, enjoy the rest of the evening.

Brian - take it away!